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CHARLES E. BEECHER.
LOUIS V. PIRSSON.
ROBERT N. CORWIN.
HARVARD--PRINCETON--YALE.
Mr. Camp Reviews the Football Situ=
ation.—Yale’s Disorganized State.
[ Copyrighted. ]
With the Harvard and _ Princeton
games looming up before us, and that
too with little over a month of pos-
sible preparation, the Yale football
contingent begins to take a most imme-
diate interest in the probable form of
the elevens that are being developed at
Princeton and Cambridge.
AT PRINCETON.
Strength or weakness does not come
to a football team over-night, and many
times not, indeed, in a single season.
An eleven of really high grade is the
product of the work expended upon
team and substitutes for two or three
years preceding, and, as a kind of com-
pensation, a team that has reached this
grade will-carry its successes for a year
or two, even without great expendi-
ture of further labor on the part of the
coaches. Princeton’s team of last year
was the result of the work. performed
upon such men as Kelly, .
Church and others for some years.
Had their defense in
strong as their offense they would
have come close to the top, for
they were, even at that date, a scor-
ing team. And they will be hard to
beat in 1897 even under light coaching,
doubly so under the drive which the
present regime is likely to enforce.
The loss of Gailey and Church would,
to a team of star players, be serious;
but Princeton has for two or three
years realiz:d most fully the value of
team play and the necessity of building
from the bottom, and these two princi-
ples together gave, her deserved success
and will not improbably add more suc-
cesses, in spite of the loss of some of
even her best men.
os
RE-ARRANGEMENT.
Many are the suggestions as to how
Princeton should arrange her team for
this season. Such suegestions make an
interesting study. It seems safe to
conclude, however, that in spite of
scepticism regarding published com-.
ment the greatest factor in the Prince-
ton equation this year, outside of her
strong line, is the excellent kicking of
both Baird and Wheeler. As long as
neither of these men meets with injury
—and no football player seems invul-
nerable—it is wisest for Princeton. to
plan out such an arrangement as shall
enable her to mask her kicks far more
than she did last season. This can be
done, either by using Wheeler as one
Bannard, -
1895 been as -
Price Ten Cents.
WILBUR L. CROSS.
half while Baird remains at full-back,
or by playing Wheeler at full-back and
Baird as quarter. In the former ,case
the play could be readily worked in
such a manner that it would be impos-
sible for the opponents to know which
one of the two crack kickers was to
receive the ball, and thus would make
Princeton a far greater team in the
kicking game than she was last Fall,
when the unexpected breaking down of
Baird’s defense rendered it necessary
for Princeton to resort to running tac-
tics. This use of two men as kickers is
likely not only to help over this trou-
ble, but also offers a wide range for
fake kicks, as illustrated by Thorne and
Jerrems of, Yale two years ago. The
placing of Baird at quarter would mean
a reversion of Princeton to the snap
direct from center to kicker upon
occasions, and would also admit of
some pretty variations in the running
line. In fact either combination looks
attractive from a strategic standpoint,
and Princeton is to be envied the pos-
session of two stich kickers as render
these combinations possible.
HEAVY LINE,
Princeton will also be well weighted
up in the line this year and the tendency
of the entire team will be to make flesh.
There is something about the calm
mind of men who have played upon a
winning team that leads them away
from worry and gives them sometimes
so easy a conscience as to lead to avoir-
dupois. Weight is by no means a bad
thing to have, and any team that at-
tempts the game of 1897 without it will
have to be astonishingly adept to make
the scales balance, Certainly Prince-
ton will. not be defeated by any team
that is not well above the average
weight. Princeton’s running game will
naturally be after the order of that used
last year, which beat last year’s defense
down so repeatedly. With this style
of play a heavy line, that has enough
spring to start the opponents off their
feet, works admirably. Princeton al-
ways gets a lot of benefit from her
quarter-back. From the days of ‘Poe
and Phil. King down,Princeton’s use of
quarters has been strong, and last year
was no exception, the play being so
good that had the man’s name been
more unusual it would have been writ-
ten down as one of the shining lights of
that position. This year, too, Prince-
ton will, with her system, get an ad-
mirably close connection between the
forwards and the backs through the
medium of the quarter.
AT CAMBRIDGE.
The situation at Cambridge is, as
usual, unique. For a number of years
Harvard paid the penalty that a lack
of study upon detail always exacts.
Whether the reaction and return to
severely analytical methods is likely to
lead them to extremes is now the ques-
tion that this year’s work is to answer.
At least the preparation is to be based
upon the collected opinions of a great
majority of football men and the train-
ing will follow Mr. Lathrop’s views,
which are those of a man of wide expe-
rience. The principles involved in
both the training and the play, and
especially in the latter, are those that
have stood other teams—notably Yale
—in good stead in former years, -and
as matched up against the lack of defi-
nite system which seems likely to pre-
vail at New Haven this year, through
the inability to secure continuity of
action, should have decidedly the ad-
vantage. Harvard will have a good
line, and it has long been a belief of
those who have followed the sport most
closely that a good stiff line was a bet-
ter possession than a strong back-field,
especially if the latter were at all mete-
oric in performance. Princeton has
especially made the belief a strong one,
winning upon forward work, and some-
times losing when possessed of the best
of material behind the line. . Yale’s
coaches, too, have never felt secure ex-
cept when a stiff forward line was devel-
oped by the first of November.
Harvard will certainly have from the
very start a strong and able line of
rushers, with plenty of substitute mate-
rial upon which to draw. Especially at
tackles is she well supplied, and at this
position the great burden of the play
now concentrates, —
Behind the line, while not badly off,
Harvard is not as well equipped. The
loss of Dunlop and Wrightington is
especially severe upon Harvard, as both
possessed excellent qualifications in the
way of spirit and were also experi-
enced men. |
| HARVARD’S GENERAL IMPROVEMENT.
The element of common football
sense. has sometimes been missing in
Harvard’s teams, and its lack has cost
them a victory. In this respect Har-
vard has materially improved and the
“old-timer,” who believes that “on prin-
ciple’ a Yale team can beat a Harvard
team, is likely to have his eyes opened
this Fall. Harvard’s defense against
Princeton last year was admirable and
showed that her teams must be reck-
oned with more seriously in that regard
than formerly. Harvard’s chief diffi-
culty will be in securing unity of action
between line and backs and in teaching
the team smoothness of method. . The
men will be carefully handled and much
time expended in going through the
plays. The campaign will be laid out
very early and outside of the games the
practice will be sharp, rather than long
or hard. Under such a system the
-vard will play a fast, quick game.
team will exhibit much dash and more
ability to score than last year’s team.
HARVARD COACHING.
‘ue Coiching at Flatvard is to Ge
uuder the charge of Mr. Forbes, as-
sisted by an Advisory Committee of
three, Messrs. Brooks, Deland and
Emmons. Probably a large part of the
field coaching direction will devolve
upon Mr. Emmons. He was a player
not so long ago that everything is fresh
in his mind, and as a captain he had the
right kind of experience. He was al-
ways insistent upon one cardinal point,
and that was fast play. The fact that
he is a member of this committee then
insures one thing, and that is that me
)
matter how heavily the line may be
weighted, there will be enough drive
put into the backs to accelerate the
pace. In the case of slow line men,
they will be crowded up to rapidity at
any cost, and if they cannot stand the
speed, they will probably be replaced.
To tell the truth, this combination is
likely to make Harvard much more
formidable and give them what many
times they - have apparently lacked,
namely, ability to score. It is hardly
on the cards for Harvard to have as
great a variety of plays as they have
possessed in some bygone seasons.
They will probably select the best of
the plays of past years and, with some
modifications and a very few additions,
endeavor to perfect a limited number
and bring them up to methodical preci-
sion through constant daily practice.
AT NEW HAVEN.
At New Haven the number of expe-
rienced men is so much smaller than at
either Harvard or Princeton as to make
the losses of the latter two seem slight.
In fact, there has never been a period
in Yale’s football history, save perhaps
in Peters’ year (’85), when the outlook
for serviceable men has been so gloomy.
At the present writing it appears that
the men remaining from last year’s
team will not be more than three, and
for two or three years the material that
might be relied upon to replace vet-
erans has been growing light. The
exigencies of the present have been so
pressing that to-morrow’s needs have
been lost sight of, and the result is that,
instead of the feeling, so often voiced
by Yale coaches, that the substitutes
(and that means often the next year’s
team) were as good as the regulars,
there has been a sense of insecurity and
an abnormal dread of accident to chosen
men. Last year a full-back had to be
made of a good end, a quarter had to