COLUMN: QB success in hands of receivers

Not to take anything away from Bolinder, but that's not how it was supposed to happen. Hoffman's two touchdown passes, to this point in the season, were supposed to be scripted for Doug O'Neill and Brandon Carson -- and there were supposed to be more of them. In this young 1999 football season, Hoffman has not met his high expectations with just one 200-yard passing game and four interceptions versus two touchdowns. But the Northwestern transfer was tagged with "savior" status at a time when everyone thought his arrival would be eased by the presence of an experienced receiving corps. Then again, any young quarterback is better when he walks onto a field and his top four receivers combined for 109 catches for 1,545 yards and 11 touchdowns last season. But Hoffman and the Quakers had a rude awakening. David Rogers took his 29 catches for 405 yards on a Mormon mission this season. Then Dave O'Neill's 10 catches for 165 yards were declared ineligible. Finally, Doug O'Neill's 42 catches for 506 yards found the infirmary when he tore a ligament in his knee. And to make matters worse, Carson has been banged up the first three weeks. "I don't know if it's been difficult, but it has been trying sometimes," Hoffman said. "When you get so many reps with Doug in the preseason, then you kind of have to start all over again with the other guys. Even if Doug was still here, it would still be something to work on, because they are different receivers than I am used to." Carson quickly became Hoffman's only wide receiver with significant experience. Left to pick up the slack were Jason Battung, Colin Smith and Rob Milanese. The 49-yard touchdown was Bolinder's only catch of the season; he is listed as a quarterback on the Quakers' roster. Battung is also a former quarterback, playing his first full season at wideout as a junior. And Milanese and Smith are both sophomores. They all may be very talented receivers, just as Hoffman may be a very talented signal caller. But between the four of them, there is a whole lot of inexperience. "I only had a couple of weeks here before the first game," Hoffman said. "There are different speeds out there and there are different ways to run routes. At Northwestern I spent the whole summer getting my timing down with receivers and when I came here I had two weeks to do the same thing. It is a process." Hoffman's job was made exponentially more difficult by having to learn the nuances of a new group of receivers while still finding a comfort zone in this offense. No matter how great the understanding for any system on paper, execution takes time. The same stigma was attached to the running back situation before Kris Ryan emerged as a dominant performer. Ryan is sophomore who is relatively inexperienced. However, the pieces are in place for his game to thrive, running behind senior lead blocker Brian Cosmello and a primarily veteran offensive line. "The pass game is always going to take a little longer than the run game," Penn offensive coordinator Chuck Priore said. "We have a kid step up at running back and we've had some decent performances on the offensive line overall. But we haven't had someone step up at wide receiver or at quarterback to this point." With inexperience comes mental errors. A strong receiving corps would have given Hoffman the time he needed to work through those mental errors and still produce good numbers. Bad reads by Hoffman might turn into catches with savvy wideouts. But now, if Hoffman makes a bad read and his receiver runs the wrong route, it will look like Hoffman threw a pass directly at the defensive backs. Hoffman's numbers aren't great. But they aren't bad either. "Hoffman's not getting any big plays -- partly because the line doesn't protect, partly because his receivers aren't running the right routes but partly because he isn't playing as well as he can either because he is still learning," Priore said. "He is a good player but he is only as good as everyone else around him is. "The problem that everybody has is that everybody says he is going to be a savior. But as soon as he and everyone around him realize he is just part of the team, the better off we'll be." It's real easy to blame the quarterback when the passing game is off. But as the receivers go, so goes this offense.

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