Al Bagnoli, University
of Pennsylvania
 Expectations were lower than usual for the Penn
Quakers going into the 2002 football season. The team had graduated 22
players, including 16 starters and 11 All-Ivy selections, from the
previous year. It appeared coach Al Bagnoli faced a rebuilding task, maybe
even a losing season.
Instead, Bagnoli turned his leftovers into one of the most dominating
teams in Ivy League history. The Quakers went undefeated in league play
(7-0) and outscored their opponents 284-73, an average margin of 30.1
points, the most ever in Ivy League play. Their scoring average of 40.6
points per game was also the highest in Ivy history.
It marked Bagnoli's fifth league championship in 11 seasons at Penn and
earned him the Maxwell Football Club's fifth annual Tri-State Coach of the
Year Award. His overall record at Penn is 76-32, a winning percentage of
.704, and he is second in school history behind Hall of Famer George
Woodruff for career victories.
When Bagnoli was hired at Penn in 1992, the football team was coming off
three consecutive losing seasons. In his first year, he lifted the Quakers
to a 7-3 overall mark and a 5-2 league record, good for a third place
finish. It was the second-best one-season turnaround in school history.
Bagnoli topped that the next season by winning the first of his Ivy League championships with a team
that went undefeated (10-0 overall) and boasted the NCAA's top-ranked
scoring defense. He followed that with another perfect season (9-0) in
1994.
Bagnoli's 2002 team overwhelmed its opponents on both sides of the ball and finished the
season ranked 16th among Division 1-AA schools. After the Quakers clinched
the Ivy League championship with a 31-0 victory over Cornell, Bagnoli was
asked if this team, which was picked to finish no higher than fourth in
the league, was the best he had ever coached.
"It's got to be right up there when you combine offense, defense and kicking game," Bagnoli
said. "As I've told a lot of people, it's going to take a heck of a
team to beat us. Our kids have played very, very well over an extended
period of time."
The numbers certainly support that. In 2002, the Quakers set an Ivy League record for rushing
defense, limiting their opponents to just 43.6 yards per game. That
bettered the previous record set by Harvard (51.6 yards per game) in 1999.
Their pass offense ranked seventh in Division 1-AA with an average of
296.2 yards per game.
Bagnoli made his coaching debut at Union College in 1982 where he led the school to its first
winning season in 12 years with an 8-1 record. The following year, he had
Union in the Division III title game and was named East Region Coach of
the Year. He posted 10 consecutive winning seasons at Union and his
overall record of 162-51 and .761 winning percentage rank third among
active I-AA head coaches.
Bagnoli, 50, is a native of East Haven, Conn., and a graduate of Central Connecticut State.
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