Media Day Thoughts

Ivy League media day is over and there were no real surprises in the poll, except perhaps at the top. For me, at least.

I had thought the voters would look at an experienced and promising quarterback at Penn, the return of the third-leading rusher in the Ivy League, four players with starting experience on the O-line, a consistently strong defense that has "playmakers at every level" (coach Al Bagnoli's words yesterday) and a terrific kicking game and pick the Quakers first. But if history has shown one thing, and I should have considered it when I tried to predict the poll, Ivy League voters almost always give the nod to the previous year's champion, whether it be in football or men's and women's basketball. And if they don't, they vote for Harvard ;^)

Me? I voted Penn first, with Harvard second and Brown third.

The New York Times report on the media day teleconference confused a few things. It said, "Of the eight Ivy teams, only Penn and Yale seem to have settled on a starting quarterback heading into training camp later this month." That's not quite right.

More from the Times story:

“Somebody’s going to emerge as a great quarterback in this league,” said Coach Tim Murphy, whose Harvard team was picked to win a third successive championship in the preseason news media poll. “It’s just a question of who they are.”

An early candidate could be Yale’s Patrick Witt, who transferred from Nebraska this summer. After a redshirt freshman season, Witt became Nebraska’s second choice behind Joe Ganz in 2008 before transferring.

Cornell is no closer to naming a starter.

Hmm. Here's what Cornell coach Jim Knowles said:

"Our quarterback coming out of the spring was Ben Ganter. Ben has been with us for four years. A great student of the game. His father was the longtime offensive coordinator for Penn State. He knows the game. He’s got a very strong arm. He’s been behind Nate Ford for a couple of years, but Ben is ready to take the helm and we believe is going to have a great year."

Sounds like Cornell is set.

Yale? Not so much. Here's what coach Tom Williams said:

“We’ve got a returning player in Brook Hart who has taken snaps and started five ballgames for us last year. We’ve got an incoming ... transfer from Nebraska named Patrick Witt. And we’ve got two younger players on our team, Bryan Farris is one of those guys and (Rich) Scudellari. ... Those guys have all competed in the spring, except for Patrick. He just got here in June. The competition will be fierce I think in fall camp. And whoever emerges from that group I think will be ready to lead this football team.”

The Times piece also said:

And at Columbia, Coach Norries Wilson is so torn between his two options that he joked that his 2006 Ivy League rookie of the year and the Bushnell Award-winning receiver, Austin Knowlin, could be the solution.

Wilson didn't seem all that torn when he said:

“Millicent Olawale is going start off camp, when we come in, as the starting quarterback. As long as he can go out there and prove that he is the guy he’s going to keep that position."

In fact, Wilson said very little about Shane Kelly, who started the first six games at Columbia last year but did not take part in spring drills because of mononucleosis. And while he had nice things to say about sophomore Jerry Bell, if Wilson was "torn between his two options," I'm not even sure who that second option was.

Back to Penn, eight Quakers lived in a building that was damaged by fire. All-America corner Chris Wynn told Philly.com he lost everything.

Opening-day foe Colgate kicked off the preseason Monday. The Raider football web page has a brief story and photos.

Dave Coulson over at The Sports Network has his Patriot League prediction and capsules up and it's no surprise that he picked Week Five opponent Holy Cross first. The total shocker is that he picked Colgate fourth. The Raiders have garnered Top-25 attention in several preseason polls and rankings. Granted, they will have a new offensive line, but they have a dynamic one-two punch in quarterback Greg Sullivan and tailback Nate Eachus, an All-American receiver in Pat Simonds and seven defensive starters back. He writes that the defense was "exposed athletically by Villanova in a 55-28 playoff loss," but the feeling here is most Patriot League defenses would have been exposed athletically," playing at Villanova in a playoff game. That's a pick that will bear watching.

The Holy Cross media guide – oops, they call it a yearbook, dancing around the media guide vs. recruiting guide conundrum – is online here. I downloaded the eight individual sections but haven't assembled them yet. I just hope I get them in order. Again, I just wish schools would offer both alternatives; download the whole thing at once or pick and choose your sections.

The Brown guide also hit the web here. It took two tries to get it to download, but it's a done deal.

Brown's timing is great because I'll have a preview of the 2009 Bears on Big Green Alert Premium tonight as I kick off the series of daily opponent previews.

And finally, the New Hampshire Football Report is reporting that UNH will play Big Ten Minnesota in 2012. The Wildcats have won four consecutive games against FCS Bowl Championship teams (Rutgers, Northwestern, Marshall and Army). UNH plays Ball State this year and Pitt next fall.