The men's hoops schedule has been officially released by the athletic department. Here's the slate:
Nov. 9 vs. DREXEL, 7 p.m.
Nov. 11 at Loyola (Md.), noon
Nov. 17 vs. HOWARD, 5 p.m.
Nov. 20 vs. THE CITADEL, 8 p.m.
Nov. 23 vs. VIRGINIA, 7 p.m.
Nov. 24 vs. SETON HALL/NAVY, 7 p.m.
Nov. 28 at Lafayette, TBA
Dec. 1 at Villanova, 7 p.m.
Dec. 4 vs. NORTH CAROLINA, 7 p.m.
Dec. 8 at Monmouth, TBA
Dec. 20 vs. ELON, 7 p.m.
Dec. 29 at Florida Gulf Coast, TBA
Jan. 2 at Miami (Fla.), TBA
Jan. 5 vs. NJIT, 7 p.m.
Jan. 15 vs. LA SALLE, 7 p.m.
Jan. 19 vs. SAINT JOSEPH'S, 7 p.m.
Jan. 23 at Temple, 7 p.m.
Feb. 1 vs. HARVARD, 7 p.m.
Feb. 2 vs. DARTMOUTH, 7 p.m.
Feb. 8 at Columbia, 7 p.m.
Feb. 9 at Cornell, 7 p.m.
Feb. 12 vs. PRINCETON, 7 p.m.
Feb. 15 vs. BROWN, 7 p.m.
Feb. 16 vs. YALE, 7 p.m.
Feb. 22 at Dartmouth, 7 p.m.
Feb. 23 at Harvard, 7 p.m.
Feb. 29 at Yale, 7 p.m.
March 1 at Brown, 6 p.m.
March 7 vs. CORNELL, 7 p.m.
March 8 vs. COLUMBIA, 7 p.m.
March 11 at Princeton, 7 p.m.
Penn's practice isn't open to the media until Tuesday, so the only football we're going to get until then is Redskins-Eagles and some good old Monday-morning quarterbacking.
I take the opposite view as Josh below. I thought the safety was pretty cool in the heat of the moment but a couple of days later I'm seeing the folly of it, for two reasons.
It's much easier to get into field goal range than it is to actually punch through a touchdown, even accounting for the extra distance. Or, put differently, the closer you get to the end zone, the harder it is to gain yards. This principle was on display all game; Penn's defense never let anyone near the end zone all day but let Lafayette into "deep" field goal range at least two or three times. (I think the Leopards went for it twice from 4th-and-medium, and missed one kick.)
The seeds of the game-winning drive were sown by a couple of quarterback runs (one designed, one improvised, I think). Those kinds of plays are very possible in the open field but they wouldn't have worked inside the 10 or so -- the defense probably would have been packed in too tightly.
Give Lafayette a first-and-10 from the 25, and I don't think they score a touchdown. But with a first-and-10 from the 50, they have a puncher's chance of moving the ball 25-30 yards. The actual distance is the same but the last few yards are so much harder to get in the first situation.
Making them score a touchdown has the added advantage of getting the ball back with some time left on the clock. With a field goal, Lafayette can (and did) time it so that the game would basically be over after the attempt. But you can't choose when you score a touchdown. So even when Lafayette does get a TD, Penn has an excellent chance of getting the ball back with at least a minute to go, since there were five minutes left in the game at the time of the decision.
I can't fault coach Bagnoli too much, though. After sitting through a day of NFL football yesterday -- the league in which most coaches would punt from midfield on 4th-and-short down 14 points in the fourth quarter -- it was nice to see someone show some guts.
There are many things to blame the loss on, and even some of them were peculiar coaching decisions (a certain misused final two timeouts), but Al Bagnoli's choice to allow a purposeful safety should not be one of them.
It was true that the call made the Quakers within field goal range of Lafayette, but it was really the Penn defense that did that.
Whatever they were faced with -- a very short field two points up, or more than a half-field four up -- the defense uncharacteristically did not do its job on that final drive. The unit that forced four turnovers, 268 total yards, 3.2 yards per carry and was 2 for 15 on third downs (let that last stat sink in for a second) in the first 15 drives of the game, faltered on the final one that would have sealed the win.
The No. 25 Leopards marched 44 yards on 12 plays, eating up the final five minutes of the game, and chipping in a field goal. Quarterback Mike DiPaola went 3 for 3 for 16 yards and the rushing game took eight carries for 28 yards - it doesn't sound good, but on three of those the Leopards were just setting up the field goal.
The Quakers forced Lafayette into two third down conversions (other than when they got inside the 20-yard line and were setting up the field goal) of five and eight yards, and the Leopards proceeded to miraculously get rushing gains of six and 10 yards.
With the ball on its own 1-yard line, Bagnoli opted to give Lafayette two points in order to be able to punt from the 20-yard line without a rush, with room behind punter Anthony Melillo so that he could step further back and with the coverage team all attacking the ball, instead of most of them blocking. The result wasn't as good as it could have been -- a 46-yard punt (which would have been shorter if it was a real punt because there was no long snap) and a 12-yard return, but the ball was at Lafayette's 46 yard line, not what, I'm guessing, would be at best Penn's 30, probably worse.
If Lafayette had gotten the ball at the Penn 30, can you doubt that with the same effort they would have still drove through for a touchdown? At least Penn got to put it into the hands of a kicker who was 1 for 5 on the season with a long of 21 yards.
So to recap: 1) Penn was stuffing Lafayette, so it was not worth it to risk a blocked kick, 2) The punt saved at least 25 yards, and Lafayette probably would have done the same thing after returning Melillo's cramped punt inside the 30-yard line, and 3) the only field goal Lafayette's kicker made this season was 1.5 yards longer than an extra point.
At first I thought this idea was dumb, but if I was coaching Penn and next week the exact same thing happened, I'd take the safety again. Coaches in the NFL do it often in a similar situation (not up 4 points, but still), and it wasn't dumb for Bagnoli to.
It certainly was a roll of the dice, and the Red and Blue lost. Still, they had more chance to win playing that game than any other.
FINAL SCORE: Penn 7, Lafayette 8
Box score
Chris Wynn returns the kick as the clock runs out on the Quakers in their first game of the season.
Rodriguez's kick is good, pulling Lafayette ahead of Penn by one with just five seconds to go in the game.
Lafayette's Davis Rodriguez sets up to take the kick, but is stalled by a strategically planned Penn timeout.
Lafayette takes one of their timeouts and prepares for the 27-yard field goal.
At third and three at the Penn 11, White runs the ball for a gain of one yard.
Penn elects to take one of their three timeouts.
DiPaola completes a pass to Shaun Adair for another first down, Lafayette putting the Leopards in a prime opportunity to take the lead.
DiPaola takes the ball himself and snags the first down after he is tackled at the Penn 43.After a short run by White, DiPaolo decides to take it himself, running for 12 yards for another first down.
5:15 Fourth Quarter, Penn 7, Lafayette 5
With his back to the wall, Penn punter Anthony Melillo elects to runs out of the endzone for the safety.
Lafayette defense continuing to do a good job containing Penn's defense, especially on the run, backing Penn up to their own endzone.
7:59 4th Quarter, Penn 7, Lafayette 3
Quakers' new, aggressive offense looks to be on a roll until Irvin's next pass glances off Cisler's hands and into Lafayette for his second interception of the night.
Amoo-Achampong has a nice run for the first down before Irvin's pass to Lepisto is incomplete.
Wynn continues having a great game, and grabs his second interception of the night. Penn takes the ball at the Lafayette 34.
Irvin's pass nearly intercepted by Lafayette, Anthony Mellilo punts.
DiPaola's pass intercepted by linebacker Jay Colabella to give the Quakers possession at the Penn 41.
End of 3rd Quarter, Penn 7, Lafayette 3
Amoo-Achampong carries the ball into the end of the third.
A few nice runs by Lafayette back-up tailback Anthony D'Urso carries the Leopards within striking distance, but DiPaola is unable to convert on fourth down and Penn takes over on downs for the second time in the contest.
5:33 3rd Quarter, Penn 7, Lafayette 3
Just received some bad news for Penn's offense. Sandberg out after the first half for the rest of the game, and is reported to have suffered a muscle strain in his left leg that will be evaluated on Monday.
39-yard Field goal from Lafayette's Rodriguez is wide right.
On third down, Tyson Maugle swats down the pass from DiPaola to force Lafayette to kick the field goal.
Adair catches ensuing pass for another Lafayette first down.
Lafayette's White able to break free for a nice run for the first down before he was brought down by free safety Pat Kimener.
"Halftime"
Penn 7, Lafayette 3
Irvin takes the knee to end the first half. Chris Wynn's acrobatic pick gives Penn an interception of its own to regain possession with a few seconds to go.
An Irvin pass glances off of Lawrence's hands and is intercepted by Nigel Bryant to give Lafayette possession with a little under a minute left before halftime
5:00 2nd Quarter, Penn 7, Lafayette 3
Jordan Manning swats down DiPaola's pass on fourth down to give the ball over to the Quakers.
Screen pass by DiPaola complete to White for the first down at the Penn 30.
DiPaola's pass to Adair incomplete, Lafayette called for holding for a 10-yard penalty.
Sandberg fumbles and the ball is recovered by Lafayette corner Marvin Clecidor at the Penn 41.
Irvin's pass complete to Josh Koontz for the first down at Penn's 30.
After an unfruitful Leopards drive, Lafayette punts, Irvin back in as quarterback.
12:00 2nd Quarter, Penn 7, Lafayette 3
At fourth and seven, Samson attempts his second field goal, a 43-yarder.
Back-up quarterback Bryan Walker has taken over for Irvin for the moment.
Penn punt returner Chris Wynn returns the ball to the Lafayette 49 yard line.
14:41 2nd Quarter, Penn 7, Lafayette 3
Lafayette freshman kicker Davis Rodriguez's field goal soars through the uprights to give the Leopards' their first points of the game
End of 1st Quarter, Penn 7, Lafayette 0
Shaun Adair brings the Leopards within striking difference, but White isn't able to gain much ground on the next play and won't get the touchdown before the end of the first.
Tailback Maurice White run brings Lafayette inside the 10-yard line.
After Penn and Lafayette fail to capitalize on their respective drives, Penn punt returner Greg Ambrogi fumbles fair catch and Lafayette recovers fumble to give the Leopards possession.
8:38 1st Quarter, Penn 7, Lafayette 0
Samson's kick for the PAT is good to put the Quakers ahead, 7-0.
After a big run by Amoo-Achampong to bring Penn to 1st and goal at the one yard line, Sandberg runs in the Quakers' first touchdown
Two straight 10-yard carries by Joe march Penn down the field to the 14 yard line.
9:32 1st Quarter, Penn 0, Lafayette 0
Samson's 27-yarder clanks off the right upright. Not a good start for Penn's "re-vamped" kicking game of this season.
At 3rd and 7 Penn senior quarterback Robert Irvin connects with senior wide receiver Dan Coleman to set up the 27 yard field goal for freshman kicker Andrew Samson, who won the fierce battle for the starting job.
Tyson Maugle starts things off for Penn with the sack of Lafayette quarterback Mike DiPaola to give Penn the ball at their Lafayette's 17.
There's a middling crowd gathered to kickoff Penn's 2007 football season at the game tonight versus the Lafayette. The Leopards are on a roll after convincing wins over Marist and Georgetown to break into the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly the I-AA Division) Top 25.
Lafayette tore through the Patriot League last season, going 5-1 and making the I-AA playoffs and yet did not finish the season with a winning record.
How is that? The Ivy League happened.
The Leopards played against the top four teams in the Ivies in succession -- Penn, at Princeton, Yale, at Harvard -- and didn't win one game. And it's not as if Lafayette is a bad team -- the currently No. 25 Leopards were ranked last year before the 21-11 loss to the Quakers, 22 to be exact.
"Obviously we're playing the best of what the Ivy has to offer," Lafayette coach Frank Tavani said. "And they're good football teams, we're not embarrassed ... we were playing the four teams vying for a piece of the championship.
"Three of them we had our chances and just came up short, and against Harvard I think we kind of just quit out there, and I've probably never been more infuriated than that effort. They're flat out good football teams and we just haven't found a way to win."
Tavani is confident in his team's abilities, but knows that if it wants to end its five-game losing streak against Ivy League teams it must improve.
"We'll certainly have to play better than the first two games even though we're sitting here at 2-0, they're nowhere near the challenge or the caliber a team that we know Penn is," Tavani said. "We're certainly going to play better offensively than we did against Georgetown. We didn't get a consistent run game going and that's always a big part of our package."
Lafayette has started its 2007 season with a 49-10 win over Marist and a 28-7 victory against Georgetown.
A report on Scout.com yesterday claims that 6-foot-5 wing Rob Belcore has committed to play hoops here. Belcore turned down the advances of La Salle and Southern Illinois (he got "five letters a day" from the latter at one point, he claimed). A link to a video that surfaced on the website basketball-u.com reveals that Belcore's shooting form is eerily similar to that of Tim Begley.
Belcore, Zack Rosen (committed) and Max Kenyi (still undecided) are all slated to visit campus this weekend, according to the Scout report (subscription only).
Under the Rhodes Field lights, the men's soccer team was out making some positive news of its own. The nightcap of the Penn Soccer Classic's opening day saw Penn grab a much-needed 2-1 win over Hartwick College. Hartwick should have no complaints about that result, having been dominated for the vast majority of the game.
Most impressively, the Quakers were efficient on offense, a quality that was lacking toward the end of last year. They didn't really create more than four or five chances to score, but they got two excellent ones and did not waste them.
The lone disappointment had to be the play of junior Drew Healy, who got the nod over Kevin Sweetland in goal. Healy showed that he is a good shot-stopper, coming out once to stop a early Hartwick breakaway and moving well to corral a close-range effort in the second half. But his ball distribution left a lot to be desired, as he shanked several balls that he could have driven upfield.
He may also share a little of the blame for the Hartwick goal (which came right after halftime, when Penn seemed in firm control of the game).
It's impossible to condemn one player based on one game, and Healy will have plenty of chances to redeem himself. But Rudy Fuller has said that he'll go with the hot hand on a day-to-day basis, and he's already shown that he's willing to spread the wealth around. So as for Sunday, don't be surprised to see Sweetland back in the fold.
For that matter, given the ups and downs we've seen so far, don't be shocked to see anyone.
If you thought last year's young secondary was a thing of the past -- returning three starters and a senior -- think again.
Senior corner Greg Ambrogi has been passed on the depth chart by sophomore Chris Wynn. As the team's kick returner last year -- and a good one at that, taking one 98-yards to the house against Brown last season -- he passes the starting punt returner in Ambrogi for the starting spot alongside junior Tyson Maugle.
While it's disappointing to see a senior get overtaken by an unproven sophomore, this can't be viewed as a negative necessarily. The team has confidence in the youngster and is glad to see him rising through the ranks.
"I think he's great, [no one is] surprised," co-captain and linebacker Joe Anastasio said. "Everyone's happy he's on the field because he's a great player."
The 5-foot-9 175-pound Wynn only posted 11 tackles last season, but in limited action managed a fumble recovery and a pass breakup. He is a big contrast to Ambrogi in stature. Ambrogi is taller (6-foot) but much thinner (170 pounds), and Wynn certainly doesn't lose any speed with that added muscle.
Anastasio has confidence that Wynn and the rest of the guys behind him will do a nice job on Saturday.
"Across the secondary we've got guys who were young last year and now are veterans," the senior linebacker said. "Just to have Chris there and have him learn from those guys who were there last year [is great for us]. He's shown a lot of pure athletic ability, and I'm real excited to see what our secondary can do"
Naheem Harris, heralded as one of the best defensive linemen in the league, isn't a ra-ra guy, but he can still pretend he is.
He isn't a captain, but the senior nose guard knows he must pick up his defense whenever he feels the energy level gets a little down. Sometimes he doesn't feel like yelling, but hyping up his teammates is something he takes pride in.
"I like to call myself "instant enthusiasm," Harris said. "I learned something from my high school coach a long time ago and he said "false enthusiasm goes a long way." SO even if you're faking being enthused, eventually someone's going to think that you're really enthused, and that kicks up the whole team. I'm not a big "let's go" guy, but I'm going out there and having fun I guess."
Andrew Samson will start this Saturday as the team's kicker. Head coach Al Bagnoli likes his potential, he's looked good in practice and Bagnoli says that he is "cautiously optimistic" about the freshman.
Samson is one of five kickers on the roster not including starting wide receiver Braden Lepisto, who started some games last year. Samson is listed as the backup punter, but won the kicking job during training camp.
On the last play of practice on Wednesday, Bagnoli brought out the tricks. Lepisto caught a pass over the middle of the field, but before even really hanging onto the ball, pushed it towards wide receiver Dan Coleman on a hook-and-ladder play. It was well-executed, but it was against the scout team defense.
Bagnoli cited no major injuries going into the opener against the Leopards. There have been "a lot of little things, tweaks here and there, but basically everyone who we had penciled-in in the first two deep slot is going to be available," Bagnoli said.
That women's soccer would miss Nicki White's presence on the back line should not have come as a surprise. But these past four games have been a curt reminder of just how much the junior could be helping out.
Coach Darren Ambrose's problem is that he only has one experienced, healthy defender - Eileen Larkin - to call on. Because of this tough predicament, the back line relies in part on defensive-midfield types. Some - like sophomore Michelle Drugan - have experience playing at the back for Penn. But others who have been thrust into that role are untested freshmen - Marisa Schoen and Kaitlin Campbell, for example.
Ambrose's assessment that Michigan State's late winner was a lucky break and that his team didn't deserve to lose was fair. But Penn's record defending set pieces this year isn't exactly confidence-inspiring. It should be interesting to see whether it improves as the young players get more experience in the roles they're being asked to fill.
The men are difficult to pin down, especially since they've yet to play at home. The bad loss to Seton Hall was a surprise, but Fuller's teams have started slow before - last year's 2-0 defeat to Lehigh comes to mind. (In fairness, Lehigh went on to have a great year.)
I think even less can be pulled from this weekend's performance in California. The optimist might be tempted to read a lot of good things into a competitive 1-0 loss to No. 7 Cal; it's easy to say you were one goal away from a tie - of course, it's much harder to actually get it.
A good barometer will appear this weekend at the Penn Soccer Classic at Rhodes Field. Penn's two opponents, Hartwick and La Salle, gave the Quakers close games last year. A couple of wins - or even a win and a tie - would set them on the right track. The important thing will be to avoid getting swept, though. The chances for non-conference wins and momentum are running out.
There are many theories as to why Americans don't take to soccer too well -- it's low-scoring, players don't use their hands and there are ties.
However, I think it could be the little things in a foreign sport like soccer that make it different than traditional American sports. If your football team makes it into the red zone five times, while the opponent's offense gets in there once, a win is almost always guaranteed. Your squad might turn it over once or twice, but you'll still get three or four field goals because of your efforts that got you there, and nine points is better than the best the other team can muster -- seven. When Steve Nash makes a great pass, Amare Stoudemire isn't going to miss the dunk.
But as the Penn women's team saw on Friday, this is not the case in soccer. The better team often loses because it can't finish.
The Penn women drew a whopping nine corners against Michigan State, and didn't score on any of them. They also got 12 shots off, had five of them on goal, but none of them saw the back of the net, losing 1-0 to the Big Ten school.
Playing a quality opponent in the Spartans, the Quakers can be happy with their effort, but not satisfied.
For a team that was fifth in shots per game, fifth in shots on target per game and yet dead last out of the eight Ivy soccer teams in goals per game (four in seven), it's not good enough for the Quakers just to get chances. They need to finish.
If the season started today, backup punter Andrew Samson would be the Penn football team's starting kicker. But just over a week before the opening kickoff, this decision is far from set in stone.
His name is penciled in. No, make that dry-erased in.
This is because for a kicker, mental toughness is equally important as physical toughness.
Just take last year's kicker Derek Zoch. Two years ago, he went 11 for 17. No that's not extra points, he actually hit a pretty solid 65 percent of his field goals that year to go along with a respectable 27-for-31 performance on extra points.
One year later however, Zoch missed a clutch field goal, then got publicly criticized a little, then missed another field goal, lightly blamed some more, and so it went on.
All four of these incoming kickers -- Samson, A.J. Nobile, Dave Kuncio and Trevor Charlston -- no doubt have talent, but they will each have to show head coach Al Bagnoli that they can perform when the heat is on them.
"That becomes the variable, because a lot of what you do is having resiliency," Bagnoli said. "You miss one, and you can't let that linger because the next one may win the game. So far the kids have been pretty resilient. But to say we know the answer, I can't say that right now until it actually happens."
Last year's 7-for-15 mark is far from good enough. Needless to say, when you lose four Ivy League games by eight points, you can't afford to leave any points on the board.
Coming off of his first year as a sophomore starting quarterback, a shoulder injury and having to hit the books hard to learn a completely new offense, one might think those would fill up starting quarterback Robert Irvin's offseason agenda.
But believe it or not, running was his top priority.
Last year backup quarterback Bryan Walker often came in for a series or two to lead a wide-open, scrambling offense. Irvin, though certainly not particularly unathletic, was not mobile in the pocket, so coach Al Bagnoli often looked to Walker for a little spark off the bench.
In new offensive coordinator Bill Schmitz's scheme, Irvin wants to be a more well-rounded option.
"I tried to work on the running game because we're going to be running a little option, a little bit of quarterback keep stuff," Irvin said. "I tried to do a lot of running -- that was the main thing I worked on this summer. We have a big offseason package with agility drills, sprint drills, endurance drills, so I just did that."
Bagnoli did say that Walker will play some this year, but with the new offense Irvin hopes that won't have to happen too often.
As the preseason came to a close this weekend, and the pink slips hit the lockers, Penn guard Sean Estrada saw his plans of playing on an NFL roster temporarily put on hold.
Estrada couldn't beat out backup center Tony Wragge, who has NFL game experience (started four games), unlike the undrafted rookie Estrada. The former Penn guard does, however, have a chance to get signed by another team, or more likely get signed to the 49ers' or another team's practice squad.
If he made the practice squad, Estrada would get paid a good amount for practicing three days a week. Not a bad job. Any player can be on the practice squad two years before having to join the big boys, or get cut for good.
All-time yards-leading Ivy running back Clifton Dawson also saw the same fate, getting released by the Indianapolis Colts - a team that didn't have a very strong pool of runners - and as a result only kept three.
Few undrafted free agents make the 53-man roster as a rookie -- the Eagles are one of the teams that retains the most players of this kind, and impressive cornerback Nick Graham was the only player for them who made the final cut.
On a brighter note for the Ivy League, former Harvard quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick (a seventh-round pick in 2005 by St. Louis) got traded to Cincinnati for a conditional draft pick.
He hasn't thrown a pass since starting three games for injured Rams starter Mark Bulger two years ago, where he threw for four touchdowns and eight interceptions (bad, but not bad for a rookie, especially in a complex offense). The Bengals must have a good deal of confidence in their new second-string quarterback. He did, however, look sharp in his last preseason game, going 12 for 18 for 105 yards, with a touchdown and no interceptions.
Update: Saturday On offense, the Quakers could hardly catch a break. On defense, they caught the only two that mattered.
Following a corner kick, Jessica Fuccello staked Penn to a 1-0 lead with a first-half goal. The Quakers barely got close after that. But the Billikens did no better, saeeing a pair of rockets from close range turned away by the crossbar.
Bonus points to Cailly Carroll for getting a leaping hand on the second of those two shots. She played all 90 minutes and probably has a solid grip on the goalie position for now. End update
Natalie Capuano looked like her usual self in a 5-0 scrimmage win over George Mason earlier this week. Capuano has a good habit -- she does just the right amount of shoving in pursuit of a loose ball.
But when Saint Louis visits Rhodes field tonight at 7, finesse soccer might be the more attractive option. Anything that keeps the Quakers on their feet.
Like many women's teams, for the Quakers 'ACLs' is a four-letter word. Three regulars have already gone down, and more injuries in a nonconference game would be a killer.
Look for how the Penn defense responds to the absence of Nicki White and for how coach Darren Ambrose splits up time in goal. Last year it was two parts Cailly Carroll, one part Sara Rose. That recipe might be thrown a bit by the emergence of freshman Gina Winters.
As the depth chart was released to the media, Penn football fans get a chance to see how their team is shaping up. There are not too many surprises here, but it is subject to change. So here is the abridged version, with a few comments.
Quarterback: Robert Irvin returns as the starter after winning the job as only a sophomore. The team hopes he's learned enough from that season to be more effective in 2007. Last year he went 174 for 312 and 2,128 yards, but threw for only 10 touchdowns compared to 12 interceptions. With new offensive coordinator Bill Schmitz trying to open up the offense, Irvin said he put the most effort into being able to run this season. His shoulder surgery shouldn't be too much of an issue come the start of the season, but he can feel a twinge in it once in a while.
Running back: The 1,000-plus yard back Joe Sandberg returns as a fifth-year senior. Last season he ran for 104 yards per game, 5.0 yards per carry and 15 total touchdowns. He is clearly the most dangerous weapon on offense. Kelms Amoo-Achampong backs him up.
Wide receiver: The receiving corps loses Matt Carre (697 yards), but should be a solid unit in 2007. Braden Lepisto, who netted 625 yards last season, will start along with Dan Coleman. The 6-foot-2 Coleman had 85 yards in the opener against Lafayette, but finished an injury-plagued season with only 109 yards.
Offensive line: This will be a real question in the upcoming season. Guard Sean Estrada (signed by the San Francisco 49ers) and tackle Marko Grzan will leave a big hole in the line, which returns two starters from last season -- center Brian Brazinski and right guard Jesse Rigler. Right tackle Chris Kovalcik has played in four games in his college career, and left tackle Harry Kenning was a defensive lineman last year, but is slotted as a starting offensive lineman this year. The 6-foot-5 285-pound lineman is certainly big enough to be a tackle, we'll see if he can play.
Nose guard: The man who drew the praises of Columbia coach Norries Wilson during his tirade last season and first team All-Ivy defensive tackle Naheem Harris returns. At 6-foot 285 pounds he can plug the middle, grabbing seven tackles for loss last year.
Defensive tackle: The major difference between a 3-4 defense and Penn's 5-2 is probably the fact that the linemen to the left and right of the nose guard are tackles instead of ends. Here Penn starts 270-pound senior Tom Stone and 255-pound junior Guillermo Ruffalo. At end, Mike Marinelli and Sam McGarity weigh 245 and 236 pounds, respectively, just as much linebacker dimensions as defensive end.
Cornerback: With junior Tyson Maugle and senior Greg Ambrogi returning as starters, this might imply that the Quakers are set at this position, but that's not exactly the case. While the 2,247 yards, 13 touchdowns and 11 interceptions doesn't seem bad, the team had to take away men in the box from the stellar run defense in order to help the passing game. Still, Maugle was better than expected last year, grabbing three interceptions and earning honorable mention All-Ivy honors.
Kicker: This is where it gets reeeeal interesting. On the depth chart Lepisto is penciled in as the starter, but coach Al Bagnoli said he will definitely not start. Derek Zoch backs him up, but even Bagnoli said it will be a new guy. Zoch was surprisingly respectable in 2005 (11-for-17 on field goals, a long of 39 and 87 percent on extra points), but was awful last season, going 4-for-10, many misses coming in close games. Zoch didn't get much public support from Bagnoli, who had him split time with Lepisto last year. Three freshmen -- Trevor Charlston, Dave Kuncio and A.J. Nobile (Bagnoli called him a freshman, but he's listed as a sophomore) -- essentially compete for the starting spot.
Tuesday marked the smaller of the two NFL cut days, and rookie center and Penn grad Sean Estrada got away scratch-free.
Estrada, who converted from guard at Penn to center on the 49ers, was not one of the nine players released as the NFC club trimmed its roster down to 75 players. He outlasted one other offensive lineman, guard Nick Steitz, as well as four fellow rookies.
Still, this doesn't mean too much for Estrada -- San Francisco has another 22 players to release before the start of the season. The 6-foot-4 305-pound undrafted free agent must beat out backup center Tony Wragge -- a four-year veteran out of New Mexico State. Wragge, also a former undrafted free agent, played in 14 games last year, starting four.
In the Penn football team's four Ivy losses, it hit one field goal in six attempts.
The Quakers lost those four games by eight points.
Needless to say, kicker was a major concern for Penn going into the 2007 season, and looking at the roster, that's quite obvious. The Quakers brought in three new kickers -- sophomore A.J. Nobile and freshmen Trevor Charlston and Dave Kuncio.
"We've got three or four kickers competing right now -- we brought in three freshman kickers, which is unheard of in the same class -- but we have to have it resolved and they're having a fierce competition," head coach Al Bagnoli said.
If you look on the depth chart, starting wide receiver Braden Lepisto is the also the starting kicker, with senior Derek Zoch as the backup. But according to Bagnoli, this couldn't be further from the truth.
Lepisto will focus on receiving, and will be the third option on gamedays. That means the other four guys should battle it out. There is no frontrunner, according to Bagnoli, but if I had to take a stab in the dark, I'd say Kuncio is a slight favorite. At Bergen Catholic he was first-team All-State in New Jersey in 2005, and also was twice named the second-team All-State kicker. Like Charlston, in addition was the captain of his high school team.
More options:
If a four-kicker battle isn't enough, here's a few more options for a 8-player, three-round bracket
5. Lepisto
6. My freshman brother, Max. He's never played real football before, but can still hit 40-yarders.
7. Men's soccer defender Keith Vereb. The 6-foot-2 senior's got a nice leg, and for a guy who broke his front tooth while going up for a header two years ago (he also scored the game-winning goal), he's definitely tough enough to make a tackle or two on a kickoff.
8. David Whitehurst. Recently back in school, he was a prolific two-sport athlete in basketball and track - might as well try him at kicker.
The Penn Athletics Department announced today that Francis Vaughn, the Quakers' women's golf coach, will also assume the head duties of the men's program as well.
It's not a new situation for Vaughn; he coached the men from 1996-2002. And heading both programs isn't new for him either. He coached the women as well from 2000-2002, before moving to hold just the women's job.
He takes over a men's group that won the Ivy League Championship last year.
No other Ivy League golf program has this structure. Earlier in the summer, I spoke with coaches from other DI schools that hold the reins over both programs and they noted that the biggest challenge was coordinating both tournament schedules to avoid too many men's and women's conflicts.
Penn's schedules, released last week, have two of four tournaments at different locations on the same weekends.
From Sept. 21-22, the men will be in New York, while the women will be at Princeton that same weekend. October 6 is the women's ECAC championship in Virginia and the men will be competing in the Delaware Invitational at Delaware Park from Oct. 6-7. In the last weekend of fall competition, both teams will be in the Lehigh Invitational.
Also announced was the hiring of former volunteer coach Chad Perman as an assistant coach for both the men's and women's teams.
Say what you will about the time of the Harvard-Brown game being changed to fit the Jewish holidays. I think the end result, a Saturday game, is a much better deal anyway.
I'm not convinced that Friday night football games would be very good for attendance. A lot of alumni (and would-be customers) are probably working on Fridays, possibly making a 6 or 7 p.m. start a tight squeeze for them.
The Friday games do a lot worse than the Saturday ones in basketball. Over the 12 Ivy weekends that Penn played during the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons, Saturday games outdrew Friday ones by an average of about 600 people. The only time a Friday game could outdraw its next-day counterpart was if Dartmouth or Brown were involved. Otherwise, the Saturday game was better-attended, usually by 25% or more.
That's far from a conclusive analysis, but I would bet there's a lot of overlap between hoops fans and football ones. If they were interested in maximizing attendance (not a given, I suppose) Harvard and Brown probably stumbled into a good decision.
Harvard was already having trouble getting the second Friday night football game in Ivy League history off the ground. But as detailed in today's Boston Globe, a conflict with Yom Kippur has prompted the Crimson to ask Brown for a delay of game. 24 hours, to be exact, to Saturday, Sept. 22 at 7:30 p.m.
Penn plays at Villanova Stadium that Saturday too, at 6 p.m. It's my understanding that the holiday ends at sunset that day. Would anyone who knows please post a comment and inform this Gentile if the 6 p.m. start time could be a problem for Jewish fans?
Update, Saturday, 7:30 p.m.: Brown has apparently given its blessing to the schedule change, meaning the only Friday night game this year will be Cornell at Princeton in Week 7.
Harvard apparently thinks that 7:30 is late enough to at least be an improvement. (Penn Hillel lists the Yom Kippur fast as ending at 7:40.)
Penn must have been aware of the conflict with the Villanova game, which makes me think that CN8's broadcast probably had something to do with the 6 p.m. kickoff time. The last three Penn-'Nova games all had 7 p.m. starts.
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