Billy Ragone building a new reputation through the air

In the span of a year, Penn football has seen a sea of changes.

A quarterback can begin one season at backup and start the next season as a first-team All-Ivy, undisputed starter. An offensive line can have five All-Ivy players one season then have just one remaining the next season. A team can have a record-breaking placekicker one season and then anxiously search for a replacement.

Of course, not all change is bad — it’s tough to find issue with Penn junior quarterback Billy Ragone maturing into a confident starter who wants to improve his team’s passing game.

After all, Ragone didn’t even start last season’s opener against Lafayette, though he took over for sophomore Ryan Becker and led the Quakers to a narrow victory. Down 14-6 at the half, Ragone led a 61-yard touchdown drive that culminated in a 5-yard floater to Matt Tuten in the corner of the endzone.

It was Ragone’s touchdown pass that turned the momentum in Penn’s favor. After Becker had been leading the pass game and Ragone had been adding up yards on the ground, Franklin Field saw a glimpse of confidence from — at that point — a very unexperienced Ragone.
In the 2011 campaign, however, plays like that may not be so surprising.

With full seasons under both quarterback’s belts, “You feel more confident about giving them chances to make plays above and beyond just making conservative calls,” said Penn play caller Jon McLaughlin, who is also the offensive line coach and offensive coordinator.

That confidence at quarterback translates into a more complex offense.

“I’m not really worried about where people are and reacting to the defense [anymore],” Ragone said.

He doesn’t have to worry about learning the offense or wonder if he’ll line up under center each week. Now he has to lead his front five — four of whom combine for just 13 games played in their entire collegiate careers — and instill in them faith and confidence.

“As quarterback you have to be confident in everyone, showing you have faith in them,” Ragone explained.

According to McLaughlin, once the coaches determine the offensive line’s strong points, “We can play to the strength of our personnel.
“Hopefully … we won’t have too big of a hiccup as we transition,” McLaughlin said.

When coupled with the new-look O-line, Ragone and the rest of the offense’s movement down the field may look much different than it did in 2010, when the Quakers established themselves as a smashmouth football team.

“To sit there and think that we can line up and run the ball 50 times a game … I think it’s unrealistic to go into the season believing we can do that,” McLaughlin said. “We’re going to be more perceptive in what we’re doing.”

As the offensive linemen settle into their new roles, opportunities will abound downfield for players like senior tight end Luke Nawrocki and sophomore wide receiver Ryan Mitchell.

Nawrocki has been “very underutilized,” McLaughlin said, and will play a more integral role in the pass game.

“The combination of Luke, his size and strength and speed,” Ragone said, “[can] create a lot of mistakes.”

Ragone also said Nawrocki creates positional mismatches — both against smaller players at safety (the tight end is 6-foot-3, 250 pounds) and slower players at linebacker.

Mitchell, who averaged 31.7 yards per catch off three passes last year, adds an explosive element to Penn’s maturing offense.

“The combination of my experience and [the receivers’] big-play potential — there’s going to be an increase in the amount of plays we can make down the field,” Ragone said.

If the gap between Penn’s pass attempts and its rush attempts decreases — last season the Quakers barely passed half as much as they ran — the two-time Ivy champs will add another change to the list.

But if one thing hasn’t changed, it’s the expectation for the season: championship.

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