Time-honored rivals meet on the Stadium football field this afternoon at 2 o'clock when Harvard and Yale line up for their thirty-first gridiron contest. The game will be witnessed by 40,000 partisan spectators and promises to be one of the hardest fought contests of the year.

At the present time the chances of victory must be acknowledged to favor the Blue to a very slight degree, for the Yale team is an experienced set of players who have had little cause to worry from injuries and among whom is one of the best drop-kickers in the present-day game. But in spite of this a Crimson victory would not come as a surprise either to the supporters of the University team or to the general public which watches the game with keen interest. The Princeton, Carlisle, and Dartmouth games of the last three Saturdays have showed conclusively that the 1911 Harvard football team is one made up of fighters from the word go; and the Dartmouth game showed beyond a doubt that the University team has been able to "come back" after the serious losses which it suffered in the Princeton game. Perhaps more than ever before the result of the game will depend upon generalship on the part of Yale's quarterback-captain and Harvard's quarterback and captain. Howe is a player of remarkable sagacity and skill, and Potter is a man who keeps a cool head and runs his team so as to get the maximum amount of power out of it. The test will be to see whether the latter can stand the physical strain of the game after his injury, and whether the former can stand the mental strain, in spite of the persistent rumors of his poor nervous condition. weighs 165. Camp, the left halfback, is six feet tall, the tallest man seen in the Yale backfield since the days of Malcolm McBride. The weights vary from Howe at 153 to Paul at 193, who is the heaviest man on the team. The average weight of the rush line is 182 pounds and of the eleven 178 pounds.

The team has been constructed around one man, namely, Captain Howe. He is the only veteran behind the line, where there are only two veterans, namely, Scully and Paul. McDevitt got into the Harvard game last fall for a few plays as a substitute.

The conditions under which the team has been developed have been the very reverse of those of 1910, when Yale had a lot of good material and indifferent coaching. This year Yale has had mediocre material and as good coaching as Yale can produce. The result has been different from that of 1910 when a revision of the coaching policy at the eleventh hour practically saved the day. This year, the team has been slow in developing, and even at best its work has always been more or less erratic. In the Princeton game, the team showed marked weakness in elementary football, such as following the ball, diversity of attack, and backing up the men who received the ball on each play, a fault which made possible White's run and touchdown.

The greatest weakness of the team has been that too much has depended upon Captain Howe. The team has never done anything worth while, except when he has been behind the line. This, of course, means that the substitute quarterback material is weak. Howe, though not physically a strong man, had been until the Princeton game, regarded as a superior general, a clever punter, and a valuable man in running back punts. Last Saturday his generalship was severely criticised and he muffed punts again and again. The timely development of Walter Camp, Jr., has relieved Howe from punting just as the development of Francis relieved him from placement kicking. But no one has been developed satisfactorily in the handling of punts.

Howe has not been a sure catcher of punts this fall and in the Princeton game, he collapsed under the tremendous physical strain of running his team and doing all of this work on a treacherous field. He came out of the game very tired. There is considerable doubt whether he is in physical condition to play his best game against Harvard today.

Howe has proved himself a splendid leader and organizer. The players not only have the greatest confidence in him, but also the greatest respect for him as a man. It is difficult to substitute a player for such a leader and in this lies one of the weaknesses of this team.

Howe has always been clever with the forward pass and the on-side kick, two plays which the weather discounted in the Princeton game. If he can use these plays successfully against Harvard, it will relieve him of much of the strenuous work which devolved upon him last Saturday and may enable him to play out the entire game. If he has to retire, Merritt, the captain of the baseball team, will be the first substitute. Merritt has been playing football at Yale for four years but has never been able to win a permanent position on the university team. He began the season this fall with the baseball team and joined the football squad late in the season. Since then he has been on the hospital list and has lost a great deal of time. He weighs only five pounds more than Captain Howe. The only other substitute quarterback is Strout, who weighs 138 pounds and, while a clever player has always been considered too light. Strout played on his freshman team and tried for the university team last fall.

Camp, the only son of Yale's athletic adviser, has developed as a punter and halfback within the past month. He kicks a long spiral ball which is difficult to handle. In the Princeton game, his kicks averaged almost 30 yards. He gets off his punts quickly and with good direction. He is also Yale's mainstay in end plays in which he runs well and is difficult to tackle on account of his height and has a knack in turning when tackled and falling forward his full length.

Dunn at fullback is a player who would have been much better developed for his position had he not been behind in his studies, thereby losing the training of the greater portion of the season. He is strong and will be the man who will do the line bucking in the Harvard game. Spalding at right halfback is a fairly reliable all round player, though not brilliant in any sense of the word.

The substitute halfbacks, Reilly, the former end rush and Philbin, the brother of Yale's clever halfback of two years ago, and Anderson, a former "All Western" halfback from the University of Wisconsin, are the players who have good individual qualities but are not up to the standard of the 1910 backfield.

In the rush line Scully is the only player who had a reputation prior to the present season. He will be remembered as one of the best tackles of 1910. He maintained this reputation until he received an injury a month ago from which he does not seem to have fully recovered. His work in the Princeton game, however, was of a high order. Paul at right tackle is a good player but prone to injuries which have materially lessened his effectiveness this fall and will probably mean the early substitution of Gallauer who played on the freshman team last fall and who began the season this fall as an end and was moved over to tackle when the veterans were both laid up with injuries. Gallauer is undoubtedly a coming tackle and will be a reliable substitute for Paul. Perry, the other substitute tackle, is a late development, but a good one. He proved a reliable substitute for Scully in the Princeton game. Both he and Gallauer, however, have not had the all-round experience of Scully and Paul.

Bomeisler, Yale's right end, is the best of Yale's material for this position. Although a big man, he has developed in his work down the field and in this department of the game was a surprise even to his friends in the Princeton game. Avery at left end, while not the equal of Bomeisler, has shown good development both in blocking and in tackling. Not only have Bomeisler and Avery developed rapidly during the past fortnight in the offensive game, but also in the defensive game, in which they were successful in turning in such ends as White and Dunlap of Princeton and thereby giving Captain Howe a chance to run the ball back from catches of punts

McDevitt stands out conspicuously with Ketcham in the centre of the line McDevitt, though short of stature, and with a lot of weight to handle, is an effective and brainy player, both in the offensive and defensive game. Ketcham at centre is one of the best and most aggressive centres that Yale has had in recent years.

Francis at left guard is not the equal of McDevitt nor is he such a rangy player as is usually found at this position on Yale teams. He was outplayed by Duff in the Princeton game, but in Duff he met probably, the best guard of the year.

The only other substitute who is likely to get into the game is Freeman, the halfback who has splendid speed and fairly good defensive powers.

The team as a whole, has good fighting qualities and should be up to the average of former Yale teams. Whether the experience of the Princeton game offset by its physical strain, will mean the complete rounding out of this team remains to be seen by the work of the players in today's game. Whether Yale wins or loses, she is certain that no team has tried harder than this team, to learn the game and play it as the Yale coaches believe it should be played. It is this fact which has caused the coaches to have confidence in the team and the university to have the greatest admiration and respect for the players