A long red line of wounded varsity football players has been trooping off the field for the past two weeks. The result has been problems for the varsity. For the JV's, it's been absolute chaos.

For instance, the varsity started the season with 10 experienced tackles. Four experienced tackles will dress for the Brown game Saturday. And the poor JV's, who have had as many as six tackles at times this year, have none at all as they meet the B.U. Freshmen today.

John Hoffmann and Neil Curtin, both of whom have been starters this year, will miss the Brown game. So will Art Patterson, a top reserve, and John Szobota and Jim Sherrell, who were being counted on to help out.

So the varsity will start senior Joe Jurek and soph Steve Diamond, both of whom are experienced. Behind them, though, the team has only soph Dave Davis, a JV last month, and John Peterson, a reserve on last year's freshman team.

The JV's, on the other hand, have literally no one. The absence of much line depth will probably make things hot for quarterback John Shevlin and the rest of the offensive backs.

But then, the JV's haven't done much scoring under any circumstances this year and they haven't done badly nonetheless. In their last two games they scored on a pass interception to heat Princeton 7-3 and tackled Penn's punter in the end zone for a 2-0 victory. Coach Norm Shepard's charges may have trouble arranging a defense without tackles today, though.

The JV's game is at home and at 2 p.m. today.

The freshmen also play at home today, meeting Brown at 2 p.m.

The Yardlings' 28-22 victory over Princeton last Saturday left the team with a 3-1 record marred only by the loss to B.C. The freshmen have beaten Tufts, Dartmouth, and Princeton.

The key weapon for the team has been the passing of quarterback Dick. Zimmerman, with end Carter Lord and halfback Don Sadoski the leading receivers.

The team has gone more and more to the air in recent weeks after Dartmouth and B.C. stopped the ground attack. Only Ron Cram, a Canadian halfback, has been a consistent runner for the Yardlings.

A defensive role showed up in the secondary against Princeton when the Tigers passed for two scores, including a 60-yard touchdown heave in the last minute of play. But a strong pass rush led by Captain Donald Chiafarro, a guard, has helped to keep pressure off the pass defense so far.

Brown has a 2-3 record and has also lost to B.C., 22-33. The Bruins' only victories have come at the expense of the University of Rhode Island and of Deane Junior College.

The Bruins are a running team, relying heavily on fullback Dan Cain.