Quakers QBs prepared for Lafayette

With the start of the football season just around the corner, one pressing question still remains unanswered: Who will be the team’s starting quarterback?

After a series of injuries, senior Keiffer Garton has been cleared to play in the Quakers’ home and season opener against Lafayette tomorrow at Franklin Field. But whether or not he will be behind center is still unclear.

“We’re just trying to be real slow with him,” coach Al Bagnoli said. “We’ve had a long time to prep for Lafayette, so we don’t want to push the envelope.”

In fact, it was in last season’s matchup against Lafayette — a rain-soaked overtime win for the Leopards — where then-senior Kyle Olson was called upon to replace the Garton, who was sidelined with an elbow injury.

“We had to put our second quarterback in without too much practice time, kind of unexpectedly,” Bagnoli said. “Then we battled weather on top of everything else.”

Bagnoli is not about to make the same mistake twice. With two weeks of preparation coming to a close, the Quakers have made sure to give underclassman quarterbacks Billy Ragone and Ryan Becker plenty of reps this week.

“After what happened to us last year, we’re trying to get a lot of quarterbacks ready,” Bagnoli said.

The Leopards enter with some quarterback confusion of their own, after starting QB Ryan O’Neil suffered a leg injury in last week’s down-to-the-wire 28-24 loss to Georgetown.

The past two seasons, the Quakers have opened up with Villanova and have endured their fair share of physicality. The matchup with Lafayette has been historically tight.

Last year, for example, the Quakers lost 20-17 after the game went into overtime. Following a missed 42-yard field goal attempt by Penn’s Andrew Samson — usually a model of reliability — the Leopard’s Davis Rodriguez sent one through the uprights to win the game.

“You gotta have the upmost confidence in your kicker to even attempt those things — and I’ve got so much confidence in him, sometimes it’s not fair,” Bagnoli said.

Although he missed two field goals in last year’s game against Lafayette, Samson has been extremely dependable for Penn in his four years and is on track to break several records — including the school and Ivy League scoring — this season.

“The outcome wasn’t how I wanted it to be,” Samson said. “But if we’re in that situation again, I’ll definitely be ready and have the experience of that in that type of situation, and so I’ll be ready to go.”

Although Samson will be prepared for the game to be a close one, he and the rest of the Quakers are looking to put last year’s loss behind them.

“The message the players and coaches have been trying to get across is that last year is last year and what happened last year doesn’t have any bearing on this year,” said Bradford Blackmon, who will be playing on both sides of the ball this season.

“It’s a whole new year, so everyone is approaching it with that mentality moving forward.”

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