HANOVER – Ricky Santos knows better than most the challenge freshman Miles Teodecki faces as Penn’s starting quarterback. But he also knows you can win with a first-year QB for one very good reason.
Long before he took over last December as the Quakers’ head coach, Santos was Miles Teodecki.
Pressed into action as a freshman at the University of New Hampshire when starter Mike Granieri was injured in the 2004 opener, Santos helped UNH upset No. 1 Delaware in his very first game. He went on that fall to lead the Wildcats to a 10-3 record that featured a 35-24 win at Rutgers as well as a 45-25 win on the field where he’ll prowl the visiting sidelines Saturday.
Dartmouth coach Sammy McCorkle arrived in Hanover in Santos' sophomore year only to see the Wildcats run roughshod over the Big Green each of his first three seasons. McCorkle got a little revenge last September when Dartmouth outlasted Santos’ final UNH team on Memorial Field, 27-20, and he knows if the Big Green is going to spoil Santos’ return to Buddy Teevens Stadium, making life miserable for a freshman quarterback is a big first step.
“You always want to make a quarterback uncomfortable,” McCorkle said. “We can’t let him get settled in back there and go through his progressions. We’ve got to get pressure up front because (Teodecki) is athletic, he can run and he can spin it.”
Penn comes into the game 1-1 after a 20-7 win at Bucknell in the Quakers’ opener and a loss last week at home against Lehigh by the same 20-7 score.
In the game against 1-4 Bucknell, Teodecki passed for 197 yards and two touchdowns while running for 87 yards and a score. The highly recruited son of former Penn QB Steve Teodecki struggled last week against Lehigh, going 18-for-37 for 133 yards with two interceptions and four sacks.
Santos told the Philadelphia Inquirer he believes the rough outing will have benefits for his young quarterback, who originally committed to Kansas State after fielding offers from BYU, Cincinnati, Colorado State, South Florida, and every Ivy but Dartmouth and Columbia.
“The game moved fast for him,” Santos said of the Lehigh outing. “And the quickest way for you to get sped up is to get hit in the mouth and get sacked a couple times, and the ball's going to come out of your hand a lot quicker than the next time, I promise you that."
Penn’s offense took a huge graduation hit last spring with quarterback and leading rusher Liam O’Brien now a Cincinnati Bearcat, standout receiver Jared Richardson at Duke, and fellow receiver Bisi Owens at Purdue.
Despite sacks leaving him with negative 23 yards last week, Teodecki leads the Quakers in rushing with just 64 yards through two games. Tommy Lafayette is next with 63 yards, a 3.5-yard average, and a long of 13. Donte West has two more carries than Lafayette but just 44 yards and a 2.2 average with a long of eight yards.
McCorkle doesn't expect Penn to de-emphasize the ground game despite the Quakers' struggles in the first two weeks.
“I mean, they’re a physical team,” he said. “It’s Penn and I’m sure their goal is to always try to run the football as much as they can. We’ve got to be prepared for that and can’t let that happen.”
Like Monmouth last week, Penn features 6-foot-2 and 6-3 wide receivers, but there hasn’t been a breakout performer like Richardson or Owens yet. Luke Johnson tops the ranks with seven catches for 79 yards, while Jack Donnelly has five grabs for 38 yards.
“Not many teams have guys like they had the last few years, but they’ve got longer, bigger guys,” said McCorkle. “We’ve got to do a good job of making sure we win the 50-50s when the ball is in the air. The big thing is being in the right spot and not giving them too much.”
Like Teodecki, Dartmouth quarterback Grayson Saunier is coming off an uneven performance. He was just 11-of-27 for 148 yards with two touchdowns in last week’s 31-28 loss to Monmouth. The Big Green will also lean on tailback Myles Craddock, who ran for 140 yards and one touchdown on 22 carries last week.
They will challenge a Penn defense that has held up in the early going. The Quakers limited Bucknell to 124 yards of total offense, including just 40 yards on the ground. Lehigh All-American Luke Yoder managed just 74 yards on 19 carries a week ago.
After studying both of those games, McCorkle called this a “typical Penn defense,” but with a twist.
“They want to beat our butts and we want to beat theirs,” he said. “They want to make it a physical game and we want to make it a physical game. These are the same guys we played against last year, and two years ago and probably three years ago.
“But," he added, "it’s UNH’s defense. They do what they do. They’re very well-coached, they’re disciplined, they’re physical and they fly around. We’ve got a huge challenge.”
The key to meeting that challenge might be easier said than done, but it is simple according to McCorkle.
“We’ve got to limit our mistakes and do our assignments,” he said. “We have to go out there and play fast with no hesitations. Effort and physicality are two ingredients we need to have success.”
That and making sure a freshman quarterback isn’t as comfortable as his coach was on the same field a little over two decades ago.
NOTES – Something has to give: The Big Green’s 64.5 percent conversion rate on third down is best in the nation. Penn, meanwhile, leads the nation in third down defense, allowing opponents to convert on just 17.2 percent of their tries.
Dartmouth has won three of the last five meetings, but the Quakers won last year, 36–24. The teams split the last two meetings in Hanover, with Dartmouth winning in 2024 (20-17) and Penn coming out on top in two overtimes in 2022 (23-17). … Whichever team wins the game will lead the all-time series in Hanover, 18-17.
Penn and Dartmouth tied for third in the Ivy League last year with 4-3 records. Dartmouth was picked third in the Ivy preseason media poll, and Penn was voted fourth. … The Big Green leads the Ivies in all-time conference titles with 22 while Penn has won 18, the last a decade ago in 2016. … Santos finished his New Hampshire tenure with a 38-25 overall record, a 28-12 mark in the CAA, and three appearances in the FCS playoffs.