From the department of not surprising news, Penn football had 18 All-Ivy selections, including senior linebacker Jake Lewko, who shared the Asa S. Bushnell Cup with Brown receiver/returner Buddy Farnham as the Ivy League's top player.

Six of the 18 received first team honors, including both of Penn's starting cornerbacks, seniors Jonathan Moore and Chris Wynn. This was Wynn's third straight All-Ivy year; the last Penn player to do so was receiver Miles Macik (1993-95). The other four first teamers were Lewko, junior offensive lineman Joseph D'Orazio, senior defensive lineman Joe Goniprow and junior kicker Andrew Samson.

In addition, coach Al Bagnoli was named a candidate for the Eddie Robinson award, which goes to the top coach in the Football Championship Subdivision. Other candidates of note include Villanova's Andy Talley and Dale Lennon of No. 1 Southern Illinois. This is Bagnoli's third appearance on the Robinson Award list; he finished ninth in 2002 and eighth in 2003.

With the de facto Ivy championship just two days away, Keiffer Garton's return to practice couldn't have come at a better time. Then again, Kyle Olson's stellar play of late raises an interesting predicament. Do you go with your established starter? Or do you go with your hot hand?

Al Bagnoli sides with the latter, as he already said that Kyle Olson will be his starter. But the question remains: how much playing time will Garton actually see? Bagnoli said “Kyle will take the majority of the snaps and we’ll play it by ear, see what happens. We fully intend to get Keiffer in the game.”

Sure, Garton should get in the game, if not to get the talented quarterback a chance to make some plays, then just to make sure Harvard has it in the back of its mind. But what if Olson continues to light it up, like he has the last two weeks? Harvard's No. 6 Ivy pass defense shouldn't be too much of a probem for him, but its No. 2 run defense certainly will be. If Olson plays well and say the team takes a lead, does Bagnoli risk bringing in a completely cold Keiffer Garton?

It seems that "playing it by ear" simply means Bagnoli will have to make the decision on the fly. If Olson can't get the offense going, Garton will almost definitely see the field. If Olson keeps it up, though, I don't think Bagnoli can (or will) go to Garton. And when you throw in the consideration of whether he will mix in the wildcat/slash/single-wing/whatever, this will almost definitely be the most interesting element of this game. And Bagnoli's decision could very well end up determining the next Ivy League champion.

(Ed Note: I spotted Keiffer Garton the other day in Annenberg on crutches. So I asked Staff Writer Eli Cohen to follow up at practice. Here's what Eli got).

Last Saturday against Columbia, junior quarterback Keiffer Garton -- who had missed the previous two games with an elbow injury -- rebounded from a two-interception first half to throw two touchdowns and lead Penn to a decisive 27-13 victory.

Coaches as well as spectators were curious as to whether or not Garton would be able to play like he did in the second half when Yale comes to Franklin Field Saturday.

Now, coach Al Bagnoli and the Quakers won't have to worry about how Garton will perform against the Bulldogs.

Because Garton won't be playing.

The Castle Rock, Colo., native sustained a knee sprain during Tuesday's practice, and was heavily bandaged and on crutches by the next day.

Bagnoli is not optimistic about Garton's chances of playing soon, and doesn't really know what to expect.

For the time being, however, senior Kyle Olson, who Bagnoli claims is 100 percent healthy and ready to go after recovering from his own knee injury, will start for the Quakers as they try to continue their three-game winning streak.

(Be sure to check thedp.com/sports later today when we post our preview of the Yale game for more info).

There were a pair of columns in the DP today and I think that both deserve a second look and further comments here at the Buzz. Read below if you're interested in my defense of my own column and my opinion on Noah's.

(more...)

Monday was Penn football media day down at Franklin Field, and there seemed to be a renewed sense of optimism as Penn was voted second in the preseason media poll.

I wrote a feature in the Welcome Back issue of the DP on the new rushing-focused offense centered around quarterback Keiffer Garton. Meanwhile, fellow editor/Buzz writer Noah Rosenstein did a complementary story on the offensive line, possibly the only thing slowing down the new offense heading into the season. (We also have some other good stories on second-tier sports, so be sure to check out the new issue.)

But as always due to space limitations we couldn't fit everything into the print edition (coach Al Bagnoli spoke to reporters for roughly 20 minutes, after all). So here are some extra thoughts/tidbits I got from the team. (You can get partial audio for Bagnoli's interview and Garton's over at Soft Pretzel Logic.)

1) According to Bagnoli, senior quarterback Kyle Olson has fully recovered from his knee injury he suffered against Brown last year, and has participated in all of the team's practices. "It’s kind of an added bonus," Bagnoli said. While he could see some snaps at quarterback as the No. 2 -- "There's no doubt, Keiffer's our starting quarterback," Bagnoli said -- Olson's most important contribution will be as the punter. Last year he averaged 38.5 yards per punt, including a team-high 57-yard boot.

2) Speaking of special teams, I was very impressed with junior kicker Andrew Samson. He's gotten a lot of preseason attention after an All-American year (16-for-19 on field goals and 20-for-20 PATs). When asked if he paid attention to all the hype, he replied that "it's great to be recognized for what I did last year, but I'm not really looking into it since it's what I do during the season that matters." That might seem like he's being modest for modesty's sake, but he seemed sincere.

In short, I got the impression he was very calm, cool, collected and mature. Just the attributes you want in a kicker when the game's on the line.

3) The Quakers will be tested right off the bat. They open with Villanova, who was ranked fifth with two first-place votes, in the Football Championship Subdivision preseason media poll. "I can think of easier games to open with," Bagnoli laughingly said. At the same time, he did mention that in five of the last six seasons the rivalry game (if you want to call it that) went down to the wire, though 'Nova won them all. It'll be interesting to see if this year's game is similar to the five (average margin of defeat five points) or if it's closer to the 34-14 Villanova beating in 2007.

4) Chalk it up to his offensive line coaching experience at Penn, but new offensive coordinator Jon McLaughlin definitely seemed like a no-frills, blue-collar (as much as I hate that expression in sports) coach. He emphasized technique and fundamentals, saying "more teams lose games than win games" due to as few as "one or two mistakes." The offense he'll run as play caller won't be finesse as much as hard-nosed physical running, but I can definitely see why the players are buying into his philosophy. Looks like Bagnoli made a smart choice hiring from within.

5) Though Garton believes the possibilities for the offense are endless, they'll be ended quickly if Garton doesn't progress as a passer. Last year he was 41-for-68 with a 1:5 TD-INT ratio, though Bagnoli seemed very pleased with his improvement in the vertical passing game. While I'll believe that, if opponents stack eight in the box or shut down the perimeter let's see just how well Garton can stand in the pocket and zip in a ball 30 yards downfield.

H0wever, it seems that Garton does have the intangibles down. "He's got some of those instinctive leadership qualities that you want, that competitive people have," Bagnoli said of the junior.

Note: I got to give credit to Noah who attended media day with me and transcribed Bagnoli's, Garton's and McLaughlin's interviews.

A blog dedicated to  Columbia football -- yes, the same Columbia football team that is currently on a 12-game losing streak -- just wrote a post about Al Bagnoli and the quick turnaround of the Penn football team he masterminded in the early 1990s.

But as Quakers fans know, the last four years have brought zero Ivy League titles and three straight losing Ivy campaigns. Why the decline?  Well, according to the post, maybe Penn President Amy Gutmann is to blame.

But 2003 was the last time Penn won the football title. And that's also when current Penn president Amy Gutmann came on the scene.

Could the two incidents be related? When I asked Bagnoli last year if he felt he was getting enough support from the administration, he mostly shrugged. I get the feeling he had more to say ... but couldn't.

And then later:

For all I know, Gutmann is supporting athletics more than anyone at Penn, but the time parallels here are pretty clear. This is not only the longest championship drought for Bagnoli, his Quaker teams have had three straight losing Ivy seasons! And basketball fell off a cliff in 2007-08 for the first time in... forever.

Oh, and quarterback Robert Irvin is also to blame, says the blog, despite the fact that he was injured for all but 1.5 games last year and performed well in his sophomore season when he earned honorable mention All-Ivy honors.

Although this post is more than a little suspect -- Gutmann surely can't be blamed for Penn's football woes -- the blog, Roar Lions Roar, actually does have some legitimate information. Some links of note for Penn fans:

Will Lions WR Austin Knowlin have a big game on Saturday?

Is there a rivalry between Penn and Columbia?

Scouting Penn

(Just a programming note: My editors want me to post my "Random Ivy Notes" whenever they come up, instead of every Wednesday. So here's the first one).

This fall Americans will have a chance to vote in a critical race that will determine which man stands alone above the rest.  No, not the Presidential campaign, but the NCAA Football Coach of the Year award.

Liberty Mutual is sponsoring a website that will let you vote for the top coach in FBS, Division II, Division III and, of course, FCS up until December 6.  And in response to this, Penn Athletics wants you to know that you can vote for Penn coach Al Bagnoli as FCS Coach of the Year. You can even write in why you think he deserves it.

Interestingly, Penn's justification is based not on current accomplishments, but on past ones. It's more like why Bagnoli should win Best Active Coach in FCS rather than why he should win the 2008 COY award.  (Truth be told, he is one of the most accomplished coaches currently in FCS.)

With Penn's first spring practice less than a month away, it's time to start keeping an eye on the gridiron. First item of business: Robert Irvin's balky shoulder.

Quakers coach Al Bagnoli said that Irvin will be on the field in a limited capacity throughout the spring.

"We're not going to have him throw very much," Bagnoli said. "But he is going to be in the huddle, he is going to be able to hand off, he's going to be able to do some footwork stuff. I doubt he'll be cleared to throw all out."

The junior quarterback, who may end up taking a ninth semester, had surgery last March, then tried to come back for the 2007 season. It remains unclear to his coaches if he never fully recovered from that operation or if he took a hit in one of the first two games, but he was shut down after the loss to Villanova and went under the knife again in October.

"He's in much better physical shape, including arm strength, at this time of the year than he was last year," Bagnoli said. "One of the better things we've done is that once we saw the real state of his shoulder, we really shut him down very early. ... So now he's had from September virtually until [the coming] August [for] what should be a 3-to-6-month recovery time.

"Long-term, the prognosis should be outstanding. Short-term, we've got to be careful, because we don't want a setback."