Penn offensive line dishes on football, food

Two weeks ago, when the Penn football team found itself down four points to Dartmouth with barely four minutes to go, the Quakers were in a tough spot.

If they could not execute a successful crunch-time drive, they would suffer their first Ivy League loss in 16 games and fall into an early 0-1 hole. The offense — or more specifically, the offensive line — would be responsible for either victory or failure.

In his first Ivy start, sophomore left tackle Jake Schwertner had just left the game with an ankle injury, leaving classmate Steve Szostak to see his first game action when it mattered most.

With less than a minute on the clock and the Quakers in the red zone, Szostak got beat by his tackler and hung on as the tackler moved ahead.

Szostak was called for holding.

“I felt like an idiot,” Szostak said. “I came in four plays and I blew it.”

The penalty was a questionable call because, according to Szostak, the ball had already left junior quarterback Billy Ragone’s hands. Szostak didn’t think he would be whistled for anything.

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Like any teammates should — especially when those teammates work together as a cohesive unit — Szostak’s offensive line backed him up.

“It’s not holding unless they call it,” junior right tackle Joe Bonadies said.

“Every play, you hold something,” another lineman added.

“You talk to anybody, there’s holding on every play,” captain and left tackle Greg Van Roten said. “Whether or not it’s blatant.”

It makes perfect sense though, that the offensive linemen support each other, given that less than a month ago, most of them had never played in a varsity game.

“Everyone says it’s new, but most of us have played together for a couple years — it’s just we didn’t have game experience,” senior Alec Smith said.

Schwertner and fellow sophomore, center Chris Bush, played together last season in JV action. The entire “new” line played together in spring ball and much of summer as well.

Schwertner, Szostak and Bush, as well as sophomore Sean McGinn, all live together off-campus, which has made for some bonding at the unique position.

“You have to have a different mentality to play our position, I think,” Smith said.

From an outside point of view, junior wide receiver Tommy Eggleston summarized the lineman’s paradox well.

“If you do well, you don’t get the credit,” he said, “and if you do poorly, you get all the blame.”

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Attitude isn’t the only difference between the offensive line and the so-called skill positions. The prospect of joining the boys up front comes along with the perception of eating more than the rest of the team.

Over dinner at Baby Blue’s BBQ, Smith detailed a typical away weekend food regimen. The trip begins with 9 a.m. chicken parmesan for the bus ride, and continues with steak, chicken, potatoes, pasta and an ice cream bar after Friday night dinner. A snack of meatballs, breadsticks and salad awaits the team after night meetings.

Saturday morning they wake up for a breakfast buffet — Smith and Schwertner even sneak extra bacon back to their rooms. Then they eat exactly four hours before kickoff. The halftime snack is a Promax bar, and another snack of penne vodka and chicken parmesan awaits them at the buses after the game.

But the best part, Smith said, is Ragone’s mother’s “delicious” dark chocolate with white chocolate chip cookies.

“[Billy] has to show love to the o-line,” Bonadies joked.

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Offensive line coach Jon McLaughlin’s boys also grapple with the notion that they should weigh over 300 pounds.

Compared to other offensive lines in college football, Penn’s is a small one. Aside from Smith, none are listed at over 300 pounds, and Bush, who replaced All-Ivy Joe D’Orazio, is listed at just 260 pounds.

Why aren’t these linemen bigger? Because they are “fast,” and they are “athletes.”

According to junior lineman Dan Saris, “Coach [McLaughlin] recruits smaller guys that are more athletic.”

While the season is a time for weight maintenance — which includes late-night snacks and orders of the Memphis Queen, Mason Dixon and Hickory Burger at Baby Blue’s mid-week — weights fluctuate throughout the offseason.

In the past, graduating seniors have participated in weight-loss challenges, while freshman linemen have tried to gain weight as McLaughlin lost it.

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As the football season opens up, the focus shifts from gaining weight to protecting their quarterback Ragone in game situations.

After the disappointing loss to Lafayette in week one, for which Van Roten described their attitude as “overconfident,” the captain recalled that they needed some internal motivation.

Van Roten said his coaches asked the team, “What are you playing for? Who do you want to be?”

It’s fairly certain that this offensive line, and this team, wants to be three-time Ivy champions.

But for seniors like Smith and Van Roten, it’s more.

“As seniors, this is our team,” Smith said. “I feel like if I lose this year, everything else is going to be a waste. Those two rings will be lessened because I didn’t win my senior year. If I can go out on top for my football career, [I] won’t have any regrets looking back.”

With a 16-game Ivy win streak on the line and only conference games to look forward to, there’s no looking back.

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