Join Megan Soisson, Jennifer Scuteri and Lauren Plotnick live at the Yale Bowl as the Quakers take on Yale. Both teams are undefeated in Ivy play, so it looks to be an exciting game. And it's a perfect day for football — 56 degrees and sunny.
Hey Quakers fans,
It's currently 8:40 p.m. If you're a student and you're reading this, you should be packing up your pillow and heading down to the Palestra for tonight's annual season-ticket all-nighter, The Line. Doors close at 9 p.m. If you absolutely insist on staying home, I'll be bringing you live updates and some videos throughout the night. As of now, I'd say there are about 30 students here, not counting the players. I've already spotted Zack Rosen, Jerome Allen, assistant coaches Mike Martin and Dan Leibovitz, and the whole Red and Blue Crew (obviously). I've got to go buy my season tickets and try to catch some video of people trickling in. Check back soon and click below for new updates.
[9:12] It's a little past 9 and people are still trickling in, signing up for contests, Red and Blue Rewards cards, and purchasing tickets. I've signed up for the burrito eating contest later, and submitted my name for a knockout contest against the Penn hoopsters and a 3-on-3 tourney with 1 men's player, 1 women's, and 1 student. We'll see if I get picked. There are a few other contests but I didn't bother signing up. On the court, a shootaround and a game of knockout are underway. Watch these two quick videos to see for yourself.
Sign-ups:
Shootarounds:
[9:19] The scheduled events are about to get underway. I just said hi to Rob Belcore. He's decked out in some camouflage and told me he's pumped up for the dodgeball tournament. That's not for a few hours, so let the suspense continue.
Zack Rosen and Rob Belcore are reading the introductions for the first part of the night. They were cracking up just reading it. We'll see what they've got in store. Meanwhile, a few kids are gathered in the media room watching Game 6 of the ALCS.
Zack Rosen tries a few underhanded shots from halfcourt. Dau Jok to his left, giving him crap every time he misses. If the video doesn't load, click it again and watch it on YouTube.
[10:15] We just had a performance by dance group Strictly Funk, but I had to delete the video I shot to make room for the introductions. Rob Belcore announced all the members of the men's team and Penn Athetlics video guy announced the women. Here's the intro for most or all of the freshmen (I cut it short for space purposes). Sorry if the audio isn't great. It's kind of echo-ey in here.
And here's the intro of Zack Rosen:
My camera filled up eventually so this is all I've got for now. The skills contests are starting. Gotta go.
[10:35] Freshmen are looking good in the 3-point shootout. Dau Jok and Steve Rennard made almost every shot they took. It went to overtime and a team of a student and Zack Rosen took down a team of a student and Steve Rennard. In other news, somebody is going win this 42-inch TV tonight:
[10:46] I'm a bit out of breath because I just got randomly selected to participate in a skills competition. I had to dribble around some cones, down the court, make a layup, and sprint back. My pants nearly fell down on the way back so my team fell behind a bit. I was with Casey James and Erin Power. We lost to Dau Jok's team. Whatever. I think Cal got some video of me, so you might be able to see me looking ridiculous.
After that they did the drawing for the 40-inch TV pictured above. Here's video of the girl who won:
Time to eat some burritos!
[11:15] Well that was a bit ridiculous and even more disgusting. Just had the burrito-eating contest. In a pathetic showing, the last two of the five teams competing were the men's team and the women's team. Jack Eggleston anchored the men's team and barely beat the women's team. I was a last-minute addition to one of the teams, so I had to pass off my camera to a female member of the Red and Blue Crew. Can't attest to the quality of her filming, but here's the video. I'm in the red Phillies shirt.
We're in a bit of a lull now as people eat some food and pick out their spots to sleep. A few people thought ahead and brought inflatable mattresses. Pretty nifty. I'll just be sleeping on a blank in the middle of the court, if they let me.
[12 am] Just had a chat with Mike Howlett's girlfriend, since Mike was sleeping on her air mattress (below). Cute story: they met at The Line last year, then started dating in March. There's a Penn Basketball romance for you. She was actually the one who shot the video of the burrito-eating contest, so props to her for that. She also shared an interesting tidbit: all the players are required to sleep over this year. Last year Zack Rosen was the only one. According to Cal, that was Coach Allen's decision.
The Red and Blue Crew is setting up the dodgeball tournament. Insert pithy Will Ferrell/Ben Stiller reference here. I'll be back with a recap when it's over.
[12:55 am] Dodgeball has been epic. A few choice team names: Dau Jeezy (featuring, of course, Dau Jok, as well as Rob Belcore and Jerin Smith), Dunkaholics Anonymous, Dodge-adelphia, Rape Whistle Crew (um, what?) and Ballhers (featuring mostly W. Hoopsters like Jess Knapp, Erin Power and Cassie Pappas). We've had a 1 man vs 3 man comeback. We had Conor Turley make a miraculous catch as the last man standing for his team, which brought Miles Cartwright back on the court en route to a win. Both Mike Howlett and Rob Belcore each knocked a few people on their backs. Belcore was sporting an Iverson-style sleeve. Nobody takes dodgeball more seriously.
Perhaps the best moment, in the semifinals, Turley threw a rocket at Howlett, but Howlett dodged it and an innocent spectator sitting behind him got pegged in the face. Both games going on at the time came to a stop as the whole arena focused its attention on this poor girl, who got a big round of applause when she shook it off.
The finals was a best-of-3 series between the Swag Team All-Stars and the Konvicts. Swag features Zack Rosen, Mike Howlett, Larry Loughery, RBC line leader and loyal Buzz reader/commenter Rob Sharp, and a few other students. The Konvicts are a team of all students, seemingly all underclassmen — a tale straight of "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story." Swag took the first game in dominating fashion, with nearly the whole team intact when Rosen made the final kill. Game 2 came down to a 1-on-1 battle, and the Konvicts pulled it out to send it to a pivotal Game 3. In the decisive game, our man Rob Sharp was the last man standing for the Swag Team All-Stars. Outnumber 4-to-1, he didn't last long, and when he eventually went down, Loughery and Rosen crashed to the Palestra floor in shame.
The last event of the night is a Quizzo competition. Let's see if my year as DP Sports Editor did anything for me. If you're up this late and still following, much thanks.
[2:30 am] Well Quizzo was OK. Had nothing to do with Penn sports, though there was a question about which Ivy League football team once lost an NCAA record 44 straight games. Do you know? Anyway, the team of Red and Blue Crew leaders won handily, but they sacrificed their prizes to the second place team. The lights are off in the Palestra now but people are still shooting around, one girl ran a suicide (no clue why). Dau Jok is sitting up at the very top of the bleachers on his laptop, apparently mixing some new jams, or so he says. He's such a nice guy; definitely my favorite new Quaker. Zack Rosen is a true ambassador for the team. Most of the players are already asleep — practice at 9 a.m. — but Zack stayed around to talk with a group of freshmen and sophomores until just now.
Thanks for following. It's time for bed. I'm going to sleep in center of the Palestra floor, on the 'P'. I'm not going to sleep a wink, but I'm going to love every minute of it. Good night all. I'll be back with one last update in the morning.
[8:30 am] I'm already back in my room, first and final Line in the past. I guess people didn't want to be on camera in the morning because I was the last one to be woken up. Didn't sleep great, but at the same time, I slept on the middle of the Palestra hardwood where so many Penn basketball legends have stepped foot. That's something I will remember and cherish forever.
Funny story about Jerome Allen. It was around 2:45am after I had finished the blog for the night, set up my bed and was just shooting the breeze with some Line Leaders before passing out, when Jerome Allen comes stumbling out of the locker room. I legitimately thought he was sleepwalking, with that half-conscious, half-squinting look of a man who didn't quite know where he was. Of course, even a sleepwalking Jerome Allen will know when he is in the Palestra. And as it turns out, he had just woken up to make sure everything was still going well, and that all his equipment (DJ Jazzy Jerome?) was safely put away. Marketing manager Josh Craggs eased his nerves, and he was right back into the locker room and back to sleep. I saw him again in the morning right before I left, and we joked about how he must be getting old because he was "conked out by 11."
Now, a few final thoughts before I get some more sleep in a real bed.
My overall impression of the turnout was definitely good. I can't compare it to year's past because, as I've said, this was actually — and quite depressingly — my first Line. Hopefully we'll get a number of overall student ticket sales at some point, but it was definitely enough to more than fill the student section as long as everyone turns out for every game. The evening overall was a ton of fun. The players were very friendly with all the fans, and honestly, it seemed more like they were just hanging out with fellow college students than trying to endear themselves to everyone because that was what was expected. In short, I think they just genuinely appreciated everyone coming out. I ran into Dau Jok again in the morning, and he still doesn't really know that I'm always around the team because of the DP. Right now he thinks of me as just another fan, and he thanked me — twice — for coming out.
I will be back later today or tomorrow with an edited clip of all the video I shot (lots of which didn't make it onto this blog) as well as some hopefully deeper insights on how this year's Line went. If there's anything specific that you want to know, leave a comment.
Mark DeRosa has no bearing on whether the Giants will make it to, or even win the World Series this year. But a World Series ring on a former Penn star is a World Series ring — whether he played or whether he's been on the disabled list since May.
So as the Giants and Phillies get a travel day before mayhem re-descends on Philadelphia for the weekend showdown and as the Quakers football team prepares to take on Yale tomorrow, here's a treat from the DP Archives: Mark DeRosa, redshirt freshman, in the 1993 game against Princeton.
and here is the one time two-sport Red and Blue athlete in his current Orange and Black:
In addition to the changes that the NFL is making to reduce head trauma, there is currently a lot of research going on to help solve the issues of concussions in sports. But some of the research doesn't come from the sports world at all.
Last Friday, I came across this article in USA Today about a new technique the U.S. Army is developing to help diagnose concussions in soldiers. It's a standard blood test that looks for a biomarker that researchers have linked to mild traumatic brain damage.
"With concussions being a clinical diagnosis, it’s incredibly important to move beyond that to one with a biomarker where you can definitively know what’s happening in the brain," said Chris Nowinski, president of the Sports Legacy Institute. Many athletes either mask or downplay the symptoms to keep playing. A concrete diagnosis would be a huge tool in stopping athletes from going back onto the field after a concussion and potentially compound the damage.
"People have been trying to develop a test that would work like this for a long time," Nowinksi said, "I think this is the best evidence so far that we’re getting close to finding a single protein that can be measured that correlates with concussion. "There’s no question that the military needs a test like this as does the sports world … There’s a huge need across many different groups. Whether or not you could see it being used on the sideline of a Pop Warner game is a different story. You’d have to step through a lot of hoops to get there. But theoretically it’s possible."
Brain trauma is a complex problem, and it's one that must be approached from many angles (rule changes and scientific research being just two examples) before we can come close to a solution.
The streamers tradition was banned in 1985, four years before I was born, so it's hard for me to fully comprehend its significance. So I ask you, the readers, especially those of you who threw streamers in your day: What do the streamers mean to you? What is your favorite streamer-related story? Do you like this idea by Penn Athletics?
I actually originally had a fair bit of opinion in my article today (I thought it was too dry as a straight news story), but due to the realities of published media, we had to cut it in half.
ESPN's Dana O'Neil seems to think that it adds pressure on Jerome Allen to win, at least according to her twitter post.
In order to stimulate some discussion, I present the other half of my article, most of which didn't make it onto the back page:
One well thought out aspect of the current plan is that the streamers will be thrown only after the end of the game. Unlike the throngs of toast-throwers who stream out of Franklin Field after the third quarter, students who are solely interested in a school-sanctioned excuse to make a mess will still be supporting the Quakers through the final whistle.Whether or not streamers will actually make a tangible difference is still up in the air. While the wild popularity of the tradition in the ‘80s is promising, it will still need to resonate with a new generation of fans.
“We’re just going to have to wait and see what overall student reaction is,” said Red and Blue Crew member Jayson Weingarten. “My gut feeling is that students will really go for it initially, and I think that it will catch on.”
But perhaps most significant is that streamers will only be distributed after a Penn win. Anything resembling last year’s disastrous 0-10 start may mean that most freshmen will stop coming to the Palestra before they even know the streamers exist.
On a campus with very few undergraduates who were here to root for the 2007 NCAA tournament team, a return to sustained on-court success will ultimately be the foundation for rebuilding school pride and spirit.
The streamers are nothing more than brightly colored window dressing, to be enjoyed only by those who can be lured through the front door.
At the end of the day, it’s not the post-win celebrations but the victories themselves that will keep fans coming back for more. And you can be sure that when the game’s on the line, the tradition will be the last thing on the players’ minds.
“These banners hanging up [on the Palestra ceiling] and me sitting with a bare hand with no rings on it is enough pressure already,” Senior co-captain Jack Eggleston said, “so I don’t think streamers are going to add much to it.”
The Athletic Department should be applauded for reviving a storied and nostalgic tradition, but now it’s up to Penn’s team to begin to resurrect the cathedral the Big 5 built.
A 26th banner would be more than window dressing.
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Red and Blue Crew members are out on Locust this week advertising the Line, which will be this Friday at 9 P.M. at the Palestra. They're giving away free Quaker hats and t-shirts to anyone who can make a shot on the hoop they have set up in front of Steitler Hall.
They're joined throughout the day by members of the hoops team. If you want a chance to compare how short you are to Mike Howlett, stop by. You can ask him to dunk, but there's no way that rim can support a 6'9", 215 pound center.
Mike Turner, a 6-foot-8 power forward from Chicago, is “definitely leaning towards Penn,” his high school coach Troy Caldwell said Sunday, and he plans on announcing his decision this week.
Caldwell said that Turner, a senior at the University of Chicago Laboratory High School, had an official visit at Penn in September and “really enjoyed it, really loved the campus.”
He emphasized the efforts of Penn coach Jerome Allen and his staff adding that Turner “appreciated the diligence Penn has shown in recruiting him.”
Turner was able to interact with current Penn players during his visit and feels like he already has a bond with the players and coaches, Caldwell said. “It has made this process easier for Mike.”
Turner’s strengths lie in his athleticism and size, his coach said. He stressed that he is a good shooter and all-around offensive player. The only weakness he acknowledged was Turner’s need to get stronger, which he says will come in time.
Turner could play a big role in the Quakers' offense. Six of the thirteen Quaker players taller than 6-foot-5, including three forwards, are seniors this year, so Turner’s ability to get baskets inside and get rebounds could give a boost to the offense next season.
Caldwell also noted that Turner is a great student and is very interested in Penn from an academic standpoint as well as an athletic one.
Both Turner and Caldwell want to make a decision this week. “It’s our hope that we would do the early signing period in November, so Mike can focus on our team’s season,” Caldwell said.
Turner is also considering Harvard, Valparaiso, and Northwestern, according to ChicagoHoops.com. The website announced Friday that he received a scholarship offer from Northwestern.
-Alyssa Kress
For those of you that don't get the local broadcast and don't bother with the Penn Sports Network for Penn football games, we're your only source for a full highlights reel from Penn games. If you don't watch our videos on theDP.com, go catch up here. For this week, here's the video recap/highlights from Saturday's football game, with filming and some colorful voiceover by yours truly.
Here's the videos of the post-game press conferences after Penn's victory over Columbia today.
On an unrelated note, you may notice that various links on The Buzz are broken right now. Importantly for some of you, this means you won't be able to leave comments. Just wanted to let all our loyal readers know that we're aware of the problem and trying to fix it as soon as possible. It should be fixed by Monday night at the latest. Sorry for the inconvenience.
PENN:
Columbia:
Penn kicks off at noon today against Columbia at Franklin Field. The Lions are currently on a three game winning streak — though they haven't beaten Penn or won in Philadelphia since 1996. If you can't make it to Franklin Field on this beautiful fall afternoon (or just went home after the morning tailgate) following along here for live game updates from the DP staff.
HUGE news from Penn as the first day of practice concludes: the tradition of throwing streamers onto the Palestra floor will return in 2010.
The tradition was a mainstay of Big 5 basketball in the 80s — each team's fans would throw streamers of their school colors after their team scored its first field goal. Play would be paused, the streamers cleaned, and the game would go on. However, in 1985, Princeton fans began throwing orange and black marshmallows, fans in other conferences began taking the tradition and altering it (throwing larger, more dangerous objects) until the NCAA stepped in and put a prohibition on the tradition. Teams whose fans threw streamers were given technical fouls by the referees.
Well it's back — now in an altered and technical-foul free form.
"STREAMERS will return to the Palestra this season; in a modified version," according to a promotional email from Penn Athletics. "Streamers will be distributed and thrown post-game when Penn wins; during the singing of The Red and The Blue. Only those sitting in the lower sections of the student section (season ticket holders) will be able to participate in the revival of the streamers tradition."
For a nice account of the tradition from Robert Lyons' book Palestra Pandemonium, click here.
With the official start of NCAA basketball preseason today, the Ivy League has compiled the preseason rankings and awards from various college basketball outlooks.
Penn won't be having any midnight madness festivities like many larger basketball programs — and coach Jerome Allen reportedly won't be holding any late night practices at the Palestra. In fact, the first few team practices will be closed to the media, a policy implemented under Allen's one-time coach Fran Dunphy.
But the program's twitter gave fans a look into the first practice of the season:
So with just 4 weeks until Penn tips off for Allen's first full season as head coach, here's a look at what the experts are predicting for Penn in 2010:
Athalon Sports, Blue Ribbon College Basketball, Lindy's and Rivals are all predicting that Princeton will take home the League trophy this season. The Quakers were picked to finish third by Blue Ribbon and Lindy's (which is in line with my own predictions from the beginning of the school year), fourth by Athalon and Rivals and fifth by Sporting News. This shows a slight jump from last year's 5th place finish, tied with Columbia and Brown.
Junior point guard and co-captain Zack Rosen was picked by all four publications as a preseason all-Ivy candidate, and was also a unanimous player of the year for Athalon, Lindy's Blue Ribbon and Rivals. Lindy's named Rosen 'best playmaker' as well.
Highly touted freshman Miles Cartwright made an appearance with two 'newcomer of the year' selections, and senior co-captain Jack Eggleston was named 'best rebounder' by Lindy's.
What these lists fail to recognize is the expected impact of the returns of Andreas Schreiber and Tyler Bernardini (the 2007-08 Ivy Rookie of the Year), who both missed most of last season with injuries.
It's a big day for Big Red Basketball. By noon today Cornell announced the hire of new assistant coach Mike Blaine, and recruit Dave LaMore announced his commitment to the team.
Blaine joins Cornell from Maryland Eastern Shore, where he was an assistant coach largely responsible for developing perimeter players, opponent scouting and recruitment. He will replace Jay Larranaga, who left Ithaca, N.Y. to take a coaching position in the NBA's developmental league.
LaMore, a 6-foot-10, 220 pound center, will move to Cornell next year from his home in Whitmore Lake, Mich. His considerable size should help fill the void left by graduated Big Red star Jeff Foote, who is now playing in Israel. LaMore gained some notoriety in the Detroit area for literally breaking a backboard while dunking during a high school game.
The Cornell Basketball Blog reported that LaMore took recruiting calls from the Penn coaching staff, among other Ivies, though his profile on Rivals.com neither lists him as interested in Penn nor having an offer from the Quakers.
With the commitments of Kenyatta Smith and Wesley Saunders to Harvard, the amount of sizeable players available to Penn is decreasing. The graduation of many frontcourt players on the Quakers' roster this May surely increases the need for players with height.
Henry Brooks a 6'8 power forward from Lithonia, Ga., is certainly on the Quakers' radar. Ranked a 90 on ESPN.com, Brooks has received offers from Penn, Harvard, and Boston College according to high school head coach, Sharman White.
"Henry has a very high interest in Penn right now", White said. "He was able to talk to Coach Allen and Coach Martin on a personal level and he really felt that the environment at Penn was conducive to his needs."
White also noted that Harvard, which first showed interest in Brooks, has now backed away due to the verbal commitments of Smith and Saunders. Although White was unsure as to when Brooks will make his decision, he noted that it will be very shortly.
As the Quakers remain one of the last Ivy teams to secure a commitment for the 2011-2012 season, a commitment from Brooks would definitely jump start what has so far been a slow recruiting season.
--Brandon Bell
In a departure from recent years, there will no longer be a "line announcement" where students have to drop whatever they are doing and run to the designated location to sign up just to participate in the line.
Instead, Penn Athletics is currently advertising the Oct. 22 event. Students need simply show up at the Palestra and spend the night to get their student-section season tickets.
Tickets this year will be $50 and line participants will get a few benefits throughout the season, including
Opening up the student section to non-line participants once the game has started is also a wise move. The policy of keeping students in the upper bowl while a dwindling number of line-participants sat alone in the lower section was never a good one. The guest passes should help increase attendance, though I wonder how utilized they will actually be.
Many of these benefits, however, are rather petty. %15 off merchandise? A free popcorn? $1 hot dogs to students who arrive an hour early? How will these chump-change offers attract students? Worst of all, the discount on the Penn Sports Network package is an incentive not to walk down to 33rd street in February to catch a game if you can just stream it on your computer.
On the whole, though, I think these are positive changes that should bring more students to the Palestra.
We'll see next Friday how successful they really are. Until then, as T.O. says, get your popcorn ready.
Most of you have probably already seen the delightful Under The Button post on this so I will be brief, but for those who haven't:
Philly Magazine's Sandy Hingston went on a rant on her blog (for a fun 10 minutes, read the comments under her post), railing on Penn undergrads who attend the newly-instituted tailgates but then go "straight back to their room to study" instead of attending the ensuing football games. And I quote:
They have their noses stuck too far inside anatomy and political science textbooks to do what college students are supposed to do, which is get out to Franklin Field and root, root, root for a home team ...Aside from "root root root for the home team" being a baseball reference and thus totally out of place in a post about football, her entire column seems utterly uninformed.
Yes, some students are leaving without attending the game. So what? Chances are if you've walked all the way down to 33rd street for some free burgers and a beverage, you might just head in to the game, even for a half. There aren't any hard numbers, but I can't imagine the tailgates are hurting attendance. And even if nobody from the tailgate went into the game, at least students are coming together in some form.
Hingston also claims that "Penn’s athletic department has resorted to bribery" in giving out food and other giveaways at the tailgates. Earth to Sandy: sports teams have been doing promotional giveaways forever. From dollar dogs to bobble-heads, that's just how the game works.
UTB editor Hillary Reinsberg makes a great point in noting that you can't instill a tailgating/football culture at a school overnight (even if there was once a strong culture years ago). Two tailgates aren't going to solve attendance woes. Maybe 10 years of tailgates won't solve it; we don't know. But you have to commend Penn Athletics for at least trying.
Joey Gripper, a 6-foot-1 guard from nearby Abington Friends School in Jenkintown, Pa., says that although he originally had received interest from Penn, he wants to “get out” of the Philadelphia area.
“I had offers from Drexel and Penn a little bit earlier in the season,” Gripper said, “but Drexel said I gotta commit and I wasn’t really looking towards going there.”
Gripper took an official visit to Harvard earlier this fall and said the idea of relocating to the home of the Crimson (and the Celtics) is sounding pretty good.
“I love the city of Boston,” said Gripper, who compared his game to that of Celtics’ guard Rajon Rondo.
Though Gripper said he had an offer from Penn and is listed as such on Scout.com, according to Steve Chadwin, Gripper’s coach at Abington Friends, neither he nor Gripper has heard much from the Quakers in the way of recruiting. Gripper has started at point guard for Abington Friends since his freshman year and was voted MVP at the Harrington tournament in 2009, scoring 22 points, grabbing six rebounds and contributing 4 assists.
He says he plans to visit George Mason, Quinnipiac and Marshall in the coming weeks, though said he will make his choice towards the end of the coming season.
-Nina Wolpow
This season for Penn football has already been record-breaking. The program surpassed its 800th win, and Saturday’s 31-10 win over Bucknell made coach Al Bagnoli the winningest coach in Penn football history.
But when I asked him how he felt on his 125th win, he couldn’t even enjoy the victory. Bagnoli was visibly unhappy with his team’s performance, but more importantly he was disappointed in himself for failing to prepare the Quakers to play like an Ivy Championship team from the get-go.
Bagnoli’s thoughts:
“I really haven’t had a chance to think about it. To be honest with you, I’m pretty disappointed in how we played, especially in that first half. In fact, it was as bad a half of football as we’ve played in a long time. I kind of take that on a personal level, that they weren’t ready to play. It almost seemed like we were out there not even caring … I’m just really more trying to figure out why it took us 30 minutes to play this thing out."
(More after the jump)
On his half time talk: “Luckily they responded, which is a credit to them, but it still begs the question that it shouldn’t take us 30 minutes. That first half was not something that anyone should be proud of on either side."
On overlooking Bucknell: “I’m sure they didn’t get ready for the game as well as they should have prepared. And I’m sure they were not as emotionally geared up as they should have been. And I’m sure at times they were playing down to their level, and thinking that they had beaten Dartmouth and Dartmouth had beaten Bucknell considerably, so this wasn’t going to be a contest. And you know how smart kids always try to make some analytical thought process, and we just weren’t ready to play. And that’s really my fault, that’s not anybody else’s. That’s my job and it was very troubling, that first 30 minutes of football. And it still bothers me now, so we’ve gotta get this thing right."
On playing better teams: “Again, it kind of begs the question of, why is there 30 minutes the way we played and 30 minutes the way we played? And that’s the part that is a little bit unsettling to me because against the real good teams, you’re not going to have that opportunity. You can’t kick it up. We’ll be so far behind against the good teams that we may not be able to dig ourselves out of the hole. So hopefully this is a learning lesson for everybody and we can take some positives even from that first half, and just stress that you have to be ready to play against everybody.”
Hey everyone, this is Megan Soisson at Christy Mathewson Memorial Stadium in Lewisburg, Pa., where the Quakers are getting ready to take on Bucknell. Follow along with me below.
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