When Jack Siedlecki "retired" in 2008, Yale still had time to go through the process, hire a coach and bring in a pretty solid recruiting class. Of course the process of finding Siedlecki's replacement began in late November. However, with the news that Tom Williams resigned on Wednesday puts the Yale program in a tough spot. This time it is late December and if the Yale administration doesn't act fast it could have some negative ramifications towards recruiting.

"We would like obviously to try and do this early, that is our top priority," Yale director of athletics Tom Beckett said. "We want to get as much feedback as we possibly can from all of our stakeholders in all of this I don't have a time line that I would want to identify at this point."

I asked Beckett if they are looking for somebody with previous head coaching experience as well as somebody with ties with the Ivy League and he said that is still to be determined.


"We are going to meeting with the committee, interested parties affiliated with Yale football in particular our student-athletes, members of the faculty, leaders of the institution, our alums," Beckett said. "We are going to be doing a very thorough analysis of that very question and at this point, I know we are looking at a tough timeline here with the recruiting issues staring at us in the face but we want to be thorough, we want to do our best to identify all of the priorities associated with the leadership of Yale football. There is a great pride and tradition associated with Yale football and we are confident that our search will help us to identify some outstanding candidates."

Beckett said that Williams' entire staff is remaining in place - for the time being. Beckett said he would be meeting with the staff today. When this happened in 2008, the assistant coaches took on additional responsibilities without a head coach in place with Tony Reno taking the lead in recruiting. Beckett said those decisions have yet to be made. In my opinion since he already has the title of recruiting coordinator, I would expect to see Kyle Metzler fill the same role that Reno did back in 2008.


"The members of the staff are working to help us in all aspects of the program, in particular the focus right now is communicating with the students and also their focus is on helping to recruit this class and they are continuing with those efforts," Beckett said.

"We are going to be talking to the staff later here and as we go through that process, we will be making those kinds of decisions and talking to everybody about what their roles will be."

I asked Beckett if the university will be changing the way they conduct background checks on applicants since Williams claims of being a Rhodes Scholarship candidate as well as a member of the San Francisco 49ers practice squad resulted in an internal investigation and ultimately the end of his tenure with the Bulldogs. However, Beckett said he could not comment on that.

One thing that surprised me is that the Yale players were apparently informed of Williams' decision after I was. One player said he found out about Williams by reading this blog and received a generic e-mail later in the morning. I also spoke to a player being recruited by Yale and he said the only coach he heard from in the last couple of days about the situation at Yale came from a member of the Brown staff. That's a pretty poor job, if you ask me.

Also, Yale's investigation into Williams' background is now considered closed.

In the last few days the comments on this blog have taken a turn for the worse. A relatively simple post stating that junior linebacker Will McHale has been voted captain for next year's team turned into target practice on McHale's leadership ability and bordered on character assassination. Rather than spend part of the holiday season deleting more of these comments, I made the decision to delete the entire entry. One reader asked me for an explanation since he/she viewed it as a lively debate.

I have a different opinion. I think it was a case of people sitting behind the their computer and posting hurtful anonymous comments about a college junior. If comments were directed at me, as some have been over the past three years, I would post them since I am getting paid to deal with it. The same thing with Yale football coach Tom Williams and athletic director Tom Beckett. However, I found some of the comments directed McHale as crossing the line. It is not the first time I have felt that was. I have always been amazed at the cattiness of some of the comments to this blog. Quarterback Patrick Witt is a popular target as he was subjected to utter nastiness even on entries announcing an honor for his academic achievement. Now it is McHale in the crosshairs.

I have taken great pride in maintaining this blog and providing updates on everything from scheduling, recruiting and even the results of the JV games because I believe Yale fans deserve to have this beat covered in the same manner with which we cover UConn football and basketball. However, I am beginning to wonder if I am catering to the wrong crowd. Most of the 500-700 hits this blog gets on a daily basis come from the silent majority of fans wanting to keep up with the team's progress. There is a select few who look at this blog as their sounding board where they can take shots at anybody they choose. This is not a message board nor do I have an aspirations for it to become one. It is a forum for me to provide updates on the team and state my opinion on matters surrounding the team. There is at least one message board dedicated to Ivy League football and if you wish disparage members of the team without anything to back up those attacks, I would suggest you take the comments there. I seem to have appealed to the lowest common denominator  among the Yale fan base and may have to rethink how frequently I provide updates since I seem to be giving these people a forum to spew their propaganda.

Look, I know this is a tough time for Yale football program. This year's squad was too good to finish 5-5 and get lit up by Harvard 45-7. Add in the tragic accident in Lot D before the Harvard game and the internal investigation surrounding Williams claims of being a Rhodes Scholarship candidate combined for a rather forgettable week. I am sure there are some frustrated people out there but if anybody thinks that this blog will be the place to take those frustrations out on Yale's newly-named captain couldn't be more incorrect.

Finally, I want to thank people who frequent this blog. I regret taking this step but everybody has their breaking point and enough is enough.

Considering that Lafayette beat Ivy League championship contender Penn last week, it's hardly shocking that the Leopards defeated a young Yale squad 31-14 Saturday at the Yale Bowl.

But the way it all went down caught my eye. I was struck by the jersey of Lafayette quarterback Rob Curley in the post-game press conference. Other than a patch of dirt on his left shoulder, the uniform was in pristine condition. This is after playing a game in the rain on a grass field. Curley was sacked once by linebacker Paul Rice. The defensive line barely got near Curley and Yale seemed content to let him play pitch and catch with his receivers. Curley took a nasty hit which knocked him out of the Penn game. With the Bulldogs struggling to stay with dangerous receiver Mark Layton, at times it appeared like it was akin to stealing candy from a baby. Curley targeted Layton 10 times on 28 throws and they hooked up 7 times for 116 yards and two touchdowns.

Yale coach Tom Williams disagreed with my assertion that the Bulldogs did not put pressure on Curley and credited the lack of sacks to the Leopards opting for short drops and quick throws. Well, the numbers (20 of 28 passing for 246 yards and two touchdowns) don't lie. The Bulldogs had no answers on defense against either Curley or running back Maurice White, who ran 21 times for 131 yards.

Lafayette, on the other hand, sacked Yale quarterbacks Patrick Witt and Brook Hart six times. Some of those can be attributed to the two Yale QBs holding onto the ball too long and it certainly didn't help that starting center Jake Koury's ailing left calf only allowed him to play a couple of series. Hart played one series in the first half and came into the game with Lafayette leading 24-7 in the fourth quarter.

Aided by Lafayette playing in a prevent mode on defense, willing to allow passes to be completed in the middle of the field so the clock would run. Hart was 13 of 17 for 154 yards and a touchdown. He was also sacked four times which was his Achilles' heel last year. Hart has a tendency to hold onto the ball too long but when he gets the throws off, he is a remarkably accurate thrower with the strongest arm on the Yale team.

On Tuesday Williams said he had no plans to play Hart unless something happened to Witt. By Thursday, Williams and offensive coordinator Brian Stark met with Hart for 5-10 minutes after practice to chat. Now there is a bonafide quarterback controversy at Yale. Look for more on Hart in Monday's edition of the Register.

Regardless of who is under center against Dartmouth in the next game, getting improved play from the offensive line is a must. Ben Meyer, Jeff Marrs and Gabe Fernandez were among the reserves who saw time on the top offensive line on Saturday. One thing I noticed in the preseason is that Yale's starting offensive line kept changing from the intrasquad scrimmage to the scrimmage against Union and the practices I attended. That is usually not a good sign.

Injury wise, Williams said Rice - knocked out of the game after he was the recipient of a crushing block on a special teams return - could have come back in. The status of Koury will bear watching while kickoff returner Ricky Galvez was also knocked out of the game.

Defensively, Larry Abare had 11 tackles and forced a fumble on the opening kickoff. Tim Handlon had 10 tackles while Adam Money had seven tackles and an interception. Yale's defensive linemen finished with six solo tackles and should have been more involved. They were pushed off the ball on a regular basis by Lafayette.

The good news is that Lafayette might be the best team Yale sees this year and the loss does not hamper the Bulldogs' Ivy League championship hopes. The Bulldogs return to Ivy League play when they host Dartmouth on Oct. 10.

The offensive balance was much better for the Bulldogs who ran the ball 29 times and threw it 31 times. A 13-yard run showed the potential of freshman running back Mordecai Cargill while freshmen receivers Chris Smith and Allen Harris continue to work their way into the rotation.

One last note, I spoke with Yale's director of athletics Tom Beckett who said that the 2014 game against Army at the Yale Bowl will happen. There are details to be worked out but the two sides have agreed to play a game in the 100th anniversary season of football at the Yale Bowl.

Just a reminder that the second of my weekly live chats will be held at 2 p.m. on Wednesday. Go to nhregister.com/chat to log in and ask questions.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the question and answer session between Yale football coach Tom Williams, Southern Connecticut's Rich Cavanaugh and Peter Rossomando of New Haven and the fans at Hula Hanks in New Haven Wednesday for the "Chalk Talk" event was Williams' take on the potential of postseason football play in the Ivy League.

After mentioning that adding an 11th game to the schedule or having a postseason bowl game, I felt it was important to address the issue. So I spoke to Yale's director of athletics Tom Beckett on Thursday morning and the first words out of his mouth when I brought up the subject were "nothing's imminent."

My story on the subject ran in today's edition of the Register.

Here's my take on the matter. I see no way the Ivy League presidents will go for permitting Ivy teams to play in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs. That would be potentially five weeks of practice and games. While a one-game addition is a nice compromise, it is also probably a long shot.

There's no question that Beckett and Williams would love to see it happen but Yale president Richard Levin has historically been in favor of status quo when it comes to this issue and I'd be surprised if that changed any time in the near future.

Yale is well represented on the Football Championship Subdivision Athletics Directors Association list of officers.

Director of Athletics Tom Beckett has been named to the executive committee while former coach Jack Siedlecki will serve as the coaches' representative.

Siedlecki is being honored at the second annual Elm City Legends receptions. Among the other honorees are former Yale hockey coach Dick Gagliardi and Bob Dikranian, the former Southern Connecticut State men's soccer coach who is now an assistant coach with the Yale women's soccer team.

Yale's football roster is now up on the school's official site with no major surprises.

Among the veterans on last year's roster, the only ones will eligibility not listed on the current roster are offensive lineman Ben Miller, defensive back Wes Phillips, defensive lineman Matt Smock, kicker Wells Stewart, defensive back Grant Todd and receiver Ryan Vandersloot.

Among the rising sophomores, offensive lineman Michael Gabriel and running back Jake McCrary are the only ones not on the roster.