Yale Will Sport Double Wing Attack Tight Defense, In New Haven Today

When Yale head football coach John Pont left New Haven for the more fertile fields of Big Ten football, the Yale Athletic Association did not have to look far for a successor. Within three weeks, backfield coach Carmen Cozza, a long time friend and associate of Pont, was named to the post.

Cozza roomed with Pont for four years at Miami of Ohio, played quarterback when his roommate was setting a school rushing record at halfback, and was Pont's top assistant at both Miami and Yale. The style of football played at the Bowl this season, then, is much the same as spectators saw in Harvard Stadium last year, with slight variations due to changes in personnel.

A Sound Ground Game

Like Pont, Cozza would much rather establish a sound ground game than go to the air. He prefers to pass only to keep defenses honest, especially this season when the Elis have lacked a consistent quarterback.

At the beginning of the year, Yale operated out of the basic split-T with an end split ten yards to one side and a halfback flanked to the other side. Soon, however, Cozza and his staff realized that opposing teams were concentrating their defenses on the side of Yale's tight end, where most of the running plays were directed. This concentration combined with the loss of powerful fullback Chuck Mercein virtually neutralized the Yale ground game during the first part of the season.

To counteract the moves of the defenses, Cozza has tried a variety of formations, some with more success than others.

The Straight T

Against Brown, it was the straight T formation with no backfield flankers. The formation only produced three points but that was good enough for a Yale win. Against Penn, the Elis unveiled the double wing, which had moderate success against both the Quakers and Princeton.

The double wing (employed frequently by Dartmouth's Bob Blackman) brings the split end in next to the tackle where his blocking ability can be utilized, and flanks both halfbacks outside the end leaving the fullback as a single setback. A halfback usually goes in motion before the ball is snapped, giving the whole setup more versatility.

Off of the double wing, Yale likes to specialize in counter plays such as the scissors and the inside reverse, where a halfback ends up going against the flow of the defense. The holes in the line have usually been there, but the lack of speed in the Yale backfield has resulted in relatively short gains.

Action Passes

Yale uses chiefly play action passes--in other words the play will start as if it were a run with a couple of fakes into the line, but develop into a pass with the back who engineered the fake as a prime receiver. The quarterback rarely drops straight back, but will occasionally roll out to his left or right.

Quarterback Watts Humphrey has had his on and off days. He set a new Yale League record of 16 completions against Dartmouth, but was only one for eleven in the first half against Princeton. If Humphrey plays well, the Yale offense can be very hard to stop. He is a decent runner and runs the option well.

Cozza's Defense

On defense, Cozza likes to use a five man front with two lines-backers, three deep men, and a roving or "monster" back who frequently lines up outside the end on the opponents' strong side. The three-man center of the defensive line, Bob Greenlee, Dave Laidley, and Glenn Greenberg, is big and tough to move, but the ends have proved vulnerable, especially against Princeton.

Overall, however, the Yale defense has been solid, entering the Princeton game as statistically the best defensive unit in the league.

Venturing a prediction on THE GAME I would say that it will be very close and low-scoring with the victor decided by less than a touchdown. The outcome with depend on which quarterback, McCluske or Humphrey, has the better day.