Penn football has more to prove this season

It would be difficult enough for Penn football coach Al Bagnoli's 2010 Quakers to repeat as Ivy League champion, given the key players absent from a unit that led the nation's Football Championship Subdivision teams in scoring and total defense a year ago, limiting opponents to just 9.5 points and 217.6 yards per game, respectively.

"We lost a dominant kid up front in Joe Goniplow," Bagnoli noted yesterday during a teleconference with the Ivy's eight head coaches to preview the upcoming season. "We had a dominant kid inside in Jake Lewko, a linebacker who was the [Ivy] player of the year. We lost two dominant corners in Chris Wynn and Jonathan Moore, and another terrific [defensive back] in Kevin Gray."

But perhaps the most glaring and obvious omission from that superb defense is the player who should still be around. Owen Thomas, a junior who led the Quakers with six sacks, had been voted one of the team's four captains in the spring, but, in a tragedy the Penn community still finds inexplicable, he took his own life.

"We have one variable and I don't know how we're going to react," Bagnoli acknowledged when asked about the repercussions of Thomas' suicide. "It's something we're going to have to deal with moving forward."

Senior Joe D'Orazio is a two-time All-Ivy center and a preseason All-America who acknowledged some difficulty in coming to grips with his teammate's death.

"Owen was our teammate, our friend, a leader," the 6-1, 270-pound D'Orazio said. "But if anything, [his death] will pull our team together and make us closer. We probably had more players stay on campus this summer than at any time in the 4 years I've been here."

Despite having swept aside all seven Ivy opponents a year ago en route to an 8-2 record, the Quakers again find themselves as a slight underdog to Harvard in a poll of 17 media members. Coach Tim Murphy's Crimson received 10 first-place votes and 128 total points, with Penn named on six first-place ballots for 124 points. Brown (95) and Yale (83) rounded out the top four.

"I don't think it's a bad thing," Bagnoli said of Harvard's status as the favorite. "I think we were picked third last year."

There are different ways to pluck an Ivy championship, of course, and Bagnoli - who, entering his 19th season, is 122-56 and two victories shy of tying George Woodruff's school record set from 1892 to 1901 - knows them all, having guided the Quakers to seven league titles. And if these Quakers can't make it to the top by holding opponents to fewer points than they score, maybe they can do it by putting up more points than the guys in the different-colored jerseys. It's a subtle distinction, but a very real one, as Bagnoli is aware.

"I'm not sure we're going to be quite the defensive team we were, or should expect to be the same defensive team," he said. "But my hope is that we're going to be a little bit better on offense and maybe take some pressure off the defensive side."

Part of the reason why Penn scored a good but hardly eye-opening 21.4 points per game in 2009 was a variety of injuries that had Bagnoli and offensive coordinator Jon McLaughlin playing musical chairs at quarterback through the first half of the schedule. But all that juggling has left Penn with three QBs with game experience, which Bagnoli considers a plus.

"We have some talented kids and a little bit of depth," he said.

The starter figures to be 6-2, 200-pound senior Keiffer Garton, who completed 43 of 64 passes for 400 yards and four touchdowns, mostly playing behind the departed Kyle Olson. Garton also is a threat to take off and run, as evidenced by his school-record-for-quarterbacks 174 rushing yards in a game against Harvard in 2008.

"It adds another dimension, another thing for opposing defenses to worry about," D'Orazio said of Garton's running ability.

Whoever takes the snaps, he'll be working behind a veteran offensive line that includes not only D'Orazio, but returning starters Luis Ruffolo at left guard, Greg Van Roten at left tackle and Jared Mollenbeck at right tackle. Drew Luongo, who missed all of last season with an injury, started 10 games in 2008 and slides into the right guard slot. Standout kicker Andrew Samson, a two-time All-Ivy pick, can produce consolation-prize points when drives fail to reach the end zone.

"Even if we don't give up fewer than 10 points a game again, our offense could average a touchdown more," D'Orazio said.

Penn opens with a Sept. 18 date against Lafayette at Franklin Field . . . With 799 victories, the Quakers are looking forward to becoming just the 11th program in college football to join the 800-win club . . . Penn's 37.9 percent third-down conversion rate led the Ivy League last year, as did its 80 percent scoring success in the red zone.

Media voting with first-place votes in parentheses; records are 2009 overall, followed by Ivy League record:

1. Harvard (10) 128 points; 7-3, 6-1

2. Penn (6) 124; 8-2, 7-0

3. Brown 95; 6-4, 4-3

4. Yale (1) 83; 4-6, 2-5

5. Columbia 61; 4-6, 3-4

6. Princeton 55; 4-6, 3-4

7. Dartmouth 39; 2-8, 2-5,

8. Cornell 27; 2-8, 1-6

RECENT CHAMPIONS (Since Al Bagnoli became Penn's coach)

2009: Penn

2008: Brown, Harvard

2007: Harvard

2006: Princeton, Yale

2005: Brown

2004: Harvard

2003: Penn

2002: Penn

2001: Harvard

2000: Penn

1999: Brown, Yale

1998: Penn

1997: Harvard

1996: Dartmouth

1995: Princeton

1994: Penn

1993: Penn

1992: Dartmouth, Princeton