OPTIMISM HIGH IN ELI CAMP BEFORE CLASSIC

Not since All-American Larry Kelley and Clint Frank collaborated in their two man touchdown parades back in 1936 has Yale had a Big Three title to gloat over in the long winter months. But optimism is running high in Eli town this week. It's a husky, healthy, hard-hitting Bulldog, with even more than the usual esprit de corps, that is hard at work concecting a warm Blue punch with which to fill the Bowl this Saturday.

When the Ellis came out to face Peabody and his mates last fall, their offense was based on the Fielding Yost formula, they had Ed Taylor passing and punting and the rest of the team praying. Taylor will be right in there will the passes and punts again, but the rest of the men in Blue will be too busy executing Coach Howie Odell's well laid plans to do (or to need) much in the way of prayers.

They Plle It On

That this much talked-of Yale football renaissance is anything but a fiction is proved by the records. Four touchdowns against Brown after the three against Dartmouth and finally two to beat Princeton attest to the explosiveness of the Yale attack, which has piled up 109 points this season as contrasted with the Harlowmen's total of 40.

Perhaps the regeneration can be explained by the appearance of new coaching talent on the Blue horizon in the person of Howie Odell. Operating from a basic single wing-back formation, Odell has combined the features of attacks that he learned while coaching at Pittsburgh (under that canny old fundamentalist Jock Sutherland), Harvard, and Pennsylvania. The secret of his winning system and the tip-off on what to watch for when and if Yale starts to march on Saturday can be gleaned from his own words:

Comparisons Inconclusive

"I hate to disappoint people who expect something sensational . . . but trick plays of the shoestring variety don't constitute a successful football system. You've got to go back to the bedrock of blocking, tackling, and position play, and rehearse your kids until they are letter perfect in their assignments."

The generally muddled and confused gridiron situation detracts from the value of a comparison of the Crimson and Eli records against mutual rivals, but, for whatever it may indicate: Yale played a better (and a winning) game against Dartmouth and, on the other hand, Harvard was better against Penn. Both were a touchdown ahead of Princeton, but the Blue was superior against Brown, which might be explained by Margarita's inability to play against-Yale.