Penn Quakers (1990)

This week's random team is the 1990 Penn Quakers, during a speed bump amid their 35-year run of dominance of the Ivy League.

The Team: Penn went 3-7 overall, 3-4 in Ivy play. After a 16-6 opening day win over eventual co-champ Dartmouth, the Quakers lost their next three games (all non-league), then beat Columbia to go 2-0 in Ivy play. But Penn dropped its next three games to fall out of the race.

The Players: Despite the blah record, Penn came up with the Ivies' only I-AA (FCS) All-American that year, offensive lineman Joe Valerio, who played for the Kansas City Chiefs from 1991-95. He also was used as eligible receiver in short-yardage situations, and thus has one of the most unique stat lines in NFL history: 4 catches, 7 yards, 4 touchdowns — 3 from Joe Montana. And you can see 'em here.

Back in the "junk wax era" of early 90s sports cards, many fly-by-night companies
came, spat out a set or two, and vanished almost as quickly as they came. Two of those quickies, Wild Card and Star Pics, put Valerio in their prospects sets ... and even used the same photo!

Valerio was an all-Ivy first-team selection, as were Joe Kopcha (LB and Rob Sims (P). Mohamed Ali (WR) and Eric Poderys (DL) earned second-team nods.

The Coach: Penn has had five coaches since 1981: Jerry Berndt, Ed Zubrow, Gary Steele, Al Bagnoil and Ray Priore. Steele, who went 9-21 from 1989-91, is the only of the bunch to not win an Ivy title. In fact, every other coach on the list won at least two championships.

The Uniforms: Penn continued to use the same style it had worn since 1981; the only difference  was a reduction in the sleeve stripes. The split-P logo looks great even on a bad team. Penn wore white jerseys for its home opener against Holy Cross, a rarity even today outside of Georgia Tech or LSU.

Penn's Harry Austin performs a suplex that
would put Scott Steiner's to shame. Almost.

Stripes were on their way out by the early '90s, and 
Penn's uniforms reflected that trend.

The Fallout: The Quakers endured one more bad season under Steele before turning to Bagnoli, who went 7-3 in 1992 and went undefeated in '93 and '94 on his way to becoming one of the GOATs of FCS football.