One final game for Penn coach Al Bagnoli

Saturday at Cornell in a game matching 1-8 teams, Al Bagnoli will coach for the final time at Penn in a career that spans 23 seasons and includes an Ivy League record nine outright championships.

Bagnoli, 61, announced in the spring that this would be his final season. He has a career 147-80 mark at Penn and said he will remain working in the athletic department. The final details of his new job are still being worked out.

"I have had the great pleasure of being the head coach, dealing with some great kids, having some great memories, and really making great relationships with players, coaches, alumni, administrators, etcetera," Bagnoli said earlier this week as Penn ran a crisp practice in bone-chilling weather. "So I certainly have no complaints and have been blessed to be a head coach so long."

One of the special relationships has come with one of Penn's more famous football players during his tenure, Mark DeRosa. A current MLB Network analyst, DeRosa spent parts of 16 seasons in the major leagues before retiring after the 2013 season with Toronto.

At Penn, he was a highly successful quarterback who started two seasons, including 1994 when Penn went 9-0, one of Bagnoli's three undefeated seasons.

"I am in a fantasy football league with all former Penn football players and the smack talk that goes on during the course of a season is a reflection of the environment that coach Bagnoli created and the guys he recruited," DeRosa said in a phone interview from MLB Network studios. "We all care about each other and remain close."

When DeRosa would come to Philadelphia and play the Phillies, he and his former football coach would often reunite.

"He would always be there at the game in the front row," DeRosa said. "He always wanted to know how I was doing, checking on my family and making sure everything was going all right."

DeRosa signed with the Braves after his junior season at Penn. Penn went 16-3 those two years he started as quarterback. He threw for 3,885 yards and 25 touchdowns.

"He threw as good a spiral as anybody we ever had," Bagnoli said.

It is relationships with players such as DeRosa that Bagnoli treasures most. At times over the years DeRosa would visit practice and be a participant.

"He always wanted to throw in 7-on-7," Bagnoli said laughing.

Last season, DeRosa was an analyst for the first time for Fox, and did a Phillies game in Philadelphia. The next day he took a cab to Penn to visit Bagnoli.

DeRosa was looking for a critique of his work, but also just wanted to spend time with his former coach.

"I stopped in, said hello, grabbed a cheesesteak and reminisced about our team," DeRosa said. ". . . The beauty of his personality is that he was always so welcoming with alumni and former players, and I had the greatest of experiences playing for him at Penn."

When: Saturday at 12:30 p.m.

Where: Schoellkopf Field, Ithaca, NY.

Records: Penn (1-8, 1-5 Ivy League); Cornell (1-8, 1-5).

Radio: WFIL-AM (560).

Coaches: Penn, Al Bagnoli (23d season, 147-80; 233-99 overall); Cornell, David Archer (2d season, 4-15).

Series: Penn leads 69-46-5. In the last meeting, Cornell won by 42-41 on Nov. 23, 2013 at Franklin Field.

Three Things to Watch

Bagnoli announced in the spring this would be his final season. This will be his last game coaching Penn, so the Quakers will be motivated to send their coach out on a winning note.

Penn must stop Cornell running back Luke Hagy, who had 19 carries for a career-high 148 yards and two touchdowns and also caught a 19-yard scoring pass from Robert Somborn in last week's win, Cornell's first of the season. Hagy has run for 646 yards (4.9 avg.) and has all four of the Big Red's four rushing touchdowns.

Penn is seventh (24 for 36, 66.6 percent, 14 TDs) in the Ivies in red-zone efficiency, while Cornell (13 for 22, 59.1 percent, 11 TDs) is last.

Three Things You Might Not Know

Over the last 23 years, every Ivy League coach who has taken a job during that time has lost to Bagnoli and Penn with one exception. That would be Cornell's Archer, who guided the Big Red to last year's 42-41 victory in his inaugural season.

Penn sophomore Alek Torgersen is second in the Football Championship Subdivision with 26 completions per game. Senior Spencer Kulcsar is second in receptions per game (8.0).

Last season, Penn led Cornell, 21-7, then trailed by 42-21 before making a furious comeback. The Quakers fell just short after scoring the game's final 20 points. Cornell blocked a PAT with 1 minute, 11 seconds left to preserve the win. - Marc Narducci

EndText

@sjnard