The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-11-23
ELI And HARVARD.
Charles e. Brickley Compares
Strength of Two Teams.
LeGOre Will Be the Best Man in
the Big Grid Classic.
BY CHARLES e. BRICKLEY.

Can Harvard beat Yale for the fifth
successive year? is the question that
is occupying the minds of Harvard
graduates and undergraduates Be
fore the Harvard Cornell game a big
query mark would have been put aft
er this question. for Yale looked very
strong. Harvard had been beaten by
Tufts, while the Yale slate had been
kept clean. But now the Harvard
team has come into it's own. 1t has
been tested in the Cornell and Prince
ton games and not found wanting
Yale, on the other hand, started the
season well, but received a severe set
back at the hands of Brown. 1t did
not seem possible that a small team
could beat Yale this year, so powerful
did the Blue appear, but Colgate held
it to a 7-3 score and Brown trounced
the Bulldog severely.
At various times during the season.
1 have talked with Yale players and
they were unanimous in the belief
that this year Yale had one of it's
traditional great teams, and so it may
have, for the defeat by Brown may be
just the stimulus needed to make Yale
take hold nightly. At any rate. there
is no oVer-confidence in the Harvard
camp There is never any over-con-
fidence among the members of team
coached by Haughton.
y Harvard players realize that at
Yale this year there is wonderful ma
terial and a good coaching staff; and
they realize that Yale will fight des-
perately to break its string of defeats
at the hands of Harvard. Up to the
Princeton game Harvard had what
might be called a green team. Most
of the men were new at the beginning
of the season. Haughton was not
there to start things going. In his
absence Leo Leary did fine job. He
and his coaches taught the men the
same old Harvard fundamentals and
had the squad in shape so that
Haughton could take up the develop
ment along more scientific and decep-
tive lines. Leary's task was a hard
one and he deserves credit for the
manner in which he carried it out
Yale line Superior?
Coming down to the rush lines of
the two teams, it would seem on pa
per that Yale is the superior owing to
its greater weight and strength, but,
to my mind, the Harvard rush line
will be superior because of its greater
ability to diagnose plays plus a bet
ter knowledge of the football funda-
mentals. The Yale line has been we'll
coached this year, but Harvard has
had the benefit of years of the
Haughton system of line play and
should be able to outguess and out
play the Yale line.
1t is in the rush line that the big
games are won or lost, so that great
deal depends upon the play of the two
lines. Captain Black of Yale is about
on par with Captain Dadmun of
Harvard. Both are all-American ma
terial. 1t will be interesting to COM
pare their work in the coming strug-
gle. Outside of Dadmun, the whole
Harvard line, from tackle to tackle
, is practically new. The Yale line has
been shifted time and time again this
year and will have to be picked soon
| order a ipe
| Harvard.
Yale has good ends, especially Char
| lie COmerford, the old Exeter PLAYER
whose work has been a feature in
every game. He is big and strong
and fast and should be a wonderful
| player before his college career is over
In Harte and Coolidge, Harvard has a
fine pair of end men. Dick Harte is
always on the job in every play His
quickness saved Princeton from scor-
ing on Harvard, when he dashed after
Princeton man who had picked up
a fumbled ball and got him in spite
of the fact that he had to get by a
| Princeton interferer to do it. Charlie
Coolidge played wonderful game
against Princeton. He was neither
boxed nor fooled by single Princeton
! play. His down -the-field work was
clean cut, while his offensive work
was all that could be expected.
The Quarterbacks.
In the quarterback position Yale
has Smith, a man who is more clever
with carrying the ball than any of
the Harvard quarterbacks, but who
does not measure up to either Robin
son or Murray when it comes to select
ing his plays. Both Robinson and
| Murray have been put to the test in
| big games and have come thru with
/ colors flying. In addition, Harvard
! has in Gardner, a good substitute for
! these two men. Smiths work against
Princeton may give him the confid-
| ence he needs. La Roche and Van
Norstrand are good substitutes, so that
| Yale is we'll fortified in this position.
The backfields of the two teams are
about on a par. LIE Gore is the best
all-around man on either team, for he
can kick, run, and pass equally we'll
However, Horween, Casey and Flower,
among them, can offset ANYTHING that