Penn's Bagnoli to Retire [Archive] - AnyGivenSaturday.com

Go Green

April 22nd, 2014, 05:27 PM

Afraid to schedule them after 2003.

Story from the Penn folks on the Ivy board was that Penn REALLY wanted to schedule a game in California (San Diego) and booted Lehigh from the schedule to make it happen. The game was a slaughter (Penn won something like 65-10), and Penn decided it wasn't worth it.

Unfortunately, Lehigh got really pissed at Penn and didn't return Penn's calls trying to reschedule the series.

bonarae

April 22nd, 2014, 05:58 PM

Media reporting that Penn's Bagnoli will retire after this season.

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/pretzel/Penn-Football-coach-Al-Bagnoli-to-retire.html

He's won a lot of games. Sad to see him go.

Finally. After he goes, that will leave our Murphy as the longest-tenured coach in the Ivy, if not the whole FCS.

Also, will the football team implode a la the Penn men's basketball teams of late? xchinscratchx

CFBfan

April 22nd, 2014, 08:08 PM

Fitting that he will retire and he won't face Lehigh again. Afraid to schedule them after 2003.

Why does EVERYTHING have to be about lehigh?? this has NOTHING to do with lehigh

Lehigh Football Nation

April 22nd, 2014, 08:43 PM

Why does EVERYTHING have to be about lehigh?o? this has NOTHING to do with lehigh

New here?

citdog

April 22nd, 2014, 08:59 PM

Why does EVERYTHING have to be about lehigh?? this has NOTHING to do with lehigh

it's le high

Go...gate

April 23rd, 2014, 01:24 AM

Fitting that he will retire and he won't face Lehigh again. Afraid to schedule them after 2003.

Colgate either. He ducked us after '96.

Go Green

April 23rd, 2014, 06:14 AM

Colgate either. He ducked us after '96.

Story from the Penn folks on the Ivy board was that Penn didn't see any point in playing Colgate with so many in-state options happy to schedule games against Penn. Nothing personal. Just business.

aceinthehole

April 23rd, 2014, 07:36 AM

Congrats to Coach Bagnoli (Central Connecticut '75) - proud to count him as a Blue Devil!

HailSzczur

April 23rd, 2014, 10:55 AM

Story from the Penn folks on the Ivy board was that Penn didn't see any point in playing Colgate with so many in-state options happy to schedule games against Penn. Nothing personal. Just business.

So he decided to schedule us instead and go 0-12 (hopefully 0-13)? To think Penn was 5-1 vs Nova when he took over....

But thats a huge loss. Bagnoli has done some great things there, and is nothing but classy. He will be missed. Curious to see what direction the program goes without him

Go Green

April 23rd, 2014, 11:18 AM

So he decided to schedule us instead and go 0-12 (hopefully 0-13)? To think Penn was 5-1 vs Nova when he took over....

But thats a huge loss. Bagnoli has done some great things there, and is nothing but classy. He will be missed. Curious to see what direction the program goes without him

He came awfully close to winning some of those Nova games. When Penn was the Ivy power, the Penn-Nova game was usually the closest thing the Ivy would get to a playoff game.

The papers are reporting that Penn's defensive coordinator Ray Priore will take over as head coach after the 2014 season. I presume that the new Penn AD (who starts on July 1) will honor that agreement.

Holy Cross should be breathing a sigh of relief. Much speculation over the years that Tom Gilmore would return to Penn once Bagnoli retired. Won't happen now.

Lehigh Football Nation

April 23rd, 2014, 11:32 AM

He came awfully close to winning some of those Nova games. When Penn was the Ivy power, the Penn-Nova game was usually the closest thing the Ivy would get to a playoff game.

The papers are reporting that Penn's defensive coordinator Ray Priore will take over as head coach after the 2014 season. I presume that the new Penn AD (who starts on July 1) will honor that agreement.

Holy Cross should be breathing a sigh of relief. Much speculation over the years that Tom Gilmore would return to Penn once Bagnoli retired. Won't happen now.

The 27-20 OT game in 2006 leaps to mind as one that was oh-so-close to happening,

Gilmore probably should be a more sought-after coach in general. I thought he was in the mix at Yale at one point. Cornell would be another place where I could see Gilmore going. He's a fiery guy and I could see that being a great asset at a place like Cornell that could use some juice.

DFW HOYA

April 23rd, 2014, 12:26 PM

Gilmore probably should be a more sought-after coach in general. I thought he was in the mix at Yale at one point. Cornell would be another place where I could see Gilmore going. He's a fiery guy and I could see that being a great asset at a place like Cornell that could use some juice.

Gilmore's record at HC (56-56) probably didn't help--it's a tough sell to hire a coach when the record is at or below .500, which is probably why Kevin Kelly moved so quickly for the Ball St. job.

Bogus Megapardus

April 23rd, 2014, 06:36 PM

Why does EVERYTHING have to be about lehigh?? this has NOTHING to do with lehigh

IMHO it does have something to do with Lafayette however. The Pards have played ninety-odd games against Penn since eighteen eighty-whatever. We have faced the Quakers more often than all but three of their in-conference foes. Lafayette-Penn is a substantial and meaningful football rivalry in Eastern Pennsylvania. Coach Bagnoli has been a very good neighbor to Lafayette football for a long time; my wish is that his successor is someone from within the Penn ranks who will continue to appreciate the benefit of the home-and-home games against Lafayette (and against Villanova for that matter) in more Penn seasons than not.

Ivytalk

April 23rd, 2014, 06:51 PM

Now that Bags is going, who will recruit those Anthracite Boys upstate?

Bogus Megapardus

April 23rd, 2014, 06:55 PM

Now that Bags is going, who will recruit those Anthracite Boys upstate?

Why not go with defensive coordinator Ray Priore? He was tutored by Bob Ford at Albany and has been in the Penn program since 1987.

EDIT - I see that GoGreen already posted this. It make too much sense for Penn not to go this route, IMHO.

Go Green

April 23rd, 2014, 07:43 PM

EDIT - I see that GoGreen already posted this. It make too much sense for Penn not to go this route, IMHO.

Presumably, they made a conscious decision not to pursue Gilmore.

Had Penn hired Gilmore, it would have given the Ivy a fourth alum-as-a-head-coach (Teevens/Dartmouth, Surace/Princeton, Archer/Cornell).

Franks Tanks

April 23rd, 2014, 08:30 PM

Why not go with defensive coordinator Ray Priore? He was tutored by Bob Ford at Albany and has been in the Penn program since 1987.

EDIT - I see that GoGreen already posted this. It make too much sense for Penn not to go this route, IMHO.

He sure makes sense. Has fielded a high quality D for many years, and has been "associate head coach" for nearly a decade.

WWII

April 23rd, 2014, 08:45 PM

Bogus Megapardus

April 23rd, 2014, 09:07 PM

Congrats to Coach Bagnoli (Central Connecticut '75) - proud to count him as a Blue Devil!

Absolutely! The Blue Devils ought to be proud of such an accomplished alumnus.

Coach Bagnoli has given us fits over the years and it always has been a celebrated event when we were able to pull off a win over Penn. As much as we have disparaged him over the years as the leader of an often-played foe (i.e., "we got Bagnoli'd!") the preparation for and anticipation of facing a Bagnoli-led Penn team has been a red-letter date on College Hill for longer than many of us can recall. Facing Penn simply was different than facing any other foe. Bagnoli always knew exactly what buttons to push against us. Sometimes - just sometimes - we were able to push back. There have been more nail-biters against Coach Bagnoli than I care to remember.

Bogus Megapardus

April 23rd, 2014, 09:09 PM

Al also coached at UAlbany under Ford

Albany has done great service to Penn Quaker football, for sure!

M Ruler

April 24th, 2014, 08:57 AM

Ray Priore is Chuck Priore's (Stony Brook HC) younger brother. I see a Stony Brook-UPenn rivalry coming soon. Both Bob Ford guys.

Ivytalk

April 24th, 2014, 10:34 AM

Bags turned a third-tier Ivy school with an iffy program into a third-tier Ivy school with a perennial contender.

Go Green

April 24th, 2014, 11:42 AM

Bags turned a third-tier Ivy school with an iffy program into a third-tier Ivy school with a perennial contender.

Usually it's the Princeton folks who belittle Penn's academics. :)

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1137900/index.htm

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/pretzel/Penn-beats-Princeton-wins-Ivy-League-basketball-title.html

Lehigh74

April 24th, 2014, 12:31 PM

Maybe you should check Penn's rankings in US News and World Report. They aren't third-tier these days.

Go Green

April 24th, 2014, 12:40 PM

Maybe you should check Penn's rankings in US News and World Report. They aren't third-tier these days.

You have to understand Harvard. Their mentality goes something like this:

Ivy first tier: Harvard

Ivy second tier: Yale, Princeton

Ivy third tier: everyone else.

:)

That being said, anytime someone brings up "admissions/academics" in the context of Ivy sports, 90% of the time it's Harvard, Yale, or (mostly) Princeton bitching about Penn's advantages in being able to admit players that the complainers can't touch. For whatever reason, Dartmouth, Brown, Cornell, and Columbia are never part of those discussions....

citdog

April 24th, 2014, 10:18 PM

Would you want to work for the new AD at Penn? What the HELL does SHE know about Football? Good last name though.

UNH_Alum_In_CT

April 25th, 2014, 09:26 AM

You have to understand Harvard. Their mentality goes something like this:

Ivy first tier: Harvard

Ivy second tier: Yale, Princeton

Ivy third tier: everyone else.

:)

That being said, anytime someone brings up "admissions/academics" in the context of Ivy sports, 90% of the time it's Harvard, Yale, or (mostly) Princeton bitching about Penn's advantages in being able to admit players that the complainers can't touch. For whatever reason, Dartmouth, Brown, Cornell, and Columbia are never part of those discussions....

From what I've heard about the Harvard Men's Basketball team, I don't think anybody at Harvard should be talking. I've had multiple people outside UNH tell me that there are several players who wouldn't be admitted at UNH! I guess they don't have that AI thing in MBB.

And I seem to recall the Ivies having an honor code back in my day. Didn't a couple of players have to quit school because of involvement in a cheating incident? How did they get re-admitted let alone allowed to play basketball again?

Go Green

April 25th, 2014, 11:26 AM

From what I've heard about the Harvard Men's Basketball team, I don't think anybody at Harvard should be talking. I've had multiple people outside UNH tell me that there are several players who wouldn't be admitted at UNH! I guess they don't have that AI thing in MBB.

And I seem to recall the Ivies having an honor code back in my day. Didn't a couple of players have to quit school because of involvement in a cheating incident? How did they get re-admitted let alone allowed to play basketball again?

I probably should have explained that I was taking the long view on discussion of admissions/athletics bellyaching. You're right that there's been some moaning about what Harvard has been doing with its men's basketball team, but that's pretty recent stuff.

The Penn complaints date back to the 1970s when they were (or so I've been told) fielding men's basketball players that no other Ivy program would touch (let alone H-Y-P). After they got to the Final Four in 1979, the rest of the league (read: Harvard) said "enough." They made each Ivy school adopt a minimum admission standard (today known as the "AI").

Complaints about Penn grew louder in the 1980s when they took their time in implementing their AI bands while other schools (Dartmouth and Yale) did so immediately. The result was five straight Ivy football championships for Penn, which pretty much cemented Penn's reputation of having the Ivy's lowest admission standards.

Hope that gives more context. Long term, most griping has been directed towards Penn. Shorter term, you're absolutely correct that that there has been griping directed at Harvard men's basketball.

Go...gate

April 25th, 2014, 06:45 PM

Story from the Penn folks on the Ivy board was that Penn didn't see any point in playing Colgate with so many in-state options happy to schedule games against Penn. Nothing personal. Just business.

You mean San Diego, Georgetown, Jacksonville and Duquesne (which might as well be in another state)? Come on.

It would not surprise me in the slightest if Penn does the same thing as Princeton and adds Davidson going forward as well.

Go Green

April 25th, 2014, 07:06 PM

You mean San Diego, Georgetown, Jacksonville and Duquesne (which might as well be in another state)? Come on.
.

As I mentioned earlier, San Diego was the hot girl that Penn pursued, but decided wasn't worth it once they caught her. At the time, going to San Diego seemed a lot more fun than going to Hamilton.

When the spurned Lehigh refused to return Penn's calls to kiss and make up, Penn needed a replacement. Duquesne was willing and able. The guess here is that Colgate was willing, but didn't have the availability.

Can't remember exactly what the story was about Georgetown. DFW, can you advise?

Jacksonville is on the schedule because Bagnoli eventually decided (perhaps correctly) that Penn could no longer afford to play Nova and two (PA) Patriot League teams year-in and year-out. There was a time when people were shocked to see Penn finish lower than second in the Ivy. Today... not so much.

ngineer

April 25th, 2014, 10:59 PM

Fitting that he will retire and he won't face Lehigh again. Afraid to schedule them after 2003.

That explains why I heard we are returning to Penn's schedule in a couple years. Bagnoli cancelled our contract back in 2003 when they began playing Villanova. Did no want to play them and us back to back every year. Pete Lembo told me that Al's contract gives him increasing bonuses starting with 7 wins, so with the 'cats on the schedule that was more in jeopardy.

Ivytalk

April 27th, 2014, 07:27 AM

Maybe you should check Penn's rankings in US News and World Report. They aren't third-tier these days.

They sure are. Harvard accepted 5.9% of its applicants this year. Penn, proving they'll take just about anybody in coal country, accepted a whopping 9.9%. Ergo...

ngineer

April 27th, 2014, 10:03 PM

In the past two years, we had three football recruits rejected by our admissions office, but they ended up at Penn.

Go...gate

April 27th, 2014, 10:53 PM

As I mentioned earlier, San Diego was the hot girl that Penn pursued, but decided wasn't worth it once they caught her. At the time, going to San Diego seemed a lot more fun than going to Hamilton.

When the spurned Lehigh refused to return Penn's calls to kiss and make up, Penn needed a replacement. Duquesne was willing and able. The guess here is that Colgate was willing, but didn't have the availability.

Can't remember exactly what the story was about Georgetown. DFW, can you advise?

Jacksonville is on the schedule because Bagnoli eventually decided (perhaps correctly) that Penn could no longer afford to play Nova and two (PA) Patriot League teams year-in and year-out. There was a time when people were shocked to see Penn finish lower than second in the Ivy. Today... not so much.

Colgate offered to play Penn even if all the games were at Franklin Field (one of the few schools we did not want home and home or at least an occasional home game with. The word from Mark Murphy was that Bagnoli would not play us under any circumstances. And FWIW, after our last game in 1996, Penn asked out of a return game and was accommodated.

Go Green

April 28th, 2014, 06:45 AM

Colgate offered to play Penn even if all the games were at Franklin Field (one of the few schools we did not want home and home or at least an occasional home game with. The word from Mark Murphy was that Bagnoli would not play us under any circumstances..

If Colgate offered to come to Franklin Field for every game, and Penn still said "no," then I really don't have any good explanation as to why Penn didn't want to play Colgate. I can't imagine going to Pittsburgh to smash Duquesne is more appealing than hosting Colgate.

van

April 28th, 2014, 07:49 AM

If Colgate offered to come to Franklin Field for every game, and Penn still said "no," then I really don't have any good explanation as to why Penn didn't want to play Colgate. I can't imagine going to Pittsburgh to smash Duquesne is more appealing than hosting Colgate.

How about a +1 to the win column vs a possible +1 to the loss column?

DFW HOYA

April 28th, 2014, 08:14 AM

As I mentioned earlier, San Diego was the hot girl that Penn pursued, but decided wasn't worth it once they caught her. At the time, going to San Diego seemed a lot more fun than going to Hamilton. When the spurned Lehigh refused to return Penn's calls to kiss and make up, Penn needed a replacement. Duquesne was willing and able. The guess here is that Colgate was willing, but didn't have the availability. Can't remember exactly what the story was about Georgetown. DFW, can you advise?

My understanding was that Georgetown picked up a two year series with Penn (2007,08) that Towson gave up when moving to the CAA. The Hoyas weren't very competitive (the opening game at Franklin Field saw Penn up 28-0 after the first quarter) and Bagnoli probably didn't think much of renewing the series thereafter.

Go Green

April 28th, 2014, 06:27 PM

How about a +1 to the win column vs a possible +1 to the loss column?

I really don't consider that to be a "good" reason.

Penn was the Ivy power in those days. Wins were not hard to come by for them.

Gate83

April 28th, 2014, 06:53 PM

ngineer

April 28th, 2014, 09:49 PM

How about a +1 to the win column vs a possible +1 to the loss column?

Yes,...See Bagnoli bonus clause.

ngineer

April 28th, 2014, 10:01 PM

Colgate versus Duquesne is not even close.

RichH2

April 29th, 2014, 09:56 AM

Look forward to Penn again. Truthfully love beating Pards but I hate Penn. Now for Talley :)

Ivytalk

April 29th, 2014, 03:46 PM

but I hate Penn. :)

Hermano!:D

Go...gate

April 30th, 2014, 12:11 AM

Go...gate

April 30th, 2014, 12:15 AM

To be fair to Penn, it's not like we had much of a history against them... only played 'em 8 times total (82-96). I was more disappointed when Dartmouth dropped us after 2011, always liked playing the Green. Hopefully that series will renew sometime down the road...

At least Dartmouth played us and fulfilled their contract. While I wish we still played them, I certainly understand that series take breaks from time to time. Colgate has done that with Yale and Princeton and even skipped a year with Cornell.

Bogus Megapardus

May 2nd, 2014, 12:42 AM

Look at all this intra-PL competitiveness over scheduling Penn! Gotta relax, though. There's always . . . umm . . . Columbia!

Go...gate

May 2nd, 2014, 11:21 PM

Look at all this intra-PL competitiveness over scheduling Penn! Gotta relax, though. There's always . . . umm . . . Columbia!

Columbia - Fordham looks like a go for a good while. And the Lions like to play LC, LU and Bucknell. DFW, is Georgetown on future Lion schedules?

Bogus Megapardus

May 3rd, 2014, 03:40 PM

Columbia - Fordham looks like a go for a good while. And the Lions like to play LC, LU and Bucknell. DFW, is Georgetown on future Lion schedules?

My favorite Lafayette stat: Through 125 years of home-and-home competition, Columbia has never defeated Lafayette in Easton. Not once. We actually hold a curse of our own!

Georgetown traveled to Columbia in 2006 for a 23-21 Lion win. It's been a while but shouldn't Columbia owe Georgetown a return trip?