According to scattered reports filtering in from New Haven, one of the best Yale Freshman teams in recent history is eagerly awaiting the visit which their Crimson counterparts will pay them this Saturday in the Bowl.

Last year Don McNicol's eleven walked all over the Cubs in the course of pounding out a 50 to 18 victory but this fail Coach "Regie" Root Has assembled a group of players who should present the Yardlings with all the competition they can handle. In five games so far the Cubs have lost but one encounter, while the Freshmen have been able to win only one of their four games. On paper, then, it would look as if the Blues had a good chance of regaining a part of the prestige which vanished in last year's romp.

In an effort to make the snap which the Freshmen have exhibited at scattered intervals a more consistent feature of the '44 attack, Chief Boston has shifted George Blanchard from the line to the backfield. Blanchard, who carries 195 pounds on his five foot ten frame, was previously a guard, but a recurring shoulder injury has kept him out of action for most of the season. It is hoped that his appearance at the blocking back post will make the Crimson running attack a little more lethal.

In order to bolster the eleven's punting Cleo O'Donnell has been seeing a lot of action at kicking under pressure this week. The arrangement of having Steve Mailett desert his tackle post to do the team's booting last Saturday proved none too good. Any hope of a deceptive running attack was stifled by the presence of a lineman in the Crimson backfield and vice-versa. Consequently the Dartmouth linemen smashed in at the kicker, rushing him, and the safety man always had plenty of interference to make things easier for him on his runbacks. With O'Donnell in the kicking post the threat of an end sweep or line play is considerably enhanced.

Jack Ferguson, a 170-pounder, who captains his team from the quarterback position, will lead the Bullpups in Saturday's contest. Last week they battled the Tiger cubs to a 13 to 13 draw, and previous to that had taken the Brown Freshmen and Hebron Academy over the bumps. Exeter, victor over the Crimson by a 12 to 0 count, set them back 20 to 7, and Andover, which the Yardlings trounced 20 to 0 for their only victory of the season so far, fought the Eli Cubs to a 7 to 7 deadlock.

What establishes the home team as the pre-game favorite is not so much the comparative scores, since both Freshman teams played Exeter, and Andover early in the season, but rather the way in which the Ells have improved throughout the season. The Yardlings, on the other hand, have always looked like a team with a future, but, with the exception of the Andover game, have yet to show this talent for any extensive period of time.