Knights Sign Road Warrior
Keith Murphy
Monday April 14, 2003
Knights’ Head Coach Kevin Porter says that the most important aspect that Penn brings to the table is “experience” and he has a great deal of game experience and frequent flyer miles.
Penn’s career began in Florida where he played his high school football in Miami. He signed a letter of intent and then was red-shirted as a freshman with the University of South Carolina. In 1997 he was named to the South Eastern Conference’s All-Freshman team after starting three games for the Gamecocks. Penn left South Carolina for South Bend, Indiana where he hoped to walk on with Notre Dame. Instead he ended up across the street playing for Holy Cross Junior College. Later that year Penn shifted venues again transferring to Garden City Community College in Kansas. At GCC, Penn passed for over two thousand yards and led his team to the post season in 1998.
In 1999, Penn returned to Florida when he transferred to the University of Central Florida where he passed for 3,000 yards and 15 touchdowns. Penn was named 2nd team Honorable Mention (along with Drew Brees, Carson Palmer, Quincy Carter, Major Applewhite, Antwaan Randle-El, Chris Simms) 2000 College Football News All American Team. Unfortunately, a knee injury limited Penn to four games in 2000, but he still passed for nearly 800 yards in those four games. Penn left UCF as the school’s third most prolific passer.
In 2001, the British Columbia Lions of the Canadian Football League signed Penn.
In 2002, after a short stay in Cape Fear, Penn led the Tallahassee Thunder to a 9-7 record and the American South Divisional Crown. They were knocked out in the first round by Florida.
This season, Penn had been on the practice squad of the Orlando Predators but was waived when starting quarterback Jay Gruden’s injuries healed and Gruden returned to the starting lineup.
During a 2000 interview with ESPN, Penn said “Personally, when I step on the field, there is not one ounce of fear in my body. I look at it as, ‘I`ve worked hard my whole life to get to where I am now and we work hard every week in practice so there`s no point going on to the field with fear.’ I look at it as more of a chance to go out and have fun and a chance to show the world what we can do.”
The signing causes an inherent quarterback controversy as to whether the 2-0 Sean Petersen will start Saturday against Birmingham or whether the coaches will go with Penn. Last season, John Rayborn started against Tennessee Valley after being on roster less than a week. As to whether the Knights will repeat that scenario, Coach Porter simply said, “That remains to be seen.”
Dr. Murphy has nearly 20 years of media experience ranging from radio to the Internet. He has served as webmaster for two AF2 teams and the football team at Fort Valley State University. He is a professor at FVSU and directs www.bunniwerks.org, a non-profit rabbit rescue organization. He has been commissioned as a Kentucky Colonel. Murphy is also serving as a first party editor of af2 stories for ArenaFfan. For more information about Dr. Murphy see: www.keithmurphy.info
