Scouting Penn

Ray Priore

Overview

They’ve been calling this game the “Bagnoli Bowl” for a couple of months now as Columbia’s new head coach takes on the team he coached for 23 years for the first time on the other side of the field. The drama is obvious when you connect it to a game where most of the Penn players will be facing the man who recruited them. 

But there’s more.

Penn is also still in the midst of a rare downturn for the program. The current junior class is on track to become only the third Quaker class Bagnoli ever recruited to go all four years without at least one Ivy title. Most of the chatter I’ve heard out of Penn has been very pleasant when it comes to the Bagnoli move. But there’s a quiet, but insistent voice among some Penn alums that Bagnoli somehow is responsible for the Quaker slide. It’s hard to believe the Penn players believe that, but there could be some abandonment issue anger.  

Mental issues aside, it’s very hard to get a handle on this Penn team and it’s not just because they’re playing under new Head Coach Ray Priore. Looking at the stats, this team is clearly not the sum of its parts. There’s a lot of talent on both sides of the ball, but it’s not translating into wins. It could be that a lot of the best stats seem to be coming from parts of games where the outcome already seemed decided. It could be that Penn seems to start most games slow and finish fast. How can a team that lost convincingly to Lehigh and looked as awful as possible for most of the game against Dartmouth and half the game against Fordham beat an albeit injured Villanova team and almost pull off a huge upset over a healthy Fordham club with a second half comeback?

The best trend I can discern is that Penn seems to be starting slowly and finishing much better. They’ve been outscored in every quarter but the 4^th, with the 1^st quarter deficit at 27 points. It’s pretty easy to guess that the Penn coaches will be doing everything they can to get the Quakers to reverse this trend against the Lions. A fast start could take the Homecoming crowd out of the game as well.

But whatever is going on with the Quakers, it’s hard to tell which part of this team Columbia should worry about the most… and that worries me.

Offense

The Penn offense seemed to get a shot in the arm from the emergence of backup senior QB Andrew Lisa, who replaced the injured junior Alex Torgersen in the Dartmouth game and got the team moving. Lisa also started and finished the Fordham game and got the Quakers to put up 45 points in the near win over the Rams. It looks like Torgersen will be back this week as the starting QB, but it really doesn’t seem like the QB position or the offense generally is the problem for Penn. Both have completed almost 70% of their passes. Both have mostly kept the interceptions to a minimum. Torgersen is probably a slightly better runner, that’s it.

The O-line has done a stellar job this season, allowing just six sacks in four games and opening holes for more than one running back. So the weakness isn’t here either.

The wide receivers are led by sophomore Justin Watson, an emerging star who has 29 catches and five TD receptions already. At 6-3 and 210 pounds, he’s the real deal. Speedster senior Cameron Countryman is finally getting more into the offensive mix after being one of the most highly touted incoming recruits in Penn history back in 2012. TE Ryan O’Malley is 6-6 and can be a lethal target. He hasn’t been completely silenced, but also hasn’t had a breakout game this year. With his height, he’s going to be tough for Columbia to cover.

The running back situation seems to be going through a transition as well. After starting the season with sophomore Tre Solomon getting most of the carries, junior Brian Schonauer got the ball a lot more in the Fordham game after splitting the running job evenly with Solomon the week before. But like the QB’s, both of these guys seem to be very effective. To me all of these good numbers say that the Penn O-line is really the constant force here. It’s a textbook case of how if you take care of the guys up front, everything else starts to work.

Defense

The Quaker defense has a lot of excellent linebackers and defensive backs, it’s the defensive line that’s been a little iffy.

Penn has an impressive 13 sacks so far this year, but almost all of them have come from linebackers and DB’s. DT Austin Taps seems like the most dangerous guy on the D-line, but he hasn’t made a huge impact so far this season. DE Jack Madden is probably a bigger concern for Columbia right now.  

The real force on this defense, as you would expect from a linebacker coaching genius like Priore, comes from the linebackers. Sophomore transfer LB Colton Moskal from Syracuse has energized the team and he was sorely missed when he was out with an injury for the Dartmouth game. But Senior LB Tyler Drake is racking up the stats. He has an incredible five sacks, a big number through just four games for a linebacker. And junior LB Dan Panciello is a force as well. He’s the hero of the season so far with his scoop and 90-yard fumble return for the clinching TD in the Villanova game.

The secondary is young but has some talented players. Junior Matt Henderson is a top tackler and sophomore Ephraim Lee defends the pass extremely well.

But the yardage numbers on both the run and the pass show Penn’s defense has been porous at times.  

Special Teams

Penn may not have the strongest special teams in the league, but they really aren’t weak anywhere either. Senior Placekicker Jimmy Gammill has only attempted three FG’s all season, hitting two of them including a 40-yarder. He’s 12-13 on PAT’s. Kickoff specialist Aron Morgan has one touchback, but does not have an overall good average.

Sophomore Punter Hunter Kelly is very good, but sometimes Penn has the QB Torgersen handling the punts.

Senior Eric Fiore handles most of the kickoffs and all the punt returns. He is sure-handed but not a real breakaway return threat.