Bob Blackman Previews the '65 Season

ALL speculations about the 1965 football season must be made with the new substitution rule in mind. After changing the rule each season during the past eight years, the rules committee this year adopted one very similar to what is used in pro football. For the average football fan this will be far easier to understand than the complex rulings of the past few years, but it will make the old-fashioned "two-way" football player practically obsolete. Since the new rule allows an entire team to be inserted whenever the ball changes hands, I anticipate that every college team in the country will go to a complete two-platoon system on the assumption that an athlete is bound to do one thing better by concentrating 100% of his time in practice on either offensive or defensive skills. This means that every coach will be looking for 22 first-string football players and in many cases this will be a real problem.

To accurately judge a team's strength for the coming year, I suggest it will be necessary to evaluate it on the following six points:

(1) offensive backfield

(2) offensive line

(3) defensive backfield

(4) defensive line

(5) kicking game

(6) the help received from sophomores,

With this in mind, I will try to analyze how we appear to stack up at this time in each of the six categories.

(1) OFFENSIVE BACKFIELD: could be strong. We lose half of last year's backfield (QB Bruce Gottschall and captain and right half Jack McLean) but I am hopeful that we will have a set of offensive backs who will be very exciting to watch. This is the first time we have ever been blessed with two big experienced ball-carriers returning at the fullback spot. If Mike Urbanic and Pete Walton live up to the promise they showed last season, it is possible that Mike may be used at halfback so that we can have them both in the backfield at the same time. Mickey Beard was somewhat, erratic as a sophomore, but shows signs of real greatness at quarterback. He is the type of athlete who has the knack for making the big play, and I think he will keep the opponents guessing, and the fans on their feet, a good portion of the time during the coming season.

Our halfbacks will be small, but Bobby O'Brien and Paul Klungness are both elusive runners and have good pass-receiving ability, so should be a constant threat. Tommy Thompson, Gene Nattie, and Roger Pezzuti are other possibilities here. Dartmouth has been the only team in the country to be ranked in the top five in the entire nation in total offense two out of the last three years, and hopefully we should again be able to move the ball well provided our offensive line develops.

(2) OFFENSIVE LINE: Fair, very thin in depth. We should have good passreceiving ends. Steve Bryan is very slender and has trouble keeping his weight above 175, and yet he has proven to be a very dependable blocker the past two seasons as well as a good receiver. I will go way out on a limb and say that if Bob MacLeod Jr. can continue to improve at the rate he did as a sophomore, he could become one of the great passreceivers in the nation. At 6' 4" and 200 pounds he has good size; he is becoming more aggressive all the time, and he loves to catch that football. Whenever Bob's name was mentioned last year he was always spoken of as "the son of Bob MacLeod Sr., the great Dartmouth halfback." It is my hope that after the next two seasons when Bob MacLeod Sr. is introduced it will be as "the father of that great Dartmouth end." John McConnaughey and Rick Lannon should also see some action as offensive ends.

The interior of the offensive line could be a problem. Four of our best tackles are gone (Frederick, Christianson, Hudak, and Boyan), our three top guards have departed (Keible, Bracken, and Sapione), and three of the four centers on our squad have graduated (including Bob Komices who led our team in minutes played last season). Although we are very shallow at tackle, Dan Williams and Dave Coughlin could be a good pair of starting offensive tackles (provided Williams has recovered from a knee operation). Tony Yezer will be very dependable at one offensive guard, but the other guard spot and our center position are wide open. We hope that Bill Sjogren, who sat out most of last season with an injury, will do the job at guard. We have moved Chuck Matuszak, a JV tackle last year, over to the center position and from his determined attitude we think he will come into his own this year. Incidentally, Chuck's father was an Ail-American back and captain at Cornell.

(3) DEFENSIVE BACKFIELD: Must be rated weak at this time because of inexperience. Traditionally Dartmouth has been noted for its strong defense. In the eight years of official Ivy League play, Dartmouth led the League in total defense five years and was edged out by a small margin for the leadership in two other years. Last season Dartmouth led the League by a wide margin in total offense, but our defense was the weakest it has ever been. As a result we finished the lowest we ever have in the final Ivy League standings, fourth. Our coaching staff is very concerned about this because we know it takes a strong defense to win and our defense personnel will be extremely inexperienced this year. The best backs with defensive ability last season (McLean, Gottschall, Perinchief, Feldman, etc.) have all graduated. The only two returning men who have ever been in a game on defense are Wynn Mabry, who will play the right defensive halfback spot, and Erv Burkholder who is still very questionable because of a bad knee.

(4) DEFENSIVE LINE: Must be rated poor at present because of so many intangibles. The two men who could anchor our defensive line are Captain Tom Clarke at end, and Jerry LaMontagne at tackle. Both boys had broken legs last season and it is not yet known if they have fully recovered. If both are able to play up to their capabilities, it will go a long way to bolster our defense. Clarke, incidentally, will make a fine captain as he is the type of conscientious, hard-working individual who inspires the others. If his leg is fully mended, Tom could be a standout either on offense or defense, but he is the type of boy who won't indicate a preference because he wants to play where he will be the most helpful to the team. Other defensive ends who should do a good job are Bill Calhoun and Ed Long.

Other than LaMontagne there is no one with previous experience at defensive tackle, although we are hopeful that Corky Johnson, Jon Colby, or Art Snyder will develop and be of help here. Mike Westfall appears to be the best bet at the middle guard spot. The linebackers are the key to any defense and we have been fortunate in having some great ones in recent years. Whether or not we can find adequate replacements for Bracken and Komives, last year's linebackers, could be the key to the success of our entire season. The best bets at this time are Bruce Smith, who is a very dependable ball player, and Edgar Holley, who has good speed but needs more weight if he is to be able to meet some of the big offensive linemen we will be faced with. Other upperclassmen who will make a bid for a starting linebacker job are Phil Sunderland, Doug Smith, and George Trumbull.

(5) KICKING GAME: Uncertain, so must be rated poor at this time. An outstanding place kicker and a consistently strong punter could easily make the difference in at least half of the games played in a well-balanced league. Last year we had a very good kickoff and field' goal man in Gary Wilson and a fairly good punter in Rich Beams. Both have graduated and so our kicking game is questionable. We have no one returning who has ever attempted a place kick in a varsity game but we are hoping that Bill Hay, or sophomores Bob Thomas and Gary Blackman will develop and help out in this department. The punting chores will probably be handled by either Mickey Beard or Tom Pyles.

(6) SOPHOMORES WHO WILLHELP THE VARSITY: Strong help in some positions, but little or no help in other spots. Without a spring practice it is difficult to evaluate the sophomore material. Coach Earl Hamilton turned out a fine freshman team last fall and yet much of their success was based on a few outstanding backs and a great team spirit. Quarterback Gene Ryzewicz is small but has exceptional quickness and natural ability. I am confident that followers of the Big Green will become very familiar with his name during the coming three seasons. The other quarterbacks, Paul Kiely and Gordon Rule, could be most helpful on defense during their sophomore season. Sam Hawken also should see action as a defensive back. Unfortunately, Randy McElrath, whom we had counted on to play the defensive fullback position, will not be eligible. Sophomore backs with good offensive potential include Bob Thomas, George Spivey, John McNamara, and Tom McCormack. One other sophomore back I have not yet mentioned is Steve Luxford, because we have the pleasant problem of not yet knowing where to play him. Steve was forced to miss part of the freshman season with an injury, but he showed enough before that for us to feel he could help the varsity as an offensive halfback, at any of the defensive backfield positions, or possibly even as a defensive linebacker. Although we do not yet know where, I think Steve's name will be somewhere in our lineup.

It doesn't appear that we have any sophomore ends yet ready to see varsity action. Most of the sophomore tackles such as Skip Small, Gary Blaich, Mike Moeller, and Hank Paulson are in the 180-190 pound range, which is considerably undersized in this day when the average college tackle runs about 230. All of them have potential, however, and desire and determination can sometimes overcome the lack of weight. Jim Eldridge has enough heft to play as a defensive tackle and his former teammate at Marquette High School in Milwaukee, Mike Machan, could be a fine defensive guard. Another sophomore, Dave Skinner, could make a strong bid for the offensive center position. Last, but far from least among our sophomores, is Norm Davis from Sedro Woolley, Washington, whom we are counting upon strongly to bolster our linebacker position. Norm is built along the lines of Don McKinnon, our All-American center in 1962, and we hope that he will develop into the same type of linebacker.

It is honestly very difficult even to guess the outcome of the Ivy League next season, as it appears the League will be better balanced than ever before. Judged from the number of standout men they have returning, I think Cornell and Princeton should be real powerhouses, and yet all the others also look tough. I am just hoping that some of our exciting backfield men will put on such an interesting show each game that our alumni won't pay much attention to the final score. Seriously, so many intangibles are involved that it is extremely difficult to analyze our chances for the coming season. If some of our inexperienced players develop rapidly, if some of our key players such as Clarke, LaMontagne, Williams, and Burkholder are fully recovered from their serious injuries, if we are fortunate in getting through the season with relatively few new injuries, and if our defensive unit can somehow be strengthened to the point where we can again establish our tradition of being very tough defensively, - I would then think we could be rated as a title contender.

The one other intangible involved is that of spirit. Although we had a respectable 6-3 record last fall, I somehow felt our team, and our student body in general, had become somewhat complacent after our two previous championship seasons and did not have quite the same desire for victory. This spring every one of our players I have talked with from Captain Tom Clarke on down has indicated a tremendous determination to get back on the championship trail. Although I can't predict the outcome of the season, I am confident that Dartmouth will be represented by a spirited, fighting BIG GREEN team.

Coach Bob Blackman with '65 CaptainTom Clarke of Ridgewood, N. J., an end.