Football is perfect

One of the most revealing moments of the 1993 football season came after it was all over. After the Quakers became the third Penn team this century to go undefeated and untied. After Penn became the seventh team in the history of the Ivy League to finish unbeaten and untied. After they had finished their last game as Quakers, senior co-captains Frank Caccuro and Dave Betten hoisted the Ivy League Championship football trophy overhead as coach Al Bagnoli uttered what many may have wondered all season – "Who would have thought?" he joked. Even when he joked, he was precise. As precise as his perfect team. Because who would have thought that this season's Quakers would take 10 small steps towards a very large place in history? "No one in preseason thinks in those terms [of being 10-0] because there are so many variables between when you start and when you end," Bagnoli said. "We thought we could be OK but we also knew we had six or seven sophomores and how they went early was going to determine where we'd be in the big picture." To fully appreciate the Quakers' standing in the annals of Penn football, a quick review session is in order. Just two seasons ago, in the seniors' first year of varsity play, Penn went 2-8 in the final season of Gary Steele's 9-21 tenure as coach. Last year, in the inaugural season of the Bagnoli era, the Quakers went 7-3 (5-2 Ivy League). But Penn entered this season's campaign with a squad that was largely untested in many key areas. Six starters returned from its powerful defense, yet the secondary was largely depleted. On the other side of the ball, a young offensive line carried a large burden and the entire offense only had two players that started in the previous year's season opener. But as improbable as Penn's place in history may seem, to many players it was quite plausible. "I look at each season as an individual season," senior quarterback Jim McGeehan said. "I look at what we have as a team and what needs to be done as a team. I looked at the roster [at the beginning of the season] and I was confident. I knew we would be good." Even if McGeehan hadn't known it then, he knew it after the Quakers knocked off three-time defending co-champion Dartmouth 10-6 in the season opener on a damp Franklin Field. "We needed that to establish our confidence," McGeehan said. "We beat the best team at the time and we beat them soundly. That established the confidence to carry the season." But even confident teams can have lapses as Penn had to trudge through three non-conference games before facing its next Ivy League opponent. "[Dartmouth] was a pretty big victory," junior running back Terrance Stokes said. "[But] there wasn't too much momentum going into the season after that. [Playing the non-conference games] was more tough mentally than anything else. Being that there's no postseason we really play for the Ivy League championship. Having those three in the middle was kind of boring to say the least." But the Quakers found a way to make what might have been a dull contest into a thrilling comeback against Fordham on October 2. After the Rams scored 24 unanswered points to take a 24-7 second-quarter lead, Penn scrambled back for a 34-30 win amidst three lost Quaker fumbles, almost 100 yards in penalties and four missed field goals. "The Fordham game set the tone for the season," Stokes said. "We had to come back and we showed the character of this team. That was a sign that we could come back from being behind." That was also a sign of future success. "A lot of successful teams have the same basic characteristics," Bagnoli said. "They're physically tough. They're mentally tough kids and they are disciplined. They play hard for the full 60 minutes. That's a key characteristic of this team. Our kids will play you hard for 60 minutes whether they're up or down." The Quakers were mostly up as they cruised through their next four games outscoring Colgate, Columbia, Brown and Yale by a total of 148-35 – setting up a showdown of the undefeateds with 7-0 Princeton for Homecoming Weekend on November 6. In front of a Franklin Field crowd of 35,810, Penn made Princeton look almost as if it were 0-7 as Tiger quarterback Joel Foote botched the snap from center four times – three of which were recovered by the Quakers. All-American Tiger running back Keith Elias never got moving as the Penn defense held him to a paltry 59 yards on 15 carries. That day belonged to Stokes, whose 272-yard performance (one touchdown) on 42 carries eclipsed the Penn single-game rushing record by 23 yards. After the 30-14 victory, Penn fans brought the Franklin Field west goalposts down and the Quakers only had two games standing in their way of a perfect season. But one of those games was against Harvard, where the Harvard Hex had prevented the Quakers from winning in Cambridge for the last 20 years. Down 20-10 at halftime, Penn did not lose its composure as it came back for 17 unanswered points in the third quarter for a 27-20 victory. The Quaker defense kept the offense in the game as it caused and recovered a fumble and had two key interceptions towards the end of the contest. Comebacks became a bit of an end-of-season trademark for the Quakers, but Penn always managed to keep its ultimate focus. "We never were pessimists about anything," sophomore wide receiver Miles Macik said. "We weren't really getting down on ourselves. We were floating on a high all year." In the season-ending 100th anniversary game against Cornell, Penn was down 14-0 at halftime but once again it was a surmountable deficit. "We never panicked," McGeehan said. "Each halftime was no different than the week before. Halftime at Brown was no different than at Cornell. We just knew it was a matter of time before someone would step up." Against the Big Red, junior free safety Nick Morris stepped up with a crucial third-quarter interception to set up Penn's first touchdown. Macik tied the game with a 17-yard touchdown pass from McGeehan and senior kicker Marc Horowitz put the game-winning score through the uprights to complete the perfect season. And no matter who would have thought that the Quakers would be perfect this season, most agree that the achievement hasn't sunk in yet. "They won't even appreciate what they have accomplished probably for another three or four more years," Bagnoli said. "When they leave this environment and look back on it start picking up some of the programs and history books and just see how few of these there really are." Maybe then those associated with this perfect Quaker team will be finished pondering "Who would have thought?"

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.