Football Notebook | Aching Irvin not done yet

Keiffer Garton may have arrived, but Robert Irvin is going nowhere.

The senior has been plagued by a sore shoulder and a groin injury he picked up against Brown. But he's taking on a light workload in practice this week in the hopes of playing Saturday against Harvard.

"I'm feeling better. I think they're just taking it easy because I've been rehabbing [the shoulder] for like a week," he said. "I don't want to go into it on Tuesday and throw my arm out and then not be able to do anything on Saturday."

Coach Al Bagnoli hinted that there could be a role in Saturday's offense for a healthy Irvin.

"A lot of it's going to have to do with his condition," he said. "We won't know until Saturday, and we'll make a decision at that time."

One more year. The emergence of two younger quarterbacks has done nothing to whet Irvin's desire to play a fifth year. He said yesterday he would only turn one down if he thought his body couldn't take the abuse.

He became eligible for it after spending most of last year recovering from shoulder surgery.

"If I'm healthy, I definitely would," he said. "I think it's one of those things that if you looked back on it, you'd definitely regret not doing it."

Taking off the Band-Aids. Irvin is one in a long list of dinged-up players Bagnoli hopes to have back in three days.

Luis Ruffolo, Joe Rost and David Wurst worked out sparingly yesterday and will double their workloads today. (Bagnoli likes to slowly build up players who are recovering from what he called "leg trauma.") The coach was optimistic, but couldn't confirm their availability for the Harvard game.

Tyson Maugle is still a possibility; he will practice with his broken finger on Thursday for the first time all week.

Mike DiMaggio practiced normally after suffering a scary-looking twisted neck when a Princeton player yanked his face mask.

Mr. Popular. Bagnoli did not watch Yale's 13-3 win over Brown last week, which opened the door for his team to win the Ivy crown. But he found out about the result soon enough.

"Between my kids, my coaches and some alums . I must have had about 25 messages."

He said the spoiler, Yale coach Jack Siedlecki, can expect a thank-you message, although he hadn't sent it as of 6 p.m. last night.

NOTES: Kyle Olson underwent successful surgery last week for the torn knee ligament he sustained against Brown. . Garton and safety Britton Ertman took Ivy League Offensive and Defensive Player of the Week, respectively. . The Friday night game prompted a rare Sunday night workout for the Quakers, who have since returned to a normal practice schedule.

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