UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL TEAM HAS EXPERIENCED UNUSUALLY STRENUOUS SCHEDULE THIS YEAR

Early in September, when the coaching staff faced the material for the 1915 University football team, there arose a problem vastly different from that to be solved last year. Unlike the candidates for Captain Brickley's eleven, the men who reported to Captain Mahan were for the most part very inexperienced, comparatively untutored in the rudiments of the game. With an exceptionally stiff schedule ahead, then, the problem confronting Coach Haughton last September was quickly to whip an eleven into shape and at the same time to drill fundamentals into a "green" squad. A kind Providence has proved lenient in keeping small the injured list, but the history of the season to date well shows the difficulties which the coaches have had to meet in handling the 1915 football problem.

First Game Showed Weaknesses.

As was to be expected, the first game, with Colby, proved a fertile field for the appearance of weaknesses in the team's play. That the University was able to run up 39 points was simply an indication of individual prowess; that the mediocre Colby team scored 6 points was due to the weakness of the Crimson line. The following Saturday brought forth a brand of football little better. "Watchful waiting," with Harte's interception of a forward pass in the last few minutes of play, gave Harvard a 7 to 0 victory over M. A. C. The same well-known policy proved lucrative in the next game, in which Carlisle was sent home with a 29 to 7 defeat. Two of the University's four touchdowns came as a result of that policy, and it is significant of the slow progress being made at that time that the Indians more than doubly out-rushed the Crimson, and gained more than twice as many first downs. Taylor, at centre, standing out as the mainstay of a line still weak on defense, put up a game in this contest which insured for him a regular place at guard when Wallace's eligibility later displaced him.

The appearance of the strong Virginia eleven in the Stadium marked the beginning of mid-season football, both in the importance of games and in the form shown by Harvard. The line showed great improvement, and although the University was unable to push the ball over for a touchdown, Mahan's clever drop-kicking sufficed to defeat the Southerners by a 9 to 0 score. The Virginia men are to be remembered for their exceptionally sportsmanlike spirit, and it is hoped that their appearance on the Harvard schedule will become a fixture.

First Defeat Since 1911.

In Cornell the University team met a tartar, the first encountered in the Stadium since 1911. An off-day for Captain Mahan, in itself a noteworthy epoch, coupled with the uncanny alertness of the Ithacans, was enough to give Cornell the 10 to 0 victory. A fumble at the very start, when the University men had not yet become accustomed to their opponents' style of play, gave Cornell the opportunity, and a short series of impressive smashes through a surprised Crim- son line gave the visitors a lead to which Shiverick later added with a pretty drop-kick. More fumbling and more Cornell alertness kept Harvard almost continually on a hopeless defensive, and Cornell won her first victory over Harvard.

Penn. State, with a team hailed as the best ever, and with a record of having tied last year's championship eleven, next came to Cambridge and after the test at the Stadium went back to Pennsylvania with a 13 to 0 defeat. Although the Harvard line was inferior, and the interference still noticeably weak, Captain Mahan's brilliant play and Parson's keen following of the ball gave the University two touchdowns, which proved decisive. In this game there appeared for the first time an embryonic power in the University's attack, ragged but great, for the second score was the direct result of an impressive drive down the field of 82 yards.

Taking a page from this year's history of football, the University team got an early jump in the next contest and in the Palmer Stadium defeated the strong Tiger eleven 10 to 6. All the points of play which had hitherto been weaknesses were in this game turned to assets, for the early jump and the alertness for the ball were great factors in the proving of the Crimson's superiority. Each team showed a brilliant offense, but Harvard's stronger defense gave the team an advantage which forced Princeton's captain quarterback to turn to Tibbott's drop-kicking for his eleven's futile 6 points. The game was declared by all experts to be a model example of the best brand of college football.

Team Has Long Rest.

So hard-played was the battle with Princeton that Coach Haughton and Trainer Donovan decided it wise to give the regulars an extended rest, and in spite of the strong record of the Brown team, Team B was sent in against it in last Saturday's game. What proved a one-man team went down in easy defeat before the substitutes, however, and only a spasmodic effort in the last, quarter gave Brown the points to place on her end of the 16 to 7 score.

The season, then, shows a record of one defeat and seven victories. This year, certainly a not more than average one in point of material, should thus far have taught the schedule framers an important lesson; that with the rising excellence of "small college" football and with the reappearance of merely average material for Crimson teams, it will in future be advisable to confine all the preliminary and the first of the mid-season dates to contests which will build up the team and not retard it. Special preparations for "minor" games, made necessary by the fact that the "minor" teams have been working simply with the Harvard game in view, undoubtedly serve as stumbling blocks in the path of the eleven's progress, and another year will probably see a more natural arrangement of the schedule for the University football team