Penn football Alumni Q&A | All-Ivy punter Scott Lopano

For our story on Penn’s special teams unit, former All-Ivy punter Scott Lopano spoke about his experience as a member of the ‘Gold Squad.’ Here are some excerpts from his interview as he talks about how he came to Penn, his experience playing for Al Bagnoli and the friendships he built within Penn special teams.

On what it was like getting playing time his freshman year

“For me, one of the things that played a factor was that I played high school football at a pretty serious Texas high school. Even coach Bagnoli told me when he recruited me that one of the reasons he thought I’d be a good choice for someone to bring in is that he figured I would be competing for the starting spot and I came from a school that had 12-15,000 fans at home games and 50,000 fans at Texas Stadium for playoff games so on average it was competitive to Penn, if not more sometimes.

It’s something that I think I was well prepared coming in to play in terms of pressure and all that. Obviously the level of play is much higher and it meant a lot more to me to be a trusted contributor to the team my freshman year because with all the seniors, you look up to them, and the last thing you want to do is let them down.

As far as being one of the few that played, it is an interesting dynamic because one, being on special teams, you tend to hang out obviously with the kickers and punters the most and when you are a freshman looking to make friends and find a spot to fit in, I found myself torn between hanging out with the people that played the same position as me, and trying to make friends with them, and trying to make friends with freshmen when they were all on different schedules than I was since I was traveling and starting and doing different lifts than most of the freshmen so it made for an interesting dynamic and not the easiest way to make friends, but it definitely didn’t affect me in any kind of negative way.

If anything, it was a really great welcoming experience. I was certainly fortunate to have that kind of opportunity. I think a lot of kids that struggle their freshman year in any athletic system or at Penn at all because they go from being superstars or things like that, having a lot of opportunities in high school, to being lowest on the totem pole when you get to college.

On his practice routine while at Penn

“The toughest thing is managing your kicks because certainly it is tempting to spend all three hours involved but you know you can tire your leg out and not be as useful come game time on Saturday so it is one of those things that you have to have a lot of discipline and a lot of focus in practice to coach yourself and drive yourself forward with drills.

On how Penn manages special teams

“With every team across the league, the answer would be very different. Some teams have dedicated special teams coaches, some don’t. Ours were sort of split up in the sense that coach Bagnoli would tend to coach more kickers, coach Priore would coach the punters … so each coach took a hand in special teams. 

But as much as coach Bagnoli has a lot of experience, he is a head coach number one, and then a kicking coach maybe number seven. It is not necessarily something he was trained in and moreover, he was doing other things. Most of how we got better, how we bounced ideas off each other and how we corrected things, was with each other. 

Realistically, when you are a kicker or a punter, you know a lot about your art. You break everything down. You have your drills. You work with ex-NFL kickers and punters that coach you on the side and you take those lessons and you take those drills and share it with the other kickers on the team.

On how he got into special teams

“I grew up playing soccer and when I was in middle school, it was one of those moments where I was a wide receiver on the [football] team and I hadn’t even thought about kicking and [the coaches] were like, ‘Anybody want to try kickoffs?’ and everyone kind of looked around and then a couple of people looked at me because they were like, ‘Don’t you play soccer?’ I was like, ‘I guess I’ll give it a shot,’ and I was the only one to try out and I kicked the ball 40-50 yards and that was the tryout.

“I all of a sudden realized I had a natural knack for it and was not quite as good athletically at being a wide receiver so I started gravitating towards what I was really good at. From there, I had the chance to be varsity kicker my sophomore year and I got beat out by Cade Foster, who kicked for Alabama for four years and was in the spotlight for good and bad reasons but was a really great guy, but I got beat out by him and ended up being the backup kicker for two years and kind of having to figure out where I was going to make my name. It turned out the end of my junior year, our punter graduated and there was kind of an open spot to compete.

On the friendships he built within the ‘Gold Squad’

“By nature of spending a lot of time with each other if nothing else, you make friends but it turns out you also share a lot in common. Connor Loftus as an example. He came up for a Giants game and one of friends from high school plays for the Cardinals and the Cardinals were playing the Giants, point being he stayed at my apartment. We’re very close. He’s one of my best friends and we spent a few years together almost constantly because we roomed together on away trips. 

You are on the field together all the time, so it is a very close bond. You’ve got to stick together with your boys because punters and kickers tend to be, I don’t want to say outcasts, but we’re different from the other players in a lot of ways and the other players make you know it.

On Playing for Al Bagnoli

“It was a really incredibly experience. I think it is one of those things where I’m sure if you ask a lot of the players, they will say he is a demanding coach, I suppose, in the best possible way. He’s not going to coddle you. Coming in as a fragile freshman and having someone that demands and expects a lot out of you makes you expect a lot out of yourself and instead of looking for reasons to have excuses, it was more like you were striving to be the best you could be.

And that was what he expected of you and only because he knew you had that potential. I think that he drives that in a lot of different players and honestly, I think it has a lot to do with his success over the years. I have talked to a lot of players and I think they would agree with me that he was probably the number one most influential person in terms of helping you become a more mature person through the four years of college, in terms of being confident in yourself, having and understanding the way the world works to some extent.

Sometimes you come out of these bubbles in high school and you need someone who is going to be there, to some extent, as a mentor but not as a motherly figure and instead someone that will whip you into shape and that is where Bagnoli comes in. He’s not going to coddle you but you are going to be much much better for it at the end of the four years. I honestly look back very fondly on that experience.

Four years, I owe a lot to him. He recruited me, took a chance on me and he gave me an honest to god shot to start as a freshman. A lot of coaches wouldn’t have done that. A lot of coaches would have said, “Come on in. You have a chance to start as a freshman. Don’t worry, you’ll be our starter” and then they go and screw you over or something like that. He honestly was pretty straightforward from the very beginning so if anyone I have to thank for those four years, it’s Al Bagnoli.

On following the team post-graduation

I keep in touch with a lot of the players I was close with like Connor Loftus, those kinds of guys. Feerooz Yacoobi was here over the summer and was a couple blocks away. We had friends over for dinner every Sunday and he was one of them. I definitely keep in touch with some of the guys that I was close with and from a distance, keep an eye on them.

I remember the Harvard game last season they were down 30-something points and just started coming back second half. I was playing a flag football game and I was walking back. I was talking to my dad and he was like, “Yeah, they’re getting beat up on,” and I hung up and called my buddy that went to Penn with me – Dave Twamley – and he said, “Dude, they’re not getting beat up on. You’ve got to watch this.” So I jumped into a bar and had them turn on the game. 

Of course, I say, “Turn on the Penn game,” and they say they already have the Penn State game on and I’m like, “No, no, no. UPenn.” So they turn that on and I end up sitting in the bar, not even close to my house but just sitting there and grabbed a burger and I’m the only UPenn fan in the bar. It is one of those things where a year and a half or twenty years out, if I turn on my TV and I see the Red and Blue, there’s always going to be a little special twinge in the heart. I’m always rooting for them.

On coach Priore as the next head coach

I think coach Priore is a great coach. A very passionate coach. I think he is going to make an awesome head coach. I’ve had this discussion with quite a few players and we all agree that we’re excited to see the Priore era, I suppose. But as a punting coach, he was the yin to the Bagnoli yang, where when Bagnoli was tearing into me and everything else, Priore was little bit more like ‘Don’t worry about it’ attitude. Having the two of them, with Bagnoli being the more general special teams coach and Priore be more of the punting coach, having both of them oversee me was a nice mix.

As far as being a head coach, I don’t know many coaches in high school or college that are as passionate about the game as coach Priore is. Pregame, he’s got his headphones in, going crazy. He’s one of the guys you always enjoy being around pregame because he gets you so excited to play. I think that’s going to carry over with the players so I’m excited to see what his tenure brings for Penn football.

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