Evening capital and Maryland gazette., 1912-11-08
LOOKING FORWARD TO
THE ARMY.NAVY GAME
Election Over and Contest is Next
National Event.
MIDDIES ROUNDING IN FORM.
Leonard Developing Qualities Of Star
Halfback But Team is Much Be-
low Standard to Win.

With the political campaign that
had been the all.absorbing topic for
several months. now a thing of the
past, the event that will attract great
interest locally as well as otherwise
for the next several weeks, will be
the Army Navy football game to be
phia,, on November 80.
Everyone here is hoping for an
other "Big Navy Day" as a result of
the clash between the two teams, but
the showing made by the Middies in
the preliminary games so far. gives
very little encouragement for a vic
tory over the soldier lads. Based
upon past performances of the rivals,
if they were to meet tomorrow, it
would be safe 8 to l bet that the
Pointers would emerge with the big
end of the score.
The team has been in disor-
ganized state since the beginning of
the season. There has been no con-
certed team work to mark their play,
and in no game have they showed
anything like the pace led by last
years victorious team at the
outset of the seasons campaign.
With only three weeks remaining
before the big contest, the coaches
are still forced to experimental tac-
tics. Somehow or other they have
been utterly unable to hit upon the
right kind of combination, particu-
larly in the backfield that " ouId pro-
duce scoring team. But, as d re-
suit OF Chis weeks practice, the
coaches now feel that the players are
gradually coming into their own, and
by che time they trot onto Franklin
Field they will have reached the
point of perfe ction, both in training
and playing ability.
With the wealth of material that
was available at the beginning of the
seasons practice, there was every
prospect of whipping a strong aggre-
cation into shape at short order.
Such, however, was not the case.
This player and that has showed de-
cided slumps. with the result that il
has been case of constantly shifting
the men about, giving all hands a
thorough chance to show just what
football stuff they had in them.
Tomorrow the Middies will 90
against Bucknell, and while no special
preparation has been made for this
contest, still the hard practice of
this week has developed noticeable
improvement in the opinion of the
coaching staff. One thing has been
demonstrated in late practice work,
and that is that the team has one fast
and clever man for the backfield, and
who will undoubtedly be seen in the
lineup against the soldier boys.
This lad is Leonard, one of last
seasons squad, and whose strong
playing has ofttimes been comment
ed upon through the columns of The
Capital. Fleet of foot and clever
dodger, he possesses just the quail
ifications for back as football is
played Under the revised rules. And
the fact that he is the best punter
of the lot, not only in point of
distance, but in the placing of his
kicks. renders his services a valuable
acquisition to the team.
Leonard began the years work
WOiig OAS AAhC AlObN VI the OlucE play
ers, he went back, but just now he is
coming along finely. He is rather
lacking in avoirdupois, but with the
attributes of speed and running in
broken field, and with heavy, strong
line in front of him, more than offsets
that. At present the Varsity back
fields made up Of Captain Rodes, at
quarter; Leonard and Ingram, as
halves, and H. Harrison, a Plebe,
playing fullback.
This combination is regarded by
the coaches as about the strongest
that has been mustered together this
year. And there is any number OF
good men among the second string
who could be called upon in a pinch,
and whose services, probably, would
not weaken the team a bit. These
include Nichols, quarterback; Cook
and Bates, as halves, and Failing, full
back. The makeup of the backfield
is the thing that lis worrying the
coaches most, for it is felt that with
the large number of huskies, mostly
veterans, of one or more seasons,
the weaknesses of defensive work