Penn Update

Say goodbye

Columbia's traditional week 5 opponent will again be the University of Pennsylvania. This time the game is at Franklin Field.

Obviously, the big story at Penn is the fact that this is Head Coach Al Bagnoli’s final year on the job.

But if it weren’t for that, the big story would be the Quakers’ weak 2013 campaign that saw them go 4-6 overall and 3-4 Ivy with a four-game losing streak to close out the year.

Without the tough QB Billy Ragone to lead the team, Penn couldn’t find a way to win the key tight ball games like it did in 2012. And the once-mighty Penn defense was porous in game after game.

It was Penn’s defensive performance that surprised me the most. I was one of the many pundits who predicted the Quakers would have trouble in 2013 if Ragone got hurt. But almost no one expected the Quakers to give up an average of more than 28 points in their seven Ivy League contests.

Pass defense was the culprit, with Penn allowing an average of 240 yards in the air and more than seven yards per attempt last season. But the rush defense was also weak by Quaker standards with more than 150 yards per game allowed.

Penn does have a lot of returning players on defense, led by linebacker Daniel Davis who could be a league MVP. Head Coach-elect Ray Priore has his usual corps of talented linebackers with Fereez Yacoobi joining Davis, but the rest of the defense just looks a lot weaker than what we’ve become used to seeing in the Bagnoli-Priore era.

Evan Jackson, a 2^nd Team All-Ivy DB last year, will be back and is probably the best non-linebacker on the defense.

I like the offense a lot more this year, even though new QB Alek Torgerson is a big question mark. Torgerson is just a sophomore with a grand total of one start and 10 passing attempts under his belt. But his talent is unquestioned and he has a very experienced receiving corps to work with. WR Connor Scott is back for a 5^th year, as is Chuck Fiore. Ty Taylor, in my opinion, was robbed of All Ivy recognition last year and Ryan O’Malley is just the kind of huge TE a young QB needs as a security blanket.  Don’t forget about junior Cameron Countryman who was the consensus top recruit in the Ivies in 2012. His speed is lethal.

Neither Kyle Wilcox and Spencer Kulcsar  can win games on their own, but the combined package they present at RB is powerful.

Even the weaker Bagnoli teams of the past have never been weak on the O-line… never. I can’t imagine this will be a serious problem this fall, but I’m not ready to call it a strength either. 1^st Team All Ivy OL Christopher Bush has graduated,  but there’s a decent number of guys returning from a squad that allowed fewer than two sacks a game.

As far as the recruiting game goes, it looks like this was kind of an under the radar year for the Quakers. It’s possible the haul wasn’t as great for the program last year with Bagnoli on the way out, but I’m not ready to render that verdict right now. It’s just something to consider a year or two down the road.

COLUMBIA’S ANGLE

Last year, I wrote that a win on Homecoming against Penn would have made Columbia’s entire 2013 season. It turned out that CU played more competitively in that game than just about any contest last year, but the Lions still fell in a 21-7 loss. 

This year, the Penn game seems like a similar major prize. In his 22 years as Quaker head coach, Bagnoli has a 20-2 record against Columbia. Imagine the shock and pain the Lions could impose on him and the Penn faithful if they could beat the Quakers at Franklin Field in Bagnoli’s farewell season!

Well, we can dream.