Penn Looks To Get On Track Saturday At Fordham

By Matt Leon

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- It has been a difficult start to the season for the University of Pennsylvania.

The Quakers sit at 0-3 as they head into the final game of a brutal four-game stretch to start to the 2014 season. On Saturday, the Quakers visit a Fordham team that is ranked as high as 14th in the country in FCS. This will mark Penn's third road game already this season and their one home game came against a top-five FCS team in Villanova.

Last week, Penn dropped its Ivy League opener to Dartmouth, falling 31-13 in Hanover, New Hampshire.

"For the second week in a row we had trouble on defense with a quarterback that probably hurt us as much with his feet as he did with his arm (Dartmouth's Dalyn Williams)," Penn head coach Al Bagnoli tells KYW Newsradio. "(He) was able to break containments on three third and longs (that) actually led to scoring drives. That was a little bit disappointing that we couldn't get off the field. Then offensively, we did a really good job of moving the ball until we got down into the red zone and the goal line and we created some opportunities that we couldn't capitalize on. And obviously we lost the turnover ratio with a couple of mistakes."

Despite the 0-3 record, Bagnoli feels some progress is being made by his squad.

"In spots," Bagnoli says. "We have a lot of moving parts, a lot of young kids, so we're not consistently seeing it as much as we would like. Some of that I think is obviously the people we're playing. But in spots we see some really good things. A quarterback (Alek Torgersen), that's really been a three game starter, who just threw 40 completions, which is an all-time Penn record. He threw for over 300 yards (350) in his 3rd start, which are all great things. But he also had two turnovers, also had a cadence issue that led to another turnover. So he's kind of a microcosm of the team. We do a lot of really good things, we've got some talent, yet we've got to be able to find a way to stabilize things, be a little bit more consistent."

Fordham is 5-1 this season. They got really thumped by Villanova, 50-6, back on September 6th, but other than that they have been a runaway train, especially on offense. The Rams have scored at least 42 points in each of their five wins and last week they rolled past Lafayette, 42-18.

"They're really an explosion team," Bagnoli says. "I think their skill positions are really good. Transfer quarterback from UConn (Mike Nebrich) is a really good quarterback who can throw it. Doesn't want to run it as much as the (quarterbacks they've faced) past two weeks, but can if he needs too. Then I think they've got some elite kids outside as receivers, tailbacks and they do a good job utilizing a big tight end. So they've done a really good job with personnel, they've done a really good job schematically, so defensively we'll have our hands full."

Penn is 5-0 all-time against Fordham.

Saturday's game in the Bronx kicks off at 1:00pm.

Listen to the whole interview with Penn head coach Al Bagnoli:

You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.

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