Penn has dropped consecutive games, but there’s no panic: ‘Everything we want is in front of us’
The Quakers are back at Franklin Field preparing for one last nonconference game. Penn will face Howard for the first time in its 150-year history.
After practice on a crisp, cloudless Tuesday, Penn senior defensive back Josh Narcisse stopped midsentence. As he looked around Franklin Field, he extended an arm toward the empty stands.
“I want the entire — every single seat filled,” he said. ”Now, will that happen?”
He gave a small smile and chuckled.
The Quakers are back on campus after dropping their Ivy League opener against Dartmouth last week, and they’re preparing for a nonconference game against Howard on Saturday (1 p.m., ESPN+).
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Penn will be facing Howard for the first time in its 150-year history.
“I love everything — what the conference stands for and how passionate their fan base [is],” Penn coach Rick Santos said of facing the historically Black university. “And I just think it’s awesome for our conference and their conference to connect and to battle it out on the field and let the best team win.”
Narcisse also expressed his excitement for Howard’s band and its role in creating an electric atmosphere for the game.
“I have memories going all the way back to my freshman year of being on the road, and [there] might not be a lot of people repping the [red and blue] out there, but the [Penn] band, they’re always going hard,” he said.
Now, like the band, Santos is eager to get his players excited.
“There’s no consolation prizes by being close,” he said, referring to last Saturday’s loss. “[The players] need to understand what it takes to win.
“But I don’t know if I’ve done a good enough job getting these guys locked in to what it feels like, the mental stressors of game day. And the only way that you can calm yourself in the biggest moments is if [you’re] under duress and [you] feel a little angst and a little stressed during practice.”
Though Santos spent the seven-hour bus ride from Hanover, N.H., to Philly “wallowing in my sorrows a little bit,” he thought the team “made some strides offensively.”
“We moved a lot better on offense,” freshman quarterback Miles Teodecki said, “but, again, we had a couple opportunities to score, and we couldn’t get the job done.”
Teodecki put the loss on his shoulders.
“I’ve got to do better,” he said. “As the quarterback, it falls on my shoulders to be the veteran, be the guy.”
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Narcisse sees how Teodecki and the freshmen are “not afraid of anybody.” So while he, as senior and team captain, makes sure to encourage them and remind them that there’s still more games, he also said, “I just have to let them ball, let them do their thing. Sometimes you overtalk, so avoiding that is important too.”
But the team is feeling the heat.
“You drop two back-to-back games, everybody should be a little more intense,” Narcisse said. “If we came [out to practice] flat, that would be a huge red flag.”
It starts at the top. Santos is preparing the team for Howard’s physical defense and blitzes; he knows Penn needs to execute in the red zone and make “make clutch plays, those winning plays.”
A New England Patriots fan, Santos saw the one-handed, game-winning touchdown catch by Patriots wide receiver Efton Chism III on Sunday and took inspiration from it.
“There’s winning plays to be made, right?” he said, “I bet you that gives [the Patriots] a ton of momentum to go on a run, just like we’re going to do.”
Narcisse also sees a lot to look forward to.
“Ultimately, right now, we still have the entire season in front of us, so there’s no reason to get down and feel bad for ourselves or anything like that,” he said. “Everything we want is in front of us.”
