The Ivy League opener for Dartmouth football looms on the morrow, and a sense of dread already hangs over it from the point of view of the Big Green fandom. After last weekend's heart-breaking loss to New Hampshire, the cries of divine injustice have begun to ring in the skies over Memorial Stadium.
Enter the University of Pennsylvania Quakers. Placed just outside The Associated Press Top 25 in division I-AA, Penn dispatched their season opener, Lafayette, 37-0. The domination that Penn showed was so complete that the Leopards were outgained by a margin of almost three-to-one.
A further look at Penn's offense shows a lot of weapons, and no shortage of veteran leadership. With nine seniors and two juniors, no one can expect the young mistakes that plagued Dartmouth's defense in the first half against the Wildcats.
Penn is led on offense by senior quarterback Gavin Hoffman, who is the returning Ivy League MVP and an honorable mention All-American. Hoffman passed for over 3,200 yards in 10 games last season and tossed 24 touchdowns against only 14 interceptions.
Hoffman is already number seven all-time in Ivy League passing yards, despite playing for Northwestern his freshman season. Had his freshman numbers been for Penn, Hoffman would be a mere 1,315 yards behind the league's all-time leader, James Perry of Brown.
When Hoffman is launching the football, his favorite target is senior Rob Milanese. At 5'10" and 175 lbs., Milanese isn't big, but he has sure hands and is hard to bring down.
Milanese hauled in 76 of Hoffman's 272 completions last year and ran them for 936 yards and six scores. With 41 receptions in 1999, Milanese currently ranks fourth all-time at Penn for receptions and is already third in receiving yards.
The little flanker picked up another 100 yards last week on nine grabs and a touchdown.
When Hoffman's arm isn't being utilized by Head Coach Al Bagnoli's offense, the Quakers are far from out of options. They can ride on the back and legs of two-time All-Ivy tailback Kris Ryan.
Ryan, in returning from an injury that kept him out much of last season, still ran off 151 yards on 24 carries against Lafayette. And he wasn't even back in prime form.
"[Ryan] played well, but he is still a little rusty it took a little while to get his vision and everything else back, but when the smoke cleared, he played well," said Bagnoli of his back's first game.
Ryan hopes to return to his 1999 form when he ran for nearly 1,200 yards on only 214 carries, averaging 5.6 yards per carry and scoring 10 touchdowns. Ryan brings a great deal of balance to Penn's offense and makes it very difficult to contend with.
Penn's defense lacks the same star power that their offense has, but is still very experienced with eight seniors and three juniors. The Quakers do have to replace Joey Alofaituli and Hasani White, both All-Ivy players from the secondary.
What all of this means is that the Big Green will have their work cut out for them. With three defensive starters still on the shelf with injuries, Dartmouth will be hard pressed to contain Ryan on the ground, especially now that he has his legs back under him.
After his young defense had some problems with UNH before rebounding in the second half, Coach John Lyons has some worries about the Quakers.
"They keep you off balance with what they are doing as they have some very skilled people in Hoffman, Ryan and Milanese. It's just a different set of problems [compared to UNH]," said Lyons.
With a pair of slightly more inexperienced players in the secondary, Dartmouth's offense might be able to exploit the Quakers much as they did the Wildcats. After his record breaking performance against UNH, Greg Smith '02 will be given the ball quite often and asked to pick apart Penn's defense.
Look for Dartmouth to throw the ball a lot, as the Quakers have a very strong front seven anchored by preseason All-American John Galan at defensive tackle. Michael Gratch '02 will not see as easy a time running for triple-digit yardage as he did against the Wildcats, but he may be called on more in order to keep Bagnoli's defense honest.
Dartmouth will need all of its heart this weekend if it hopes to upset the Quakers. Penn, the preseason favorite to win the Ivy League title, is experienced, healthy and boasts one of the nation's top offenses, while Dartmouth's defense is young and coming off a game in which they allowed a school record 642 total yards.
Dartmouth can still win this football game, without question. After last weekend's heroic comeback, few coaches anywhere will doubt that.
The trick this week will be to keep the offense rolling against a team that has contained Dartmouth in recent memory, not allowing 30 or more points to the Big Green since 1981. If the Big Green and Smith can start moving the ball and putting up points, the Quakers will be in for a long shootout which promises to excite even the most pessimistic of fans.
