Big Green Teams
Defense was the trump card for Dartmouth's football team in 1970 and it could be the key for the Indians in 1971.
Six times last fall Dartmouth's opposition was unable to score. The Green led the nation in scoring defense with a yield of 4.7 yards per game and, like Jake Crouthamel says, "We'll never lose if they don't score."
Crouthamel's clan made "defense" an exciting word in 1970. Dartmouth's new head football coach had much to do with putting together the strategy that frustrated Ivy League opposition more than any team had done in the league's 15-year history.
Now Crouthamel is chief tactician of all Dartmouth football. If you think his first love is still defense, you're probably right. It's the ace that's carefully tucked up Jake's sleeve and with good reason. He has the defensive manpower to put the clamp's on just about everything in sight once again.
It's the defense, in large part, that perhaps will give Dartmouth a slim edge in what shapes up as the tightest Ivy League race ever. The prognosis is that there will be an abundance of good runners and passers inside the Ivy walls this fall and the team with the best defense could come away with the prize.
Depending on where you sit, six teams have been picked somewhere along the line as the team to beat in the Ivy League in 1971. Only Brown and Penn have been bypassed, but the majority seem to favor Dartmouth to take it for the third straight year, with Harvard, Yale, and Cornell the teams the Indians must withstand. Princeton and Columbia are maybes.
"It won't surprise me to see two, even three, teams tied for the title this fall," said Crouthamel. "It may sound like an old song but this appears to be the season when you can take no one lightly."
Dartmouth lost 16 starters from the 1970 Lambert Trophy team—eight apiece on offense and defense. But, in a campaign that saw Dartmouth develop to overwhelming proportions, there are still 20 lettermen returning and the Indians' great depth of a year ago now represents the nucleus of what should be another sound squad.
Crouthamel, in his first season as a head coach after six seasons as an aide to Bob Blackman, is hardly unfamiliar with the total picture of Dartmouth football.
"When you're a defensive coach, your primary concern is to stop the offense," he said. The only difference between this year and other years (when he coached the Green's defen- sive secondary) is that I'm looking at the offense from the other side of the line."
He has a staff that, except for backfield coach John Curtis, is new to Dartmouth football. It's a staff that did its homework during the spring and summer.
"The assistant coaches are great to work with," said Wayne Young, the cocaptain and middle linebacker from Tarrytown, N. Y. "A player, especially a senior, may think he knows more than a new coach during the first few days of practice but these men know what they're talking about. When we have a question, they have an answer."
What it all adds up to is this: There are new faces at the helm of Dartmouth football. The atmosphere, particularly in practice, seems more low-key than in the all-business era of Bob Blackman. There are some changes in philosophy of play but one thing is not changed at all—the goal of perpetuating Dartmouth's record as the winningest team in Ivy League history is still foremost in the minds of every coach and player.
A conspicuous characteristic of the 1971 Indians is that there are only 12 seniors on a squad of nearly 90. Just about half the squad consists of juniors—players who entered this season having never lost a game in a Dartmouth uniform.
That record stems from an undefeated frosh season in 1969 plus perfect records for the varsity and junior varsity last fall. It's an imposing record—and one that guarantees inspiration.
The seniors who are the prime movers are Young, a three-year regular as Dartmouth's defensive signal caller; defensive backs Jack Manning and Tim Copper; offensive tackle Joe Leslie (all 240 pounds of him); offensive backs Stu Simms and Brendan O'Neill and quarterback Bill Pollock.
Simms has started every game for two seasons and shares the leadership role with Young. O'Neill, who played in the shadow of John Short, the Ivy scoring champ who set a Dartmouth season rushing record last year, returned for his final season at a trim 183 pounds—ls pounds lighter than a year ago when he was second to Short in rushing with nearly 450 yards.
One of the most exciting players for the Indians, the Ivy League—maybe even the nation—could be Copper, the self-assured safety and punt-return specialist from Hood River, Ore., who returned kicks for three touchdowns last year and missed another by a foot.
"A well-executed punt return is the prettiest play in football," said Crouthamel, and this year Copper may be even more effective than before.
He nearly broke one return for a score (he zigged when he should have have zagged out) against Vermont in Dartmouth's 14-7 scrimmage win at Burlington last month.
Later in the scrimmage affair, he fielded another punt at his own six-yard line, then angled back to the right toward his goal line. He appeared trapped but handed off to sophomore Rick Klupchak on a reverse and the 170-pound halfback from Olympia Fields, Ill., swirled up the left sideline and went the length of the field for Dartmouth's clinching touchdown.
"Last year, Copper was a single threat," said Crouthamel. "Now people will have to think about Klupchak, too." Should be fun.
Pollock, the 5-10, 170-pounder from Nacogdoches, Texas, has the biggest shoes to fill—those of two-time All-Ivy quarterback Jim Chasey. He has the poise, maturity and confidence to do the job, but still will have to meet the challenge of Steve Stetson, the junior from Laconia, N. H.
While Pollock and Stetson have good receivers, the emphasis could be on the running game. There is a horde of running backs, led by Simms and O'Neill, to effectively complement and indeed enhance the passing game. There will be nothing missing in the multiplicity of Dartmouth's attack.
The adjectives describing the juniors on this team would tax a charter member of Words Unlimited. Suffice to say the Class of 1973 represents the nucleus of the Green's potential.
For example, consider the defensive alignment. At the left flank is Fred Radke, the 6-4, 225-pound junior from Orono, Me., a starter as a sophomore and the man Bob Blackman said "would start immediately for us at Illinois."
There are three defensive tackles— Josh Holloway, Tom Tarazevits, and Jim Ryan. Ryan is the lightweight at 245 and the tallest at 6-6. The other two are somewhere between 250 and 260, depending on when you weigh them (before or after practice). Ryan could be an end.
"You have to appreciate the problems facing a quarterback trying to pass against them," said Crouthamel. "It's like trying to throw the ball out of a silo."
The "Fearsome Foursome," a monicker hung on the Los Angeles Rams front four several years ago, may be reborn in Hanover before too long.
Aside from Chasey, the most-missed graduate is All-America rover back Murry Bowden. There's no way to replace the Bowden Mystique that pervaded the 1970 team but Bob Bialas, a junior from Chicopee, Mass., may be Bowden's physical superior before he's through.
"Bialas, Jack Manning, and Bob Soltess (a junior linebacker) are fierce tacklers," said Crouthamel. "They don't really tackle. They seem to just run through people. You might call it 'overkill'."
Weymoth Crowell, a junior, shares the defensive secondary with Copper and Manning but somewhere along the line Crouthamel and Tom Kopp, his successor as coach of the defensive backs), may have to figure out how to utilize the talents of Wesley Pugh, yet another junior from Baltimore, who Kopp feels "has the best natural talent of them all."
Juniors also abound on offense. Halfbacks Chuck Thomas and Alex Turner lettered as sophomores and Steve Webster, at 6-0 and 195 pounds, may prove too good to play behind Simms and may get a lot of work at halfback.
Gregg Brown ("He has to be one of the finest receivers in the country," according to Crouthamel) heads a crop of ends that includes Sam Watkins and shifty Tyrone Byrd. Dan Bierwagen, Bob Norton, Mike Klupchak (Rick's brother) and Jerry Thompson all are juniors with starting ability in the line.
There are a lot of sophomores on hand but only a handful seem ready for quick contribution. Klupchak and Ben Bridges are better than capable half- backs who will be heard from and Ellis Rowe, a fullback, will also help.
Defensively, linebacker Pat Stone was impressive against Vermont as a replacement for Young (an absentee with a strained knee) and the identical twins, Ron and Don Smith, are already making themselves known in the secondary.
A successor for graduated punter Jay Bennett will probably come from either of two sophomores, Jack Thomas or Bob Stevenson. The latter averaged 37 yards per kick against Vermont but Thomas may be the stronger of the two.
And then there's Ted Perry. The soccer-style placement specialist of the 1969 undefeated frosh team is available after a year of academic difficulty. Wayne Pirmann, the 1970 kicker, has returned to fulltime soccer.
"With Ted we have a scoring capability whenever we're inside the 40- yard line," said Crouthamel. Perry, from Weston, Mass., and a Dartmouth son. could be the Ivy League's best kicker since Charlie Gogolak booted them for Princeton.
On the surface, the Indians should be a good team. It's unfair to presume they are the equal of the 1970 devastators. Crcuthamel's biggest problem is that at several positions his team is good only on the surface.
"We are conspicuously thin at offensive tackle and center and at defensive end," he said. "We should be all right if we can keep everyone healthy."
Head Coach Jake Crouthamel '60 flanked by Co-Captains Wayne Young (left),linebacker from Tarrytown, N. Y., and Stu Simms, fullback from Baltimore.
Backfield Coach John Curtis with Dartmouth's two top quarterbacks, Bill Pollock'72, Nacogdoches, Texas, and Steve Stetson '73, Laconia, N. H.
