Lentz picked Tuesday to put in a new defense, the "52." It's simple variant of our normal "55"--the three interior linemen in our five-man line jam more closely together. That means the middle is packed and tougher to run against. It also leaves linebackers with more outside responsibility. And it would throw Yale's blocking assignments off. It's hard to keep track of one man who's shifting from one position to another.

At practice, we work on individual positions first, then spend 20 minutes on the kicking game. We threw in a little surprise for Yale--a quick kick. Bobby Leo, who punted for his freshman team, was supposed to do the kicking. But there wasn't enough time to get it straightened out. The quarterback was supposed to flip to Leo, who would get off a quick punt. But one time the snap misfired, once the lateral misfired, and another time the kick was blocked. Feula finally threw the play out.

There was an hour and 10 minutes of team work, offense and defense. Finally we worked on specialties--punting and punt returns, passing and pass catching. The line normally works one-on-one at this point, but today Lentz let us go early. He wanted our timing to stay sharp. "It was a good practice," said Frank Ulcickas as we ran off. There had been lots of audible and visible spirit; everyone was hustling and chattering. The coaches were still tense, but quite hap- py. "Keep it up the rest of the week," said Yovicsin.

Wednesday

For the first time in my Harvard career, I had been conscientious about getting a lot of sleep each night. I had been up all night on Thursday before the Princeton game (for a Friday hour exam) and felt it--I lost a lot of stamina on the field. It was in that game that I was injured.

For a well-rested team, it was a lousy practice. The timing was off badly. We were doing the same things we had done yesterday, but this time backs charged into each other, signals missed. There was a lot of effort, but nothing was working out.

"Just one of those days," said Feula--we had them before and there wasn't much you could do about it. On Saturday you had to forget about mistakes and play all out.

At 7:00 we headed up to dinner. The Varsity Club features occasional steaks, filet mignon once or twice a week, thick pork chops, good roast beef and lamb. The food is always good, but tonight's conversation was low.

Maybe another good night's sleep would do it.

Thursday

All year long, I had hoped to play opposite Yale's captain Ab Lawrence, who starts at right tackle. Playing against him would add another challenge to The Game--Lawrence weighs 240 pounds, was all-Ivy, and he is respected by his teammates, who run off him a lot.

That isn't Harvard's style. We play the system; you never run to or away from an individual because he's strong or weak. Similarly, you never favor one play because a man on our team is a good blocker or a good runner. You simply call the play according to the strategic considerations: the type of defense, field position, down, quarter, and time remaining. Our offense isn't made to exploit individuals, but to use all eleven men.

Yale plays differently, though, and so we knew what to expect. They run Mercein off Lawrence a lot. But as Thursday's practice started, it looked like I wouldn't get my wish. Joe Jurek, our starting right tackle, was still limping from a thigh bruise. If Jurek didn't start, I would shift from left tackle to right, leaving Steve Diamond, the sophomore, in the position he was accustomed to.

The rest of the team wasn't in great shape either. Gene Skowronski and Tom choquette had been in the hospital with injuries though they were out and practicing now. Ulcickas had been hurt towards the start of the week. Neal Curtin, who started the season at left tackle, had torn nerves in his feet. The backfield was full of assorted miseries.

We never have contact on Thursdays. Usually there is a short scrimmage on Wednesday, but his week it had been limited to a five-minute defensive scrimmage. In pre-season practice we had gone 20 minutes each way.