There has been mostly good news coming out of the Yale football camp this week in terms of injuries as offensive tackle Roy Collins, receiver Chris Smith and running back Alex Thomas returned to practice. But the news was not all positive. Starting left tackle Wes Gavin will need surgery on his injured ankle and will miss the rest of the season.

"The ankle is going to require some surgery and he is not going to be able to make it back," Williams said. "They want to do it ASAP so pretty soon so it is just a matter of clearing out his schedule and getting it done."

Freshman Ben Carbery has played well in Gavin's absence so he will become the starter at left tackle for the rest of the season.

Of the previously-mentioned trio, Collins has been in there the most at practice this week although all three should be able to play against Brown on Saturday.

"Smith is good to go, Thomas is good to go although he is still gimpy but he practiced a little bit today and Roy Collins is good to go," Williams said.

Collins should move back into his starting right tackle spot. While it's no guarantee that Smith and Thomas will start, look for them in the game. That won't make the Brown coaches happy since Smith and Thomas played starring roles in Yale's 27-24 win over Brown last year. Smith returned kickoffs 79 and 83 yards for touchdowns in a span of 2:23 in the second quarter and also caught a team-high six passes. Thomas ran for 121 yards including a 27-yard TD.
One change in the starting lineup I have neglected to mention is that Brian Leffler has moved ahead of Wes Moyer at linebacker.
"We gave him an opportunity to start (against Columbia), he played well last week against Columbia so he is going to get that start this week against Brown. "He is stouter and against a team like Brown that really likes to establish the run game, he is a better match for what they do. With the competition that he was have at that position, we feel like he has played better than Wes at this point so we gave him an opportunity last week and he held serve so he gets the nod again this week. We will still play multiple guys but he will be the first guy out."

When Williams addressed the team after Thursday's practice, he told the team he thought it was a good week of practice. He also emphasized that the Bears are in the same situation as Yale in terms of being able to win the Ivy League title by winning out. That is not entirely accurate. Yale would earn at least a share of the title by winning its last three games since the Bulldogs would have to beat first-place Harvard (the only Ivy League team unbeaten in conference play). Brown would need to win and have Harvard lose a game in order to claim a portion of the title. Still, Saturday's game has the feel of an elimination game. It certainly makes it easy to get motivated for the early-morning practices at this time of the year.
"I think it changes the energy level," Williams said. "I think our guys come out with energy anyway but certainly when you have something to play for and you are back in the hunt, it makes it more enjoyable with a goal in mind. You have something you can touch out there. We were in the same situation last year playing Brown at Brown, we have some experience from last year. I like playing at home this year. We haven't been at home in a long time so this will be great, it should be a great game."

Practice ended on Thursday will Williams having senior defensive end Austin Pulsipher address the team. Pulsipher is the only Yale player to have an Ivy League championship ring. He was a reserve on the 2006 Yale team before taking a two-year Mormon mission.

After two days away from the field, the Yale football team was ready to go this morning - maybe too ready.

With more hits causing players to hit the ground, Yale coach Tom Williams was not a happy camper. The last portion of practice saw more than a few players kicked out of drills.

Just stupid plays, especially the young guys," Williams said. "They are still learning how to practice. The whole idea is we want to practice full speed but we want to be smart. We want those guys to get to the game on Saturday. When that happens, the guy gets fired on the spot to make a point. You are going to miss out on these rep opportunities if you don't practice the way we want you to practice. I had to do that a couple times today but it is better to pull them off the pile than throw them on the pile. I like our attitude and like our aggressiveness. We pride ourselves on being physical but sometimes we have to be smarter in practice."

Junior linebacker Will McHale did not practice after dealing with some concussion like symptoms after Saturday's season-opening win over Georgetown. Williams said McHale feels fine but the decision was made to err on the side of caution.

"He had some tests on Sunday and said he feels fine, he is symptom free," Williams said. "This was simply precautionary. He should be back (practicing) tomorrow. We will probably keep him out of contact just to be safe but he is going to get reps tomorrow and be ready to go on Saturday."

The offense looked sharp early on in the 11 on 11 drills I witnessed including Patrick Witt hooking up with Chris Smith on a long touchdown pass

Later in the practice, the offense sputtered with Nick Okano and Brian Leffler recording interceptions and the ball ending up on the turf quite a bit although many of the miscues happened when the second and third team squads were in there.

The Baltimore Ravens had a scout checking out practice, the latest NFL team to send a rep to a Yale practice.

Yale wrapped up spring practice on Monday and the 12 practices gave some of the younger players a chance to move up the depth chart and make a case for either a starting position or a more prominent role than they had a year ago.

I asked Yale coach Tom Williams which players helped themselves the most during spring camp.

"John Whitelaw, is clearly our No. 2 quarterback. He clearly established himself as a guy who can help our team win football games. I think he has shown the development that we saw at the end of last season and he is a good football player. At tight end position, Kyle Wittenauer is a guy who has stepped up to show that he is ready to earn some playing time at that position. I don't know if he is going to be the replacement this year for (Chris) Blohm but I think he can do some things that can help us win there. (Fullback) Elijah Thomas, some kind of guy. He can do some things that Shane (Bannon) gave us and as a young player he will continue to develop and he certainly made a move in the spring. (Center) John Oppenheimer, moving from defense to offense has helped us and ultimately he will be a really good player for us at that position. Of all the skill guys that we had, (tailback) Mordecai Cargill probably had the biggest spring.

"Defensively, (safety) Nick Okano, (linebacker) Brian Leffler, (cornerback) Collin Bibb and having (defensive tackle) Pat Moran come back and show he is a better player than he was when he left us, all those guys had great springs."

Now it is up to the returning players to build off what transpired in spring camp. At this point last year I would not have predicted that guard Colin Kruger or cornerback Chris Stanley would emerge as starters but they had strong performances in the fall camp to earn regular spots.

Yale will begin its fall camp (or summer camp if you prefer since the first day of fall is not until Sept. 23) on Aug. 19.

It will be interesting monitoring some of the same positional battles that were going on during the spring highlighted by Oppenheimer and Jeff Fell vying for the starting center spot, Leffler and Wes Moyer in contention for a starting linebacking spot, Okano and John Powers trying to earn the starting nod at strong safety with Bibb, Kurt Stottlemyer and Dawson Halliday likely fighting it out for a starting cornerback position.

Receivers Gio Christodoulou and Peter Balsam will be back while Yale will be welcoming a freshman class which will number somewhere between 28-30 and should have former Duke defensive lineman Tevin Hood in the fold as well.

despite Elijah Thomas rushing 35 times for 183 yards and a touchdown, the Yale junior varsity team lost to Harvard 28-21 on Friday.

Other standouts for Yale were quarterback John Whitelaw (8 of 19 for 122 yards, one TD pass and a touchdown run), linebacker Brian Leffler (13 tackles, forced fumble), cornerback Russell Perkins (interception, fumble recovery) and linebacker Ben Ashcraft (seven tackles).

Emotions were running high during the game and the poor officiating job (even by junior varsity standards) didn't help the cause. Fortunately, it seems as if both teams escaped without injury which is amazing considering how many times the official let running backs take unnecessary additional shots because of the lateness of blowing the whistle. There were a couple of blow to the head shots against receivers that went uncalled as well as one blatant hit against a defenseless receiver and more than a few late shots undetected by this crew. Can't say I was too impressed with the quality of the public-address announcing either. I'm assuming it was an active Harvard player who had the microphone and thinking my ears won't be recovering any time soon. I'm also convinced that if I attended an event at Harvard Stadium in the middle of July, I'd need a winter coat. I actually did see the sun once or twice but it wasn't until I attempted to navigate my way back to my hotel (very poorly, I will admit) did the sun make an appearance blinding me as I attempted to read street signs. Every time I've been to this field, it has been bitter cold. Two years ago at the varsity game, I was probably as cold as I have ever been.

As for Harvard, I was impressed with sophomore receiver Curtis Ross (5 catches, 79 yards and a touchdown and unlike most of the other Harvard receivers he did not short arm balls going over the middle of the field. Freshman defensive end Austin Taylor was in the backfield on a regular basis for the Crimson.

Looking ahead to next year, I can update the recruiting situation a bit. Likely letters have been sent out to five players so far
Staples defensive end Chris Coyne and linebacker Pat Murray, Union (N.J.) linebacker Everett Johnson and offensive linemen Ben Carbery from Oak Park in River Forest, Ill. and Steve Shoemaker from Bronxville, N.Y.

There could be a few more players getting likely letters in the next week or two meaning that their applications for early admission have been approved by Yale.

Updating a previous report on the three Yale seniors who are eligible to return for a fifth season because they lost a year - or at least most of it - due to injury, center Jake Koury said he has yet to make a decision.

"I am going to get through this game," Koury said. "I haven’t made any decisions yet. We’ll see what happens but I am going to finish this game out first."

Receiver Gio Christodoulou said he is planning to take advantage of the extra season while I have yet to bring up the topic with senior linebacker Jesse Reising. Yale is also expected to get back defensive end Pat Moran and receiver Peter Balsam, who took this year off.

The Yale and Army teams will play in the Yale Bowl in 2014 as part of a 100th anniversary of the opening of the Yale Bowl.

The school's junior varsity teams squared off today at Clint Frank Field with Yale's six quarterbacks combined to throw for 360 yards and four touchdowns with Yale winning 35-28.

Freshman Cameron Sandquist, who had two TD catches in the varsity game against Coolumbia, had six catches for 170 yards and three touchdowns from three different quarterbacks. John Whitelaw (16 of 22, 212 yards and 2 touchdowns) hooked up with Sandquist from 18 yards out. Dez Duron (4 of 6 for 78 yards) threw a 41-yard TD pass to Sandquist with the freshman receiver making a nifty series of moves on sideline at about the 20 yard line. He somehow escaped the clutched of three Army defenders and ran out of his left shoe in the process. Then Sandquist hauled in a 35-yard score from Henry Furman for the winning score with 2:28 to play. Jackson Liguouri caught an 8-yard TD from Whitelaw while Whitelaw had a 1-yard scoring run.

John Runk (5 catches for 64 yards) and McConnell Smith (5-33) were other top receivers for the Bulldogs.

Defensively, Brian Leffler and Ryan Falbo had seven tackles each, Ben Ashcraft had six tackles and a fumble recovery, Chris Brady had five tackles and an interception and Scott Williams had five tackles. John Oppenheimer forced a fumble, Dylan Drake had a fumble recovery, Max Napolitano had a late interception while Matt Messer ended the game with a sack.

Army tipped two punts and blocked another and scored touchdowns each time but its aggressiveness going after Yale punter Alex Flanders was costly when a roughing the punter penalty extended Yale's drive late in the fourth quarter. Four plays later Furman found Sandquist for the winning score.

There were crunching hits by Brady and Leffler, the latter knocking the more effective of the two Army quarterbacks out of the game.