REVIEW OF HARVARD SEASON SHOWS PHENOMENAL PROGRESS BETWEEN TUFTS AND CORNELL CONTESTS

The University football squad started training in September with but half a dozen veterans left from the 1915 team, which defeated Princeton 10 to 6 and Yale 41 to 0. The problem of welding together a team of eleven men who would act as a unit was therefore a particularly hard one for the coaches, especially as the season ahead of them was longer than usual and began as early as September 23. The candidates from the 1919 Freshman team, however, were promising, and the coaches immediately saw the possibility of making some of them into University material. They apparently did not develop as well as expected, however, for Casey is the only Sophomore who may be said to hold down a regular position on the team.

L. H. Leary '05 Acting Head Coach.

More important perhaps than the lack of veterans was the inability of Head Coach Haughton to be out at practice or do any coaching until nearly the middle of October. L. H. Leary '05, who has coached the ends on the victorious teams of the last few years, directed the squad until Coach Haughton's business duties enabled him to come to the field, but the presence of the head coach was necessary before the team really found itself.

The development of the team has been slower this fall than for several years past. The season started with Colby as the University's opponent on September 23, and the first game resulted in a victory for the University by the small score of 10 to 0. Although Colby has since won the Maine championship, her team at the time of the game with the University was not a strong one and the fact that the University could not roll up a larger score indicates the original weak offensive power of the team. The following week Bates was defeated 26 to 0, but despite the size of the score, the game was hard fought throughout. The victory was won by a steady drive through a considerably lighter team which, however, put up a good fight.

Early Offensive Power Overrated.

The University team had apparently developed an offensive power, according to the result of the Bates game, but when Tufts came to the Stadium, this was proved to be true only against a weak eleven. For Tufts outplayed the University not only on the offence but also on the defence, and the Medford team won a 7 to 3 victory.

Although the University's defence crumpled like paper when the ball was in the middle of the field, it tightened up when the goal was threatened. The most gratifying feature of the game from the Crimson standpoint was the sterling defence put up by the team when it held Tufts for four downs on its one-yard line. Tufts was able to win because of its superior forward and lateral passing game against which the Crimson had no adequate defence. The touchdown which gave the University its second defeat since 1911 was due to a long gain by Captain Westcott of Tufts on a triple lateral pass.

Line Strengthened for N. C. Game.

The Tufts defeat showed that the University line needed to be greatly strengthened and this the coaches proceeded to do. The first test of the remade team came in the game with North Carolina. The University scored three touchdowns and held the Southerners scoreless, winning 21 to 0. The game showed that the hard work of the weeks before had borne fruit, and with Coach Haughton able to be at practice regularly from that time on, the team began to find itself. Massachusetts Agriculture College was overwhelmed, 47 to 0, on October 21, and this victory seemed to instill confidence in the team. M. A. C. has undoubtedly the weakest team the University, has opposed this year and had not recovered from its defeat by Dartmouth the week before, but the fact that it was able to make only one first down, which was disallowed owing to a penalty, indicated that the strength of the Crimson line had been enormously increased. It was only natural that the University should roll up a large score but what was significant was that three of the seven touchdowns were made by the substitutes in the second half.

Ithacans Completely Outplayed.

The Cornell team, greatly feared and overrated, proved no match for the University. The Ithacans were outplayed in every department of the game and lost 23 to 0. The Crimson had prepared an open style of play for particular use against the Cornellians, who specialize in the forward passing game, and this use of their own plays against them was the downfall of the visitors. Much had been expected from Cornell but the failure of the eleven to show any real power did not detract from the great victory of the Crimson team. The Haughton system was again vindicated and the University team at once became a real factor for the Princeton and Yale games and was no longer considered a second-rate organization.

Cornell's Fumbles Costly.

Cornell's chief defect was a tendency to fumble, especially at critical moments, and an inability to follow the ball after a fumble. Two of the University's touchdowns were due to Ithacan fumbles and every time a Cornell player dropped the ball it was picked up by a Harvard man. The only time in the whole game that Cornell had a good chance to be dangerous it lost the ball on a fumble.

The regulars were given a long rest following the Cornell game and a partly substitute team was started against Virginia. The substitutes showed up extremely well and walked over the Southerners by a 51-to-0 score. This game was a final proof of the fact that the University had "come back," for seven touchdowns were scored by the first, second and third string substitutes. The Crimson team had changed from an aggregation of eleven men each of whom appeared good individually, to a machine of eleven men, all working as a unit, into which substitutes could be added without impairing its efficiency.

Team Now Fully "Haughtonized."

It is a machine like this, a real product of the Haughton system of coaching, that will face Princeton this afternoon. The University football team has won six games and lost one, but the machine, developed after the check by Tufts, has yet to be defeated. The victory of the Medford team was undoubtedly due in great measure to the fact that it had prepared for many days for the contest with the University, while Coach Leary had not made any more than the usual preparations for a so-called "minor" college team. Tufts proved to be anything but a "minor" college eleven and showed the fallacy of placing so early on the schedule a team which is likely to prove a stumbling block in the progress of the University team