Steele | Penn football transitioning to success

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Entering its season opener on Sept. 20, I believed Penn football was going to be crowned Ivy League champions at the end of 2014.

After one game — a loss, no less — I’m even more convinced.

I will be the first person to admit that I am an optimist in this case. Regardless, my conviction in this year’s Quakers is more the result of senior wide receiver Spencer Kulcsar than anything or anyone else.

The second-leading rusher on last year’s squad, Kulcsar spent the summer making the switch from running back to wide receiver. After spending most of his high school career in the slot, there was no doubt among the coaching staff that moving Kulcsar out wide was the right move.

As a result, heading into the Red and Blue’s game with Jacksonville, Kulcsar was a player in transition. But he wasn’t the only one.

After playing on the Quakers’ defensive line last season, junior Tanner Thexton has switched sides of the ball. Now starting at left tackle, Thexton performed well on Saturday, helping anchor an offensive line that consistently pushed the running game forward while allowing only one sack.

Quarterback Alek Torgersen is the team’s most obvious candidate for the player undergoing the biggest transition. Tasked with taking over for three-time Ivy champion Billy Ragone, Torgersen also was forced to learn an entirely new up-tempo, fast-paced and pro-style offense from scratch.

But the California kid held his own against the Dolphins. Though he completed only 42 percent of his passes, the sophomore made only one truly bad decision — his interception early in the fourth quarter, as Penn was driving to put the game out of reach, came when he stared down his receiver — and utilized his legs to help spark Penn’s offense early.

Then there was Kulcsar. The stat sheet may only show three catches to the Haworth, N.J., native’s name, but the veteran did not disappoint. He reeled off a 58-yard catch-and-run in the first half to set up a field goal before notching a 26-yarder on Penn’s second touchdown drive in the third quarter.

Put it all together, and Kulcsar became the first Red and Blue player to have 100 receiving yards in a game since Ryan Mitchell did it against Dartmouth last October.

“I think a lot of guys are fitting into their new roles — you have Tanner Thexton, Alek starting at quarterback, plus Connor [Scott] and Lyle [Marsh] coming back,” Kulcsar said. “And with so many parts, I think everyone did a great job with what they were asked to do.”

He isn’t wrong. This is a team with players and units still adapting to their new roles, and they looked like it at times on Saturday.

But the Quakers also looked like a team with an enormously high ceiling, one that could use these meaningless nonconference games to iron out the kinks before kicking off Ivy play on Oct. 4 against Dartmouth.

When the Red and Blue fall to 0-2 after next weekend’s game against Villanova, there will be anxiety among the squad’s supporters. People will claim 2014 is a lost cause for the Quakers, that there’s no hope for a team that will have lost six straight games dating back to last November.

Ignore all of that. Because those people said the same thing in 2012 after Ragone threw five interceptions in the opener against Lafayette and the team dropped its first two contests. That team was also coming off a subpar finish in the Ivy League the season before.

Two years ago, a 6-4 team winning the Ancient Eight title seemed like a far-fetched fantasy. Yet it happened.

After seeing flashes of brilliance from this team in transition on Saturday, it’s clear that two years later, it could very well happen again.

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