Yovicsin Doubts Any Rules Change On Substitutions

Head football coach John Yovicsin said yesterday that he doubts the National collegiate Athletic Association Rules. Committee will accept the recent recommendation of the country's football coaches to liberalize the game's substitution rules.

The NCAA Committee, meeting in Miami Beach, Fla., will vote today on the American Football Coaches Association request to return to unlimited substitutions and the platoon system, voted out of existence seven years ago.

Yovicsin said that he voted for the recommendation at the coaches' meeting last week but added to the questionnaire his opinion that substitutions should be made, as last season, only when time is out. Of the 603 head coaches, 392 asked for substitutions at any time during the game.

The rule now in effect which allows a player to re-enter the game only once each period, is a "headache," according to Yovicsin. He said the bookkeeping involved for officials should be abolished and can be by the recommended rule changes.

The Harvard head coach is waging a campaign "to bring the foot back into football," he added yesterday, in advocating that goal posts be moved up from the rear of the end zone to the goal line. At the meeting the coaches defeated the measure by a slight plurality.