O-line opens doors for Penn rush

For the Penn offense, it all starts up front.

The Quakers, who boast the Ivy League’s second-best rushing offense, credit their offensive linemen for this season’s domination of the ground game.

“If they can get a push, it’ll open up the running game, which in turn will open up the passing game,” sophomore running back Brandon Colavita said. “So it all starts with them.”

Unlike much of the offense, which is led by underclassmen like Colavita and sophomore quarterback Billy Ragone, the offensive line is comprised of a group of accomplished veterans.

Four of the Red and Blue’s five starting linemen are seniors, and Greg Van Roten, Luis Ruffolo and center Joe D’Orazio earned All-Ivy honors last season.

“We’re just so used to playing with each other to the point where we don’t really need to make a lot of calls or do a lot of scheming,” senior lineman Jared Mollenbeck said. “We just know what everybody else is doing.”

That experience is the key ingredient to Penn’s success with the running game.

In the season opener against Lafayette, second team All-Ivy running back Lyle Marsh went down for the season, and the Quakers’ smashmouth offense appeared to be in danger.

But in that same contest, Colavita emerged as a powerful weapon — and he hasn’t looked back since.

He rushed for 65 yards that night and continues to average 66.6 yards per game.

“We found out that Brandon had something special in him,” offensive coordinator Jon McLaughlin said. “We went into that game thinking he was just going to be kind of a short-yardage back.”

But Colavita is quick to admit he’s no one-man show.

“The offense revolves around the [offensive line],” he said.

While the line has surely done their job — they have only allowed four sacks in seven games, the lowest in the League — the five men up front are not the only Quakers that know how to block.

“That’s the impressive part,” Mollenbeck said. “Everybody on the team this year blocks. We have the most physical receivers in the league.”

And on a team that rarely relies on gaining yards through the air, receivers like Matt Tuten and David Wurst still play a huge role in moving the ball.

“Those guys take it in stride,” Mollenbeck said. “They’re all running people downfield and blocking — like they’re offensive linemen, not receivers.”

McLaughlin credits the Red and Blue’s ability to block up and down the field to the maturity of his tight ends and fullbacks like seniors Luke DeLuca and Ryan Murray.

And when Marsh went down, the holes opened up for Ragone. Penn began to utilize Ragone’s strengths on the ground — so much so that he is the league’s sixth-best rusher and a major offensive threat.

While the trio of Colavita, Ragone and sophomore Jeff Jack takes care of the bulk of the yardage, DeLuca, a fullback, has become the go-to guy on the one-yard line.

He has run the ball into the endzone three times this season — all from just a yard out.

“It’s a great option to be able to just turn around and hand the ball to him and let him get a yard,” McLaughlin said.

For the Quakers, their only offensive weakness is quarterback youth. But McLaughlin isn’t worried.

“As these players develop and get more chemistry and get on the same page, then our play-action pass game … will open up,” he said.

In the meantime, the Quakers are sticking to smash-mouth football.

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