Yovicsin Worried About Defense, Wants Effort to Contain End Runs

It won't matter against Tufts, but Harvard is going to have to play better defensive football to keep winning, and Coach John Yovicsin knows it.

Yovvy isn't blaming anyone in particular for last Saturday's performance -- he'll be starting the same eleven men tomorrow. What he wants is better containment of the quarterback within the "defensive perimeter," keeping him from getting around the end.

Depending on how the play develops, this is sometimes the job of the defensive ends, sometimes the cornerbacks, and sometimes the linebackers, the coach explained after practice Wednesday night. "No one was doing the job well against Lafayette."

"I'm worried about defensive end," Yovvy said quietly as he was pulling his T-shirt over his head in his dressing room. "Justin Hughes seems to be bothered by the knee operation he had last Spring. It's more of a mental problem than a physical one, I believe. In any case, he could be a better player than he has shown so far."

Actually, Hughes and Co. only allowed seven points, but Lafayette quarterback Gary Marshall and tailback Richard Craw frequently carried around their right end on third and long yardage, and they were making first downs almost at will. Hughes and the other defensive end, 190 lb. Vic Petzy, were annihilated on just about every play.

Pursuit

Containing the end runs was not the only problem, Yovicsin said. "We've also been working on pursuit." Pursuit simply means chasing the play instead of waiting for it to come to you.

Under the lights on the practice field Wednesday night, defensive line coach Jim Lentz bellowed to linebacker Don Chiofaro, "Don, you're waiting on him. You've got to move in." On the next play, Chiofaro did just that, and he swallowed the ball carrier whole a yard behind the scrimmage line.

The team had a good workout Wednesday night, "but not as sharp as the night before," Yovvy admitted. "You can't keep the boys at the same level all week, but there will be no letdown for Tufts."

Yovicsin is not saying that Tufts is a good team -- no one who knows football should say that. But the coach is concerned with "looking like a better football team than last week."

"...Offense, Too"

"We have to improve on offense, too," he added. "Sure, we scored 30 points, but we could have scored more. We fumbled six times."

The strength of the offensive line last week is all the more amazing when you realize that both guards, Al Bersin and Bob Flanagan, and center Joe O'Donnell, are all green. Yovicsin gives a lot of credit to tackles Bob Brooks and Steve Diamond, who not only ripped giant holes in the defense, but called offensive blocking signals as well. This "line-quarter-backing" is important when you play a team that does a lot of stunting, like Lafayette.

Tufts was scouting at Soldiers Field last week. We can look for them to be running around the ends a good deal, and we can watch whether the Crimson defense has learned to contain and pursue.

It ought to be more fun than watching the lopsided score pile up.