Al Bagnoli

ESPN's television cameras have been all over Penn's campus this week. They are trailing the Quakers' football team for an episode of the The Season, a show that chronicles a different college football team each week. The Penn segment is scheduled to be shown next Thursday. "We're delighted they chose us," Penn coach Al Bagnoli said yesterday. "It's been a very interesting, very enjoyable - so far - and very unique experience for the kids and I. " Bagnoli thinks the positive distraction, as he refers to it, may have come at a good time, three weeks after the suicide of running back Kyle Ambrogi.

When they arrived on the Penn campus as freshmen in 2004, they figured on adding to the history of success enjoyed by Quakers football under coach Al Bagnoli. Now seniors, these 20 players are trying to avoid making history of a more dubious nature, becoming the first class to not win an Ivy League championship ring. The Quakers have won or shared six Ivy titles since Bagnoli took control in 1992, the last one in 2003. The three-year drought without a crown matches the longest of the Bagnoli era, along with the dry spell of 1995-97.

The demand to see Al Bagnoli when he returns to his hometown of New Haven, Conn., is still heavy, even if Bagnoli is spending his 11th season as the head football coach at Penn. Bagnoli estimates he'll have at least 75 friends and family members at the Yale Bowl today when the Quakers, seeking to remain unbeaten in the Ivy League, take on the Bulldogs. If only Bagnoli's cheering section could turn around the Quakers' fortunes at Yale. Penn (4-1 overall, 2-0 Ivy) has lost its last two games at the Yale Bowl.

Al Bagnoli has spent the better part of this week worried less about X's and O's and more about helping everyone keep perspective. The reality is this: The Quakers have no shot at an Ivy League title. That motivation is missing today as Penn (5-3 overall, 3-2 Ivy League) takes on Harvard at Harvard Stadium in its final road game of the season. And what's worse for Bagnoli's players and Quakers alumni, it was Princeton that knocked Penn out of Ivy title contention, with a 22-9 victory last week.

Now that he has a year under his belt as Penn's head football coach, now that his players know his routine, now that he has familiarized himself with the rest of the Ivy League, Al Bagnoli can make the Quakers serious Ivy contenders. Maybe, but that familiarity stuff works both ways. Bagnoli came to Penn last year as an unknown quantity. He ended the season as the Ivy League's unofficial coach of the year, leading the Quakers to a 7-3 record. At the same time, he exhibited a deep bag of tricks.

Penn football coach Al Bagnoli sees his players every day. He knows they have talent. He also knows they should be tough to beat when they play as he expects them to. But until the Quakers meet those expectations, they might be as frustrating as they are exciting. They were both in yesterday's 45-28 victory over Lafayette at Franklin Field. The Quakers (1-1) built a 38-7 lead in the third quarter, only to watch the Leopards (1-2) make it 38-28 with 10 minutes, 11 seconds remaining in the game.

Last year: 8-2, 7-0 Ivy League (champions). Coach: Al Bagnoli (19th season at Penn, 122-56). Top returners: QB Keiffer Garton; C Joe D'Orazio; PK Andrew Samson; RB Lyle Marsh; LB Zach Heller. Biggest losses: LB Jake Lewko; NG Joe Goniprow; DB Chris Wynn Inside Info: Don't be surprised if the Quakers successfully defend their 2009 Ivy League title, with 13 returning starters. It was their 11th outright league title and 14th overall. Placekicker Andrew Samson and punter Scott Lopano also are back.

Penn announced its football recruiting class of 34 players from 18 states, including two players from City-league schools and two from South Jersey. Tight end C.J. Mooney, of Malvern Prep, and St. Joseph's Prep lineman Mike Pinciotti have joined the Quakers' class of 2013, along with Washington Township running back Brandon Colavita and St. Augustine Prep lineman Pete Dandrea. "This is an outstanding group with a lot of depth," coach Al Bagnoli said. "We wanted to address a lot of areas and I think we were successful in accomplishing that.

It's been almost three calendar years since the Penn Quakers lost an Ivy League football contest. Seven more wins and they will make history. The pressure surely is beginning to mount, right? Not so fast. Longtime head coach Al Bagnoli doesn't want his team to feel pressure with the approach of what may be an unprecedented third undefeated Ivy season. Those feelings won't produce results. Instead, he wants his players to take it all in. "We want players that kind of embrace that sort of expectation," Bagnoli said.

TV/Radio: Versus; WFIL-AM (990). Records: Penn, 6-1, 4-0 Ivy League; Princeton, 1-6, 0-4. Coaches: Penn, Al Bagnoli (19th season, 128-57 at Penn); Princeton, Bob Surace (first season, 1-6). Series: Princeton leads, 63-37-1. Penn outlook: Penn stands as the lone undefeated team in the Ivy League after last week's 24-7 win over Brown. The Quakers have dropped only one game this season, a 22-10 nonleague loss at Villanova on Sept. 25. A win would give the Quakers their ninth consecutive league road victory and first 7-1 start since 2004.

THE COACHES kept no score, but used stats as a litmus to gauge just how efficient and effective Penn football in 2012 will be. In an annual spring game (of sorts) Sunday at Franklin Field, coach Al Bagnoli and staff kept their own scoring system, awarding points to the offense for first downs, touchdowns and highlight-reel plays. On defense, points were given for drive stoppages, negative yardage plays, turnovers, etc. In the end, it was the offense that proved more dominant, scoring six times.

On a day when the Penn football program honored its most famous alumnus, Chuck Bednarik, the current-day Quakers played a game that might not have appealed to the stout defenses anchored by the legendary linebacker. Thanks to an Ivy League-record 548 passing yards from gunslinging Cornell quarterback Jeff Mathews, Penn (5-5, 4-3 Ivy League) lost its season finale, 48-38, before 7,609 at Franklin Field. The loss was the Quakers' first to the Big Red since 2006, and just their third in Al Bagnoli's 19-year tenure.

Where: Saturday at 1 p.m., Franklin Field. Radio: WFIL-AM (560). Records: Cornell, 4-5 overall, 2-4 Ivy League; Penn, 5-4, 4-2. Coaches: Cornell, Kent Austin (second season, 6-13); Penn, Al Bagnoli (20th season, 136-61). Series: Penn leads, 68-44-5. It's the 93d consecutive year the teams have met, and the rivalry is the fifth-most played in Division 1. The Quakers have won four straight over Cornell. THINGS TO WATCH Last week, the Quakers were eliminated from Ivy League contention.

The football is snapped toward them, and their ever-so-short performance is scrutinized by critics in striped shirts. But the way a two-man act at Penn defuses the pressure beforehand always has audiences raving. Before Scott Lopano plants the ball in the turf and Connor Loftus drives it with his right foot, they transform into a variety-show buddy act. Sometimes the duo delivers an inside joke or an inspirational quote. Other times it's a pop tune sung in unison. "Sometimes it switches up," Loftus said.

THE LAST THREE seasons, Penn's Ivy League title hopes came down to a November game against Harvard. So, did anyone really think this year would be any different? "I think the goal going in is to be able to control your own destiny by Week 9," said Quakers senior linebacker Erik Rask, the Ivy Defensive Player of the Week. "You always aim to be in this position. If you can beat Harvard, you know you're a pretty good team. " The Quakers (5-3, 4-1 Ivy) will find out tomorrow in Cambridge.

When: Saturday afternoon at 1 , Franklin Field. Radio: WNTP-AM (990). Records: Penn, 4-3 overall, 3-1 Ivy League; Princeton, 1-6, 1-3. Coaches: Penn, Al Bagnoli (20th season, 135-60); Brown, Bob Surace (2d season, 2-15). Series: Princeton leads, 63-38-1. Last season, Penn rocked the host Tigers, 52-10, to hand them their seventh loss of the season. THINGS TO WATCH After its 18-game Ivy League winning streak was snapped last week, the Quakers will have to rebound quickly to avoid a skid.

The wheels still rolled smoothly over the asphalt in that same familiar fashion, but something was different. It wasn't the duration of the bus ride or the poor weather they navigated through. They have encountered all of that before. Instead, it was the noise. Or, rather, the lack thereof. For the first time since 2007, the Penn Quakers' bus ride home was silent. The usual joking that had become part of their road trips was absent. Instead, after a 6-0 loss at Brown on Saturday, the Quakers had five-plus hours to reflect on their first road loss since November 2007.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Brown has not scored an offensive touchdown against Penn since 2008. They failed to do so again on Saturday, yet they did enough to stop the Quakers' Ivy League win streak at 18. On a rainy, sloppy day in which the two teams combined for more turnovers than points, Penn (4-3, 3-1 Ivy League) failed to sustain any drive deep into Brown territory and fell, 6-0, to the scrappy Bears (6-1, 3-0). The 2011 Quakers' bid to own the longest Ivy win streak in history was halted just two games short of tying the record.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Brown has not scored an offensive touchdown against Penn since 2008. They failed to do so again on Saturday, yet they did enough to stop the Quakers' Ivy League win streak at 18. On a rainy, sloppy day in which the two teams combined for more turnovers than points, Penn (4-3, 3-1 Ivy League) failed to sustain any drive deep into Brown territory and fell, 6-0, to the scrappy Bears (6-1, 3-0). The 2011 Quakers' bid to own the longest Ivy win streak in history was halted just two games short of tying the record.

PENN (4-2, 3-0) has played two Ivy League road games. The Quakers won both, at Dartmouth (2-4, 1-2) and Columbia (0-6, 0-3), on touchdowns in the closing seconds. They have two trips left. Tomorrow they're at Brown (5-1, 2-1), and on Nov. 12 they travel to Harvard (3-0, 5-1). Princeton (1-5, 1-2) and Cornell (2-4, 0-3) have to visit West Philly. If the Quakers are going to become the first to threepeat since Penn won five straight (the first two shared) from 1982-86, they'll mostly need to come up large away from Franklin Field.