C0LL1ATE 



THE VA&SITY TEAMS. 



The tendency of the college man, particu- 

 larly the undergraduate, to exaggerate, is so 

 pronounced that it is hard before the start 

 of any season to get an adequate idea of the 

 possibilities ahead from any estimate made' 

 by an interested party. It is equally difficult 

 before the gathering of the candidates, and 

 not easy then, to judge the material on which 

 the teams must build. It is impossible to say 

 how the system to be employed will be suited 

 to the material at hand or to what extent 

 the coaches, swayed by changing conditions, 

 will adapt their system to their material. All 

 these things go to make or mar the success 

 of every one of the elevens that appears on 

 the college gridiron, and for any one to ac- 

 curately attempt to forecast a month before 

 the outcome of the big games is to court ridi- 

 cule. At this time it is only practicable to 

 indicate the possibilities of the teams as they 

 appear from the elements that will go to 

 make up the results and leave these results 

 for time to develop. 



Two weeks before the gathering of candi- 

 dates at the larger universities there was a 

 pronounced tendency to assume that Har- 

 vard and Pennsylvania would have the 

 strongest teams of the year and would find 

 no difficulty in defeating Yale or Princeton, 

 were they to play the Tigers ; that Yale was 

 in sore straits, and the Tigers almost as bad- 

 ly off; that Cornell had excellent possibili- 

 ties and mi^ht defeat Princeton ; that Co- 

 lumbia was likely to prove the butt of all the 

 larger teams, and that West Point, Carlisle, 

 and Dartmouth would be strong enough to 

 worry any opponent. In the main these state- 

 ments were true, but they were so grossly 

 exaggerated as to be worthless. 



Take first of all, Harvard. That the crim- 

 son has this year the largest lot of experi- 

 enced material of any of the colleges is true, 

 but no one should overlook the character of 

 that material. Had Harvard last year on her 

 team more than one man who played first- 

 class football in every sense? And if given 

 the same men even against inferior Yale or 

 Pennsylvania teams would they be likely to 

 develop into first-class players? Viewed 

 from that standpoint, even though the Cam- 

 bridge team will have experience, it is not 

 the sort of experienced material that any 



coach would care to pin much faith upon 

 unless there can be infused into it a very dif- 

 ferent spirit from that it has shown in any 

 previous season. That Reid has this inspiring 

 faculty is true, but it is likely that the final 

 eleven when it appears on the field in the 

 Yale game will contain comparatively few of 

 the men who played last year. 



It is well known that Harvard has run to 

 brawn rather than to activity. The big 300 

 pounder has received consideration, whereas 

 at any of the other three big colleges he 

 would have been found in the discard almost 

 from the first. The rangy type that marked 

 every other team has with few exceptions 

 been woefully absent from Harvard's since 

 1893, and without that type success is almost 

 impossible unless one has the aid of excep- 

 tional backs of Dibblee or Daly type. 



Harvard has not this year Dalys or Dib- 

 blees. She has a first-class lot of material 

 for a back field, but it will take a line of 

 first-class men to enable her to beat Penn- 

 sylvania and to be sure of victory over Yale. 

 Reid is very likely to discard many of the big 

 fat men of last year's Harvard team, and to 

 find in the student body at Harvard new 

 men to take their places who will fill the bill, 

 but there is really no certainty that she will 

 be victorious and there is a big chance, espe- 

 cially against Pennsylvania, that she will not. 



So, too, Pennsylvania's strength has been 

 exaggerated. She has many old men of last 

 year's team who are playing again, and some 

 good men in the places of those who are ab- 

 sent. The loss, however, of Piekarksi and 

 Smith in the offense, and Smith in defense is 

 a mighty hard blow to counteract. The loss 

 of a tackle and an end will be difficult to re- 

 place, and the necessity of building around 

 different men from those who were the 

 foundation of last year's attack and defense 

 is a serious weakness. Nevertheless the 

 chances of the Quakers appear better than 

 Harvard's, all things considered, and it is 

 more likely that she will realize what is ex- 

 pected of her than that the Crimson will. 



The main strength of Pennsylvania lies in 

 little Stevenson, whose abilities are truly 

 phenomenal. They are sure of a centre and 

 quarter-back working satisfactorily together, 

 and three backs behind the quarter who have 

 played with him. These are important in at- 



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