Penn Faces Former Head Coach Al Bagnoli Saturday At Columbia

By Matt Leon

It is all Ivy League action for the University of Pennsylvania football team from here on out this season.

The Quakers will start this run on Saturday when they face their former head coach Al Bagnoli and his new team, the Columbia Lions.

Penn is 1-3 (0-1 Ivy) and coming off a wild non-league loss to Fordham this past weekend. The Quakers fell behind 35-10 in this one but came roaring back to actually tie the game at 45 before Fordham kicked a field goal on the final seconds to escape Franklin Field with a 48-45 victory.

"The takeaways were that we have a very resilient team," Penn head coach Ray Priore tells KYW Newsradio. "A team that's going to fight to the end, which I think every football coach in the country would like to have. On the other side, we want to make sure there's more attention to detail and not put ourselves in a hole like that."

Listen to the entire interview with Penn's Ray Priore

Senior Andrew Lisa stepped in at quarterback for the injured Alek Torgersen against Fordham and put together a good day. Lisa threw for 262 yards and three touchdowns. He was also intercepted twice. Priore says no decision has been made on who will start at quarterback against Columbia.

Penn has shown some real impressive flashes here through the season's first four games. Their win came on the Main Line against a very talented and highly regarded Villanova team and then they gave that Fordham team, which is nationally ranked, all it could handle and then some. Priore says the team has made progress 40% of the way through the season.

"I think our kids have moved along the way you want them to," Priore says. "I think the defense is beginning to make that turn, which was really good to see. From the standpoint of, collectively, stopping good people, covering people on down. The score and points don't show it, but we needed them to step up in the second half last week, they held Fordham to ten points in the second half, which gave us a chance to get back in the game."

Saturday will be the first time the Quakers will face Bagnoli in his new position as the head coach at Columbia. Bagnoli won nine Ivy League titles during his 23 seasons as Penn head coach. 2014 was his final season with the Quakers. After a brief stint in the Penn athletic administration he left for New York to take over the football program for the Lions.

"I think it will be a lot of fun for our kids but the focus has got to be on Penn, us getting better," Priore says. "Coach (Bagnoli) and I, we've talked and we'll keep it at that, in terms of between he and I. It's a great friendship. I've known him for twenty-plus years and he's been a good friend."

Columbia improved to 1-3 (0-1 Ivy) this past Saturday with a 26-3 win over Wagner.

The Lions are quarterbacked by Skyler Mornhinweg, the former St. Joe's Prep star and son of former Eagles offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg.

Saturday's game will kickoff at 3:30pm in New York.

You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.