Defending their (Rarefied) Turf

Top Guns: Harvard's Murphy and Penn's Bagnoli







As some other writers have pointed out, the Ivy Media Day teleconference is annoying in some ways. The lack of one-on-one interaction means we all have to listen to platitudes like “we’re improving,” and “we have a great bunch of kids.”

For the record, I though Columbia Head Coach Norries Wilson was way above average yesterday when it comes to being candid. He said the kicking game last year was, flat out, “bad.” He said the team can’t possibly replace Lou Miller with one single player carrying the pass rushing load. He admitted that the team needs to replace the “fear factor” that Austin Knowlin brought to opposing defenses.

But some messages from the other coaches came through pretty clearly during the event and they were important... even if the coaches saying them used messages that required us to read between the lines.

Let me focus on the coaches of the two teams everyone thinks will be heads and shoulders above the rest, (except for the MANIAC who picked Yale to win the title. I don't know who that was, but I want some of what he's drinking).

Harvard’s Tim Murphy and Penn’s Al Bagnoli both expect to win the title. But they downplayed their apparent weaknesses in different ways.

Murphy admitted that he only has one returning starting offensive linemen, but insisted his new starting left tackle Kevin Murphy is the greatest thing since sliced bread, (are you listening Jeff Adams?). He also ticked off the names of a bunch of up and coming defensive stars that sounded impressive. He admitted that switching QB’s from Collier Winters to Andrew Hatch would be a challenge to team morale IF it happens, but insisted the players would rally around whoever brings the team victories.

Bagnoli admitted the Quakers will most likely not be as dominant defensively as they were in 2009. He said he hopes the offense will pick up the slack, with all the returning O-line and running backs like Lyle Marsh and Mike DiMaggio in the fold. He made a much less convincing argument for the Penn passing game, saying the reason the Quakers had no vertical attack last season was because so many different guys were playing QB at different times. (Hmm… that didn’t stop Columbia from airing it out despite the fact that the Lions had three different QB’s throwing at different times in the season, and TWO of those three were running QB’s).

Here’s what I think:

Harvard will be good. I did indeed vote in the media poll and Harvard was my pick to win the championship. My vote was mostly based on Treavor Scales, (who will have an even bigger year this season for the Crimson), and a receiving corps that’s very deep and talented.

But I don’t think the O-line will be the best in the league no matter how good this Kevin Murphy is. And that’s why we’ll probably see both Hatch and Winters at QB this season as they figure to get jostled a bit more than Winters was last year.

Either way, if and when Hatch starts a game there may be Hell to pay emotionally sometime AFTER the game is over. But Coach Murphy is correct that the price will be a lot smaller if the Crimson win that game.

Bagnoli’s kidding himself if he thinks we’re going to buy the argument that the Quakers will air the ball out a lot this year. Why bother? The O-line is great and everyone in the Penn backfield can run pretty well. But I think the dropoff for Penn’s defense will be more pronounced than Bagnoli or a lot of others think. There’s not a team in the Ivies that wouldn’t want to get into a shootout with the Quakers this year as opposed to a slow, smash mouth game that Penn can control in the trenches.


Campbell Center Update… Sort of

Today’s New York Times article on the progress for the Campbell Sports Center contains some annoying quotes, including one from a former Verizon employee who also showed up and was quoted in a New York 1 TV report about the project five months ago. Hmm...

I won’t bother to rehash the arguments I made about supposed “community opposition” to this project back in March. They still stand and I still think the “opposition” is suspect to say the least.

But I am more encouraged by the fact that it seems less and less likely that anything is going to derail this project, which is sorely needed. The Chrystie Field House just isn’t cutting it anymore on its own.


Sign up for Big Green Alert!

Here’s a pitch for my friend Bruce Wood’s excellent work covering Dartmouth and Ivy football on his Big Green Alert site. You can get some great free content on his Big Green Alert Blog, but let me make a case for paying the small fee and getting the premium package.

Bruce’s excellent previews of each Ivy team begin tonight, so don’t wait!