Praise---A Football Coach's Nightmare

Lehigh coach Mike Cooley really put John Yovicsin on the spot at the post game press conference Saturday. "I don't want to put John on the spot" Cooley said with an impish grin, "but we scrimmaged Princeton two weeks ago and I think Harvard has a better running game."

Yovicsin winced noticeably. The one thing a football coach cannot stand is being told he has a good team. On the surface this might appear to be merely an occupational tendency to masochism, but actually Yovicsin's reaction is quite understandable.

When all signs point to a team getting clobbered, a coach at least can appeal to the players' sense of self-preservation if not school spirit, in "getting the boys up" for Saturday's battle. But when a team is favored, the players may just as soon go for a beer rather than practice blocking in their spare time.

Princeton reportedly has the speediest backfield the Ivy League has seen in years, and Yovicsin probably was gleefully contemplating his pre-game pep talk when the Crimson plays the Tigers Nov. 3.

But Yovicsin himself had trouble restraining his enthusiasm following Saturday's game. He even indulged in a bit of jousting with the assembled press.