Yale's annual Blue-White spring game will be played on Saturday beginning at 2 p.m. at the Yale Bowl.

As has been the case during his tenure, Yale football coach Tom Williams is using the event as much as a practice as a scrimmage. There will not be split squads but will be plenty of series with the top offensive and defensive units butting heads.

"We will feature situational football," Williams said. "Our spring game for us is like another practice day, put all those young guys in situations were we can evaluate them and see what they can do for in the fall."

Obviously the personnel will be a bit different without receivers Jordan Forney and Gio Christodoulou (who is taking the spring off but will return in the fall), tight ends Chris Blohm and Caleb Smith, fullback Shane Bannon, center Jake Koury and tackle Alex Golubiewski among the key losses on offense. Defensive ends Tom McCarthy and Sean Williams, defensive tackle Joe Young, linebacker Jesse Reising, cornerback Chris Stanley and safety Adam Money will need to be replaced on the defensive side of the ball. But don't expect to see a change in philosophy or schemes in an attempt to replace the graduating seniors.

"It will be a lot of the same stuff," Williams said. "We are hoping we can throw the ball down the field a little bit more, our protection is better when our first five is out there. We may take some more shots down the field. We have expanded our offensive package so we have more run plays that we want to feature so we can take advantage of the skill set of our running backs. We will have a better intermediate passing game also. We thought last year we either took shots or took short passes. We want to be able to attack the middle of field a little more."

BANNON, MCCARTHY OPENING SOME EYES
The NFL draft is less than a week away from kicking off and there's a chance that a Yale player or players could be drafted for the first time since 2004.

Bannon, Blohm and McCarthy have put themselves very much on the radar of NFL teams with impressive workouts and strong efforts at pro days.

In an article on SI.com, Bannon and McCarthy are mentioned among 12 small school sleepers

ANOTHER BIG TURNOUT AT BONE MARROW DRIVE
Yale's annual bone marrow registry drive was a major hit once again as nearly 900 showed up to have their cheeks swabbed so they could join the registry.

The drive began as a way of trying to find a match for leukemia stricken Yale women's hockey player Mandi Schwartz. Although no match could be found and cancer ended Schwartz's life earlier this month, her spirit lives on. Six matches were found courtesy of the first two drives and it would be a fitting legacy for Mandi that her memory and inspiration will result in saving more lives.

Shortly after hanging up his cleats for the final time, Caleb Smith bid adieu to his football career and began to pursue his other passion - film making.

Smith wrote the script, produced, directed, provided the background music, edited and cast the movie with several of his former Yale teammates in prominent parts.

The Belly of the Whale, with former Yale defensive end/linebacker Sean Williams in the lead role as a well-meaning but down on his luck bouncer who was forced into running errands for a mobster, premiered at the Whitney Humanities Center on the Yale campus on Thursday.

The 23-minute screening was attended by the cast as well as other teammates, classmates and the Yale football coaching staff as well as leading figures in Yale's Film Studies Program.

The film was warmly received by those in attendance.

"It has been a labor of love for us," Smith said. "We worked incredibly hard on it. The amount of blood and tears that went into it can't be measured. People reacted really well to us, not just because they know us but I think the connected a little bit. Some people were coming up to me and saying they got some goosebumps afterwards so that is the kind of thing I like to hear as a story teller."

Smith, who has dabbled as a director and intends to move to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film making, had various versions of the script before ending up with the final product. The filming took place over a span of seven days in February with the entire project costing about $3,000.

"I would have some ideas and I would meet with Sean, Alex (Golubiewski, the film's director of photography) and a couple of other guys but mainly Sean and Alex giving them ideas and they would give me feedback," Smith said. "I had a pretty solid narrative in place so I went back over Christmas break and I wrote it all over Thanksgiving break. I came back, I pitched it to some of my screen-writing peers. They gave me some feedback and I revised it a couple more times. Then I said 'OK, I am ready, let's shoot this thing.'"

Williams, who would like to pursue acting, felt a sense of relief when he saw the crisp, final product.

"I was definitely nervous but at the same time excited to show the product, the fruits of our labor," Williams said. "This was something that was pretty tough to put together because of all the moving parts. It was fun to see on the big screen."

Smith, who drew the praise of both his professors and coaches for his work, has high hopes for the film.

"I am going to look at recutting it, changing, get it better than it is and keep improving it," Smith said. "Then getting it into the festivals is really the next thing, playing it hopefully at some big festivals that can bring it some recognition for the work me, Sean and others have put in.

"I have always liked making videos from the time I was a kid. When I showed up at Yale, I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do. My sophomore year I decided I wanted to do film, from there on I have been working on it. I want to take on some more directing projects and stay behind the camera, keep working as a director. I have done a commercial, want to keep doing commercials and music videos and get paid to direct."

Both Smith and Williams believe the process of preparing for a football game and making a movie are eerily similar.

"Moving into the film realm, I feel like the same things transfer over, a different style of working together," Williams said. "It's the same thing of being able to feel out each other, kind of the way that they work and how their mind ticks. It helps to know that because it makes for a smoother run through.

"The preproduction stuff is watching the film and looking at the playbook. The actual filming is kind of like game time, it is Saturday for us. There is the breakdown and post production so it is almost like the same exact thing."