Vou. -VIL: Nos % MR. CAMP'S OPINION. Yale Making an Heroic Effort to Overcome a Bad Handicap— Players Full of Fight. Two years ago Yale defeated Prince- ton in an intensely exciting contest in New York. The two most lasting memories of this occasion were the re- markable work of Captain Thorne of Yale and the telling play, of a revolv- ing mass nature, operated by Prince- ton so successfully in the second half of the game. Probably every Prince- ton man carried away visions of Thorne speeding down the field, throwing off or eluding men as though he had a charm concealed in his jacket, and it was with a sigh of relief that they re- flected that, at any rate, it was the last time they should see that man behind Yale’s line. But the memory that Yale men bore away was different. They had won, but a play, had been used upon them which their defense had not satisfactorily met, and that play would not graduate as would Thorne. Ex- Captain Hinkey, who had coached the Yale team that year, in speaking, previ- ous to the game, of their chances against Princeton, had said that their defense was erratic and weak, but that they were a scoring team; that Prince- ton would undoubtedly score, as had several other teams, but that Yale would score too, and it would be a case of who could score fastest and most. The game carried out his prediction. — Just at this juncture in the football season of 1897 it is well to look back upon that bit of ancient history and see what was being done by both teams individually after that Yale victory. Princeton went to work to do two things: to build up a stronger defense and to perfect the play that had proven in its elementary stage so wonderfully effective. Yale retired on her laurels. There was no immediate consideration of the position and no Winter study of what should be done to continue Yale’s lead: - In : the ; past = Year --Princeton, with her play more highly developed and her defensive tactics greatly ad- vanced, simply slaughtered Yale. It would not seem to be over-difficult for Yale, having been pitted against that style of play for two years, to have put heads together and to have journeyed to Princeton, where a few days after the University match the Princeton Freshmen performed in a crude way the same type of play, and to have thus made themselves thoroughly masters of the technique of the movement. Having transferred it to paper and studied it over, Yale should have had a second eleven thoroughly able to perform it this year and give the University steady daily practice in meeting it. Yale should also have studied the develop- ments in the play of Harvard and Penn- sylvania. In addition, if it seemed ad- visable, the Yale University could have adopted such ideas as seemed prom- ising. WHAT YALE HAS LACKED. But the old question arises at this point, who should have done all this— the retiring captain? No; he could not be on hand to teach it, even had he learned it. The incoming captain, then? No, for he did not exist. So there was nobody, and the thing was not done. . This year the greatest as- sistance to Mr. Butterworth and his staff of coaches, and the most valuable possession for Yale, would have been a second eleven that could, from the -be- ginning, put forth with force and vigor a play of this order. It would aid not alone for the Princeton contest, but -hospital list at once. for the Harvard match; for Harvard will certainly be playing concentrated mass plays on tackle with a runner going out around the end, just as Princeton and Pennsylvania are doing. The very evidence needed to prove that Yale’s defense must be weak and re- quire strengthening in just such a fashion, the last week in October has generously furnished. The second eleven, with absolutely no practice but simply formed into mass plays, were able to push the University line aside, run over it, and finally actually score without marked opposition. There is no team in the country that has not mass plays in hand, and hence it fol- lows that when Yale meets them, as in the Brown game and as in the case of the second eleven, the Yale University team goes down before tnem. The fault in all this lies not with the pres- ent coach or captain, or with any for- fier coach. -or captain. I[t