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.

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.

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.

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.

He steps away from the NBA to talk about elite high school camps and their impact on players.

The Penn athletic department announced that Nik DeVore, of Loyola Marymount in California, will take over the men's tennis job.

At LMU, DeVore inherited a lackluster program and made his mark, getting the Lions to respectability in the West Coast Conference. The Penn opening was created by the departure of Mark Riley, who left for Kalamazoo College.

Maybe the new men's golf coach won't be doing any sharing at all.

This is only an educated guess based on the facts that have emerged, but it wouldn't shock me if current women's coach Francis Vaughn were in the hunt, at least, to take over the men's team too.

That would explain why the athletic department is hiring one assistant to work for two programs. It's not as strange a move as it sounds, if both programs have the same coach. (Men's and women's swimming coach Mike Schnur's assistants, for example, all work for both teams.)

It would clear up why the job posting says the assistant has to report to the Director of Golf (Vaughn), but doesn't make any mention of the men's coach.

And it might also would tell us why, after all these years, the golf programs are finally getting an assistant. If Vaughn does end up doing two jobs, that might encourage Penn to crack open the piggy bank and pay for someone to help him out.

It would be strange in that no Ivy League school currently has the same person as its men's and women's golf coach.

But Vaughn has done it before; he held both the men's and women's jobs from 1996-2002.

And it seems even more strange for a school to be searching for an assistant coach before it's even announced the head one.

See tomorrow's DP for more analysis.

Note: Strangely, you can't see the post by browsing the NCAA's job site anymore -- you have to use the URL I linked to above.

A Division I coach has to be adept at recruiting, fundraising, and scheduling, among others.

For the new men's golf coach, add that seminal skill for five-year-olds -- sharing -- to the list.

As in, sharing a coach, which is what the new hire will be doing. Penn is looking to hire a paid golf assistant, but the assistant will split time between the men's and women's programs, while reporting to Director of Golf/women's coach Francis Vaughn.

It's the first time since at least 2001 there's been any kind of assistant coach for golf, and probably earlier than that, although I'm having trouble finding records. I think women's squash is now the only sport that competes without an assistant coach (or half of one, at least). Assistants can come and go fairly frequently though, so my guess (and Penn's athletic directory) could be off.

Call it a step forward for the golf programs, but not a huge one. At just $12,000 per year with no benefits, this new coach will be a footnote on Steve Bilsky's budget. And like many assistant positions, it's only a 9-month gig, so no guarantee the golf teams will get the same arrangement next year.

As for programs sharing coaches? As far as I know, there are only two other arrangements like that at Penn. Men's and women's fencing is one. Men's and women's swimming and diving also share, although it's probably easier for them. They have three assistant coaches, if you count diving coach Julie Van Deusen.

Speaking of vacancies, Penn's post for men's tennis head coach went up but has since been taken off. Apparently the athletic deparment has found its candidates...but who knows whether that means Penn's actually close to announcing a hire. There's also no post up for the head men's golf job, so Penn could be coming down the home stretch on that one as well.

I hear CSTV replayed last year's Penn-Brown football game yesterday (Tuesday) as part of some kind of "Fantastic Finishes" package.

You probably remember it; no need to hash out the painful details in this space. Others may disagree, but I think this was the lowest of the special teams lowlights (honorable mention to the botched 2-point play at Cornell). Unless the worst is yet to come. Impossible...right?

The game did, however, produce the year's weirdest victory celebration by an opponent. After Brown's game-winning kick went through, Bears linebacker Zak DeOssie sprinted at full tilt toward the student section. He found a piece of thrown toast that was spray-painted pink to support breast cancer research, took a massive bite, and followed it with a hearty yell.

Brown went 0-3 after that song-and-dance, with the latter two losses coming against Dartmouth and Columbia. Coincidence? I doubt it highly.

Still, give me a choice between that and the sack dance his new NFL teammates have, and I'll take DeOssie eating tainted toast any day.

Penn's coup of Zack Rosen got a mention in the New York Daily News today, from none other than the legendary Dick "Hoops" Weiss. He had already referred to Rosen as an "upperclass gem" about a week ago, in reference to his appearance at the Eastern Invitational camp.

(Weiss is one of those rare people whose nickname is so good, sportswriters from other publications always use it, even when they're going to say his full name anyway. He's constantly being called Dick "Hoops" Weiss. There's probably an entry in the AP's style book under "Dick Weiss," which simply reads: "Always include 'Hoops'.")

I'm a fan of 1 p.m. kickoffs in football, college or otherwise, admittedly because they fit my sleep schedule and I'm a creature of habit. Looks like I'm out of luck this year again, though. The times for Penn's football games are trickling out. They are as follows:

Sept. 15 -- LAFAYETTE -- 6 p.m.
Sept. 22 -- @ Villanova -- TBA (actually at Villanova this year, likely at night?)
Sept. 29 -- @ Dartmouth -- 12:30 p.m.
Oct. 6 -- GEORGETOWN -- TBA
Oct. 13 -- @ Columbia -- 1:30 p.m.
Oct. 20 -- YALE -- 12 p.m.
Oct. 27 -- @ Brown -- 12:30 p.m.
Nov. 3 -- PRINCETON -- 12 p.m.
Nov. 10 -- @ Harvard -- 12:30 p.m.
Nov. 17 -- CORNELL -- 1 p.m.

Congratulations to women's lacrosse's Karin Brower, who was named National Coach of the Year by the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association. I may be missing someone, but I think Brower is Penn's first national coach of the year in 10 years; Dave Micahnik took the honor from the U.S. Fencing Coaches Association in 1997.