Yale sophomore running back Mordecai Cargill underwent surgery to repair a torn meniscus on Wednesday morning according to Yale football coach Tom Williams. Obviously, Cargill was not at practice on Wednesday morning as the surgery was being done by Dr. Pat Ruwe. Cargill will miss this week's game against Penn and figures to be out for at last one more game.

Cargill, who missed last week's win over Fordham, is second on the Bulldogs with 234 yards rushing while his 5.7 average per carry is the best among any Yale player with more than one carry.

"The sooner we could get into it, the better," Yale coach Tom Williams said. "The hope is he can be back in 10 days."

Alex Thomas, who has run for a team-high 284 yards, has been back at practice after missing the Fordham game with bruised ribs. Williams said that the week that Thomas was held out of practice helped rest his legs and he looks fresher and sharper than he has in a couple of weeks. Sophomore Javi Sosa, who ran for a career-high 74 yards against Fordham, will serve as Thomas' top backup.

WITT SERVES SUSPENSION
Quarterback Patrick Witt served a one-game suspension because he accepted a ticket to an NFL game without paying for the ticket in advance.

The NCAA ruled that Yale was guilty of a secondary infraction and although Witt later paid for the ticket, he was suspended for Saturday's game against Fordham. The irony of it was that Witt's throwing shoulder was so banged up that he was not going to be able to play.

"We appealed and sent it to the NCAA," Williams said. "They issued a suspension. He paid his restitution and in their eyes he was absolved (after serving the one-game suspension.

"It is standard protocol, we want to be squeaky clean. Normally, from what I understand, once you pay the cost of the ticket you are immediately reinstated but if it goes over a certain price, they can suspend you. In this case, they chose to do that."

Witt has been able to practice without restriction this week and appears on course to start in Saturday's game against Penn.

CARLSEN IN AT PUNTER
Freshman Greg Carlsen, who delivered a 55-yard punt under duress late in Saturday's game against Fordham, is expected to handle the punting duties against the Quakers.
Former starting punter Alex Barnes will still do the kicking off while Philippe Panico is the field goal and extra point specialist although his grip on that job does not sound like it is unbreakable.

"Philippe, today is still our field goal guy," Williams said. "Tomorrow after practice I may feel differently but based what I saw today and the last couple of days, that is the way we'll go on Saturday."

For those who missed it, here's a link to the feature on senior linebacker Jesse Reising which ran in today's Register.

For those who have Sirius Radio, Saturday's Yale/Dartmouth game will be aired on channel 130 with the Dartmouth crew of Bob Lipman and Wayne Young handling the duties. WELI-960, as always, will be broadcasting the game as well with Rob Vaccaro and former Yale coach Carm Cozza on the call.

There wasn't much more off Thursday's practice worth reporting. Yale coach Tom Williams said he had yet to name a starting kicker but was impressed by the efforts of starter Alex Barnes and Philippe Panico. Williams reopened the competition following last week's fiasco when a field goal, punt and extra point were all blocked.

The one position where there will be a change is at center because a knee injury is sidelining starter Jake Koury. Jeff Fell will start in his place and is the focus on my advance to the game. Defensive end Matt Battaglia is also expected to miss the game with a knee injury but team captain Tom McCarthy will be back after missing the last two games with a calf strain.

Starting quarterback Patrick Witt injured his throwing hand in Saturday's loss to Albany but he threw the ball pretty well at the portion of practice I was at on Thursday. If he is limited at all, Yale has a pretty nice Plan B as reserve quarterback Brook Hart threw for 390 yards against Dartmouth last season.

Yale senior defensive end Tom McCarthy (Achilles, calf strains) and sophomore running back Mordecai Cargill (hip flexor) are back at practice and should be good to go for Saturday's game at Dartmouth.

McCarthy hasn't played since the first quarter of the season opener against Georgetown and with a knee injury expected to keep the other starting defensive end Matt Battaglia out of Saturday's game, the timing of McCarthy's return could not be more ideal.

"Having your captain back for his first Ivy League game, we are hoping it will give us a boost," Yale coach Tom Williams said. "I know he is excited to play. I know the guys are excited that he is back. We hope all of those things will equate to a chance to win a game on Saturday."

Center Jake Koury will also be out against Dartmouth after suffering a knee injury. Jeff Fell will replace Koury in the starting lineup. Fell is also being pushed by Kyle Wittenauer for the starting long snapper role while Williams said he has reopened the kicking competition since Yale is 0 for 4 on field goals this season with three of the FGs being blocked. Alex Barnes is the incumbent while Philippe Panico is being given a 50-50 chance to earn the kicking job.

Another item I brought up at the weekly press conference at Mory's was reaction to the arrest of former Yale football player Jordan Jefferson during a New Haven police department raid on the Elevate Lounge on Crown Street. The raid, in which some of those on site have accused the police of brutality, came two weeks after there was a shooting on Crown Street.

"We already talked about it as a team, (the importance of) making good decisions," Williams said. "We always talk about that but the one thing we said in light of
what happened downtown with the gunfire is that everybody is on edge. We can’t add fuel to the fire so if you are in the situation when an officer is talking to you about doing something, you’d better do it, you’d better do it right away.

"We had this conversation long before this happened with Jordan. Unfortunately he is not on our team right now so he missed that conversation. When you are under the circumstance that our police are under, you are edge so we don’t need to do
anything to add to that. We need to help diffuse those situations."

Jefferson was a freshman tight end on Yale's 2009 squad. He appeared in two varsity games and although he did not have a reception, he did make a tackle on special teams. He has a medical condition which kept him from being cleared to return to the football field.

While it is possible that Jefferson could play for the Bulldogs again, Williams said "I don’t know what the odds are so there is a chance, you never say never but based on the last conversation I had, it was slim."