Former Yale quarterback talks with NFL scouts
                                         following Thursday's pro day at Yale.

It would have been understandable if former Yale quarterback Patrick Witt was a little uneasy in the days leading up to the NFL combine.

It's tough enough to deal with pressure of working out in front of a who's who of the NFL but the combine is also a time when teams delve into every aspect of a prospect's past. So Witt couldn't help but wonder if a circus-type atmosphere would be awaiting him in Indianapolis considering the buzz created by a New York Times expose on Witt. The story asserted that his Rhodes Scholarship candidacy was suspended at the time he announced his decision to discontinue his pursuit of the Rhodes because he would not be able to attend his final interview with the Rhodes committee in Atlanta and play in the Yale/Harvard football game.

Witt has publicly denied the claims raised in the story but that didn't mean that the NFL representatives he met up with wouldn't focus their attention on the questions raised in the story and the off the field incident brought out in the story. So you can imagine Witt's relief when most of the NFL people rolled their eyes and moved onto the next issue when they got Witt's side of the story.

"You tell them exactly what happens, the truth comes out and they go 'that's it?'" Witt said on Thursday after Yale's pro day. "I go 'yeah.' They ask 'you didn't have a chance to defend yourself at all?' I said 'no.' It is hard to tell a story because people don't understand just how vulnerable you can be in this instance, little due process and actually no due process at all so once the truth comes out, it is not a concern for them. I look forward to the opportunity to go in and prove my character to whatever team takes me."

Witt was out in California working with a quarterback coach when the controversy surrounding Rhodes Scholarship began to take on a life of its own. While it doesn't appear to have hurt Witt or impacted his chances of being drafted next month, the same can not be said for his coach at Yale the last three years.

Tom Williams was listed as a Rhodes Scholarship candidate in his Yale bio and spoke on multiple occasions about how his background in the pursuit of the Rhodes would allow him to offer counsel to Witt if he wanted it. The New York Times raised questions about Williams' claims since the Rhodes database did not have any records of a Thomas Williams applying for a Rhodes Scholarship in the early 1990s which is when he would have been eligible to apply. Yale conducted an internal investigation and while Williams was approved by people at Stanford to pursue a Rhodes Scholarship, he never actually applied. In December Williams was forced to resign.

While Witt certainly is not to blame for what happened to Williams, I was curious what his take was on the aftermath of the Rhodes situation.


"I was removed from that out in California so I was getting all the information second hand just like everybody else," Witt said, "I was really happy to see that he landed on his feet at UTEP (coaching safeties). He was a great coach, that was never a question. I enjoyed playing for him, he was a players' coach and he'll straighten things out and get back on track to wherever he wants to go."

There is an official release on the Texas El Paso website announcing the hiring of former Yale football coach Tom Williams as the safeties coach at the school.

I'm thrilled to be back in my home state of Texas," said Williams in the release. "I'm excited to be at UTEP with an established coach like coach Price and his staff. I'm looking forward to getting started."

According to a report on the coachingsearch.com website, former Yale head football coach Tom Williams has accepted a job as the safeties coach at Texas El Paso.

I was able to confirm the hire and will have more on the story on Monday.

Williams is a native of Ft. Worth, Tex. who posted a 16-14 record in his three seasons at Yale before resigning in December following an internal investigation into claims that he overstated his credentials as a Rhodes Scholarship candidate when he was at Stanford in the early 1990s.

The UTEP position became available when Al Simmons left to become the co-defensive coordinator at Colorado State.

According to a report on the http://coachingsearch.com/ website Texas-El Paso football coach Mike Price has spoken to former Yale football coach Tom Williams about an opening on the UTEP staff.

A position became available on Price's staff when safeties coach Al Simmons recently left to become the co-defensive coordinator at Colorado State.

Williams posted a 16-14 record at Yale from 2009-11 including a 7-3 mark in 2010 before being forced to resign after Yale conducted an internal investigation into claims that he overstated claims of being a Rhodes Scholarship candidate as an undergraduate at Stanford.

Earlier today I reported that former Yale defensive coordinator Don Brown was expected to be named the Bulldogs' new football coach later in the week.

Well, it's amazing what a difference a few hours can make. Sources from Yale and UConn confirmed that Brown was offered the job but withdrew his name from consideration tonight.

It's eerily familiar to what happened in 2008 as Brown was emerging as the frontrunner for the Yale job only to withdraw his name from consideration.

What I was unable to find out is if there was a snag at some point in the negotiations but it seems to me as if something like that could very well have gone down.

Yale has interviewed former Yale assistant coach Tony Reno, Lehigh offensive coordinator Dave Cecchini and Georgetown head coach Kevin Kelly. There was a recent report that Yale had reached out to former UCLA head coach Karl Dorrell.

Obviously we will continue to follow this story and hope for everybody's sake that this saga is over quickly.

When Yale orchestrated the ouster of Tom Williams and took its sweet time pulling the trigger, the concern was the impact it would have on recruiting.

So as Yale has been conducting interviews with the four candidates (Don Brown, Dave Cecchini, Kevin Kelly and Tony Reno) this week, a prized recruit slipped away.

Cheshire linebacker Sebastian Little had been to a couple of Yale games during the 2011 season and was persistently pursued by Yale. Not only is Little not coming to Yale but he committed to Harvard. According to a story by Bryant Carpenter of the Meriden Record-Journal, Little was all set to come to Yale before Williams was forced to resign over claims that he overstated his credentials on his resume.

It will be interesting to watch Little's career at Harvard. If he become an impact player with the Crimson he could serve as a reminder of a sorry situation which is currently being played out.

The good news is that a new coach could be in place by the middle of next week. Perhaps there won't be too many other stories to emerge like Little's of players heading to an Ivy League rival because of the uncertainty surrounding the Yale football program at the current time.

Yale is moving forward relatively quickly in naming its next football coach. Multiple sources have said that a new coach could be in place as early as the middle of next week.

Sources have said that Georgetown head coach Kevin Kelly has been interviewed and former UConn defensive coordinator Don Brown is a serious candidate for the job and Yale has been granted permission to interview Brown although I have yet to confirm if he has been in for an interview yet. Tony Reno is another candidate but a source has confirmed that he has yet to come in for an interview. According to the http://www.footballscoop.com/ site, the other candidate is Lehigh offensive coordinator Dave Cecchini.

Both Kelly and Brown fit the criteria of previous head coaching experience that the search committee is looking for in Yale's next coach while Reno and Cecchini are in the mix despite the lack of previous head coaching experience.

With one prominent member of the search committee expected to be out of the state next week, there is a sense that the interviews could be conducted by the end of this week. The weekend of Jan. 13-15 was also circled as a key recruiting weekend before Tom Williams was forced to resign last month over claims that he overstated some of his credentials on his resume. The rest of the staff has remained in place until the new coach determines which of them would be part of the new staff. Having a new coach in place by next week could be invaluable in attempting to salvage the recruiting class.

Brown just completed his first season as UConn's defensive coordinator and has the most head coaching experience among the candidates with stops at Plymouth State, Northeastern and UMass. Brown led UMass to the 2006 FCS national championship game. Brown was one of the early frontrunners for the Yale job back in 2008 before pulling his name out of consideration for the job. He left UMass to become the defensive coordinator at Maryland. Brown was Carm Cozza's defensive coordinator with the Bulldogs from 1987-92.

Kelly has ties to Connecticut as his first college job was as an assistant at Southern Connecticut State in 1984 and 1985. He also has some Ivy League experience as he was on Dartmouth's staff during the Big Green's run to the 1991 Ivy League title. He also coached at Navy, an experience which could prove helpful in dealing with a limited and select player pool in recruiting.

Reno was a member of Jack Siedlecki's staff for six years, five coaching the defensive backs. When Siedlecki was pushed out the door, Reno was the point man for recruiting before Tom Williams was hired. Reno left to join the Harvard staff, in large part because of family considerations since he lived in Sturbridge, Mass. with his wife and children. Reno doesn't have any head coaching experience but he was a defensive coordinator at Worcester State.
Cecchini, a former offensive coordinator at Harvard and Citadel, guided a Mountain Hawks offensive which finished third among Football Championship Subdivision teams in total offense and fifth in passing offense. Among Cecchini's pupils were current NFL players Andre Roberts and Ryan Fitzpatrick. He guided an offense which put up 475 yards in a 37-7 win over Yale on Oct. 1.

On another matter, I did follow up on a couple of comments on my blog saying that nobody from Yale has been in contact with players who have committed to Yale. I spoke with athletic director Tom Beckett last night during Yale's men's basketball game who said he took part in a recruiting meeting with the Yale staff and if that is the case he would like to know that. Beckett would not comment on anything regarding to the search.

I was also told that the players were e-mailed about Williams' resignation before the media was told. I received the e-mail announcing Williams' departure at 8:10 and I was told that the mass e-mail to the players was sent at 8:04. I guess I need to back off some of my criticism of Yale as I suggested the media was told before the players but I still have issues with how it was handled. I understand Yale has more than 100 players but between assistant coaches, people in the sports information department and other athletic department employees there's no reason that Yale couldn't have contacted each player directly by phone or at least text message rather than send out a form letter via e-mail.

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.

Tom Williams resigned as Yale's football coach on Wednesday.

Williams, who was hired back in 2008 off the staff of the Jacksonville Jaguars to replace Jack Siedlecki, had his claims of being a Rhodes Scholarship candidate investigated by Yale. Although the investigation results were never made public, Williams decided to step down and the resignation is effective on Dec. 31.

“I wish to clear the record,” Williams said in a statement. “On the Rhodes Scholarship issue, I was encouraged to apply by the Stanford Fellowship office, which identified me ‘as the kind of student who demonstrates the intellect, energy and commitment that the Rhodes selection committees seek in their applicants.’ I considered the opportunity, sought advice and was encouraged to apply by faculty members and my coach Bill Walsh, but I did not apply.”

“During the spring of my senior year, I was given an opportunity to attend a tryout camp with the San Francisco 49ers, and I participated in that three-day event. I did not sign a free agent contract with the 49ers or participate in their summer training camp for signed players.”

“I am extremely proud of my academic, athletic and coaching career. If there was confusion created, I take full responsibility. The timing of this inquiry has been difficult for everyone. At this point I believe it is in the best interest of my student-athletes and Yale University that I step down.”

Williams was quoted on multiple occasions, including by the Register, about his experience as a Rhodes Scholarship candidate when he was a senior at Stanford while Yale senior quarterback Patrick Witt went through the process. Witt eventually became a Rhodes finalist but chose not to attend the final interview because it conflicted with the season-ending game agaiinst Harvard. The New York Times had the Rhodes Trust check their records and they had no application from a person with the name Thomas Williams during the period when he was eligible to apply. Speaking two days before the Harvard game, Williams said it was just a misrepresentation and he was in contact with the people at Stanford to back up his claims.

“I was talking about making a choice of pursuing a Rhodes and pursuing an opportunity to keep playing football. That was all that was. We just have to make sure we clarify it," Williams told the Register on Nov. 17. "These guys (Yale spokesmen) are here to make sure it gets represented correctly, that is all it was. There is no intention to deceive. I never said I was a finalist for the Rhodes candidacy. The Rhodes shouldn't have any record of me because I didn't do it. I didn't go through the process; I pulled out long before it got to that point.”


While Yale never released the findings of the internal investigation, a source who was closely involved with the decision to hire Williams said his Rhodes Scholarship background played a role in him becoming such a intriguing candidate.

Yale's director of athletics Tom Beckett said the university would immediately begin a search for Williams’ successor.

Williams went 16-14 in his three seasons at Yale including a 7-3 mark in 2010. However, despite returning the majority of the 2010 squad the Bulldogs were just 5-5 and lost to Harvard 45-7.

Williams and his staff continued to go among their business as usual after the season ended, hosting recruits and making preparations for next season.

I have reached out to Williams for comment and obviously I will be providing updates on the resignation and the search for Williams' successor.

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.

When Jordan Haynes and his fellow seniors came to New Haven, expectations were high.

Yale had won 17 games over the previous two seasons and visions of Ivy League championships were bouncing around in an impressive recruiting class.

However, their run at Yale ended without any league titles, no H-Y-P crowns and one of the most humbling losses in recent Yale football history.

Haynes, the linebacker and team captain, was a rock solid spokesman right to the end trying his best to express his disappointment after a 45-7 loss to Harvard, the worst in the series since 1982.

"It came down to us not executing against a good football team and being the captain and ending my career this way it is definitely a low point for me in my 12 years of playing football," Haynes said. "All I can hope for is we have a good group of football players (coming back) and Yale football doesn't end here. I can hope that the guy in the coming years can make things happen."

The loss was a tough one for record-breaking quarterback Patrick Witt who threw three interceptions including one which was returned for a touchdown.

"In the same way that a pitcher goes out there and get shelled a little bit, I just didn't have my good stuff today and it is unfortunate on such a big stage not to perform the way you know you can," Witt said.

The focus in the coming days and week figure to center around the future of Yale coach Tom Williams, the subject of a Yale internal investigation to verify he is the Rhodes Scholarship candidate he said he was when applying for the Yale job and in recent interviews when Witt was going through the process of picking to play in the Harvard game and pass on his Rhodes final interview.

A source told me that Stanford has confirmed Williams' claim that he was endorsed to pursue a Rhodes Scholarship during his days at the school while other sources believe Williams could be in danger of losing his job.

This has been an interesting couple of weeks covering the Yale football team, to say the least.

Patrick Witt's pursuit of the Rhodes Scholarship and then his decision to withdraw as a candidate because he was not willing to skip Saturday's game against Harvard became a national story. I couldn't even come up with another sports story which generated nearly as much attention at an Ivy League school in recent memory. Now the story of his quest for the Rhodes Scholarship has taken a bizarre turn.

Yale coach Tom Williams has been listed as a Rhodes Scholarship candidate on every bio I have found on him but the Rhodes Trust has no record of him submitting an application. Yale has started an internal investigation to determine if Williams has misrepresented himself or even flat out lied about his Rhodes Scholarship credentials.

I think it is about to get interesting. When I spoke to Williams after Thursday's practice he said there was no intention to deceive anybody on the issue and he never claimed to be a Rhodes finalist. He is correct in that but he did speak as if he was faced with the same situation as Witt recently wrestled with. He did not. Williams said he was endorsed to pursue a Rhodes Scholarship but never went as far as Witt did in the process. His future employment at Yale could hinge on a few factors. First, will people at Stanford substantiate his claims? Next, will the people conducting the internal investigation at Yale consider him to be a Rhodes candidate if he never submitted an official application or met with a Rhodes Scholarship committee? Finally, how much did Williams play up his Rhodes Scholarship candidacy when he was interviewing for the job at Yale. I am hearing rumbling that his Rhodes Scholarship past did play a factor in him getting the job at Yale. If he played up how far along he went in the process and it is thought that he misled the people involved in interviewing him for the Yale job, he could be a former Yale coach soon.

I have found him to be very straight forward in my dealings with him on any and all subjects and I believe that he did receive an endorsement to pursue a Rhodes Scholarship when he was at Stanford and that his pursuit of a pro football career led him to short circuiting any aspirations of going all the way through the Rhodes process. I also think he did a poor job in making distinctions of just how far he went in the Rhodes process during recent interviews. The way he spoke about his past made reporters, including me, refer to him as a Rhodes finalist. He never used those words in describing himself but also never said he considering going after the Rhodes before changing his mind early in the process which seems to be a more accurate portrayal of the events 19 years ago. I find it hard to believe he would make up this stuff about a Rhodes Scholarship candidacy, especially when he had a couple of stints at Stanford where it would have been so easy for him to be caught up in a lie.

Another question I have is where was Yale in verifying the items on his resume when he applied for the job with the Bulldogs. Two months passed between the time that Jack Siedlecki "retired" and Williams was hired. If it comes out that Williams' Rhodes Scholarship claims are false, somebody at Yale will have some major explaining to do.

Something tells me that the post-game interview session tomorrow could be rather interesting considering recent events.

Now on the subject of Witt's decision. Never in all the times I interviewed the quarterback on the Rhodes Scholarship matter did I ever get a sense that missing the Harvard game was an option. He always planned to play on Saturday and said as much when I did the story on him being a Rhodes finalist. The issue was attempting to get an interview when it didn't conflict with the game. Friday interviews have taken place in the past, including back in 2008 when Yale cornerback Casey Gerald had his interview in Houston and was able to make it to Boston to play in The Game. Once Witt realized that there would be no Friday interviews in Atlanta, he made his decision to pull himself out of contention for a Rhodes Scholarship. If there is one question that I wanted to ask Witt and would have if he had not refused interview requests for the last week and a half, it would be why didn't he apply in the New England region. He had that option as a Yale student and logistically would have been more realistic for him to interview for the Rhodes and play in the football game tomorrow.

There have been people critical of Witt saying his claim that he left Nebraska and transferred to Yale to be challenged more academically proves he places sports over academics. I disagree. He carries a 3.9 grade point average at Yale so obviously he has put his money where is mouth is in terms of being a student-athlete. His decision came down to honoring his commitment to the Yale football team. He was there in the spring, in the summer and the fall as an offensive leader and I'd question what his legacy with the Bulldogs would look like if he was a no show for tomorrow's game? I believe Witt's future is still incredibly bright even without a Rhodes Scholarship and his decision did not come as a surprise to me or any of his teammates or coaches. The final act in Witt's picking football over the Rhodes Scholarship will play out tomorrow while Williams story could just be starting to unfold.

Yale football coach Tom Williams wanted to clarify the level in which he pursued a Rhodes Scholarship as a senior at Stanford in the early 1990s.

Several publications including the New Haven Register have referred to Williams as a Rhodes Scholarship finalist based on his comments that he faced the same situation that Yale senior quarterback Patrick Witt recently found himself in. The New York Times ran a story saying that the Rhodes Trust does not have a record of anybody by Williams’ name having applied for a Rhodes Scholarship from 1991-93 when Williams would have been eligible to apply.

After Thursday’s practice, Williams addressed the topic stating that he was endorsed by a faculty advisor at Stanford to apply for the Rhodes but never went as far in the process as Witt did.

Williams was asked if he was a finalist for the prestigious academic scholarship.

“No, nor did I intend to,” Williams said. “If I misrepresented that, it wasn't my intention. I was talking about making a choice of pursuing a Rhodes and pursuing an opportunity to keep playing football. That was all that was. We just have to make sure we clarify it. These guys (Yale spokesmen) are here to make sure it gets represented correctly, that is all it was. There is no intention to deceive. I never said I was a finalist for the Rhodes candidacy. The Rhodes shouldn't have any record of me because I didn't do it. I didn't go through the process; I pulled out long before it got to that point.”

Williams’ resume, dating back to his days as a Stanford assistant coach and up to his current biography, has been consistent in referring to him as a Rhodes candidate which would be the case had he been endorsed by Stanford to begin the application process.

Witt, Yale’s all-time leader in passing yards, attempts and completions, was named a Rhodes finalist on Nov. 1. However, with his interview scheduled the same day as the Yale/Harvard game, Witt withdrew from consideration for the Rhodes so he could play on Saturday.

Alex Thomas looked pretty good in practice on Thursday and after missing the last two games, Yale's leading rusher should be back in the lineup on Saturday against Princeton.

Thomas injured his left knee in the fourth quarter of the Oct. 22 game against Penn. He practiced a bit last week and was a game-time decision but when he came out to test his knee in last week's Brown game, it did not feel right so he was held out. Thomas is anxious to get back into action.
"It's been frustrating, obviously I wanted to get back sooner but I have been rehabbing and doing whatever I could to get back as soon as possible," Thomas said. "It is never fun watching and wanting to be out there."

Yale coach Tom Williams has seen Thomas make tremendous strides in practice this week.
"He looked great," Williams said. "I teased him, I said 'is the A-Train back? He said 'it is more like the trolley right now but I am getting close.' He looked good today and he is getting close, he made some good cuts where he looked like the old Alex."

There was no sign of junior receiver Chris Smith at practice so I'd be surprised to see him in action on Saturday when Yale plays at Princeton.
 
As has been the custom all season long, NFL scouts were checking out Yale's practice. On Thursday, representatives from the Indianapolis Colts and Miami Dolphins were in attendance. On Tuesday, the Dallas Cowboys had a scout at practice.
 
The Yale admissions department is currently looking over the transcripts and applications of some players who have committed to Yale including Berlin's Tommy Undercuffler, who projects as a linebacker/safety for the Bulldogs. Others looking to get the approval include Bronxville (N.Y.) High brothers Christian and Jackson Conway, Lake Brantley (Fla.) linebacker Adam VanValkenburg and New Jersey prospects Matt Rubino and Roger Kilgore.
 
Finally, if you want to hear Williams' thoughts on the Penn State situation and firing of legendary head coach Joe Paterno, here is a video on the suhttp://www.nhregister.com/video/?va_id=3010597&pl_id=21367&ref=syndbject

Patrick Witt has heard the "I'd love to be faced with that problem" so many times in the last week or so that he simply lost track. However, he doesn't look at the possibility of either skipping the Harvard game in a week in a half or kissing goodbye his dreams of becoming a Rhodes Scholar as a win-win situation.


“It’s exciting and stressful,” Witt said. “To be named a finalist is a huge honor and something I am excited about. At the same time, different people are weighing in on the issue and I don't want to let anybody down so it is a distraction, I wouldn't say it’s a welcome distraction. It is obviously a great opportunity but at the same time, I'd love to have a decision made and move forward from here knowing what I am going to do.

“It is tough. I lean on people around me, I lean on my family, on Coach (Tom Williams) to help me make the decision but it is difficult. There are people who will second guess your decision and think you are wrong and that is fine. I will make the right decision for me, my team and the university.”

When Witt began the process of applying for the Rhodes Scholarship, he was fully aware that if he became a finalist, the interview would take place in Atlanta in the morning of the Yale/Harvard game. Knowing of the possibility of being asked to stay behind for a follow-up interview would mean not playing in his final collegiate game.

“I don't know if a clear answer is going to reveal itself to me so I have to make the best decision with the information I do have but in a lot of ways this is a decision of principle,” Witt said. “Coach mentioned that leadership is a major facet on who they select as candidates and as finalists. My big arena to display my leadership is on the football field as the quarterback. I have a duty to uphold and in some ways if I were to attend the interview and miss the game, I wouldn't be acting as the leader that they selected.”

Witt’s dilemma, which was the subject of a report on the NBC Nightly News on Monday, drew writers from the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News Service to Yale’s weekly media gathering at Mory’s on Tuesday. Representatives from the Dallas Morning News, Boston Globe and NCAA.com have also requested an interview with Witt.

Witt’s hope is that his Rhodes interview could be moved so he could both go to the interview and play in the game. That is what happened in 2008 when Yale defensive back Casey Gerald was faced with the same situation. Gerald was able to interview the night before The Game and fly out the following morning.

That possibility still exists and there is a lot of work behind closed doors to try to make that happen.

“I am still in contact with the folks at the Rhodes,” Witt said. “I am still trying to work out some kind of solution from this. When I hear definitively one way or another, I'll go back and make my decision based on that. At this point, it is all speculation because I haven't made a decision yet. Hopefully I won't have to. I will continue to exhaust every means possible.

“They (the Rhodes committee members) are very understanding. In their defense, these dates were set long before the season started. I knew when they were. I understood the conflict that could exist and I guess in some ways I held out hope that we could work around it.

Yale football coach Tom Williams was faced with a similar decision when he was Witt's age. The timing of the Rhodes final interviews was a little different but he had to pick between attending a San Francisco 49ers training camp after wrapping up an impressive career at Stanford or heading to his Rhodes Scholarship interview. Williams picked football and has no regrets.

"He and I have talked frequently about this situation and I still believe you have to follow your heart, whatever your heart tells you," Williams said. "If you do that, you won't be disappointed, you won't have any regrets. I am one of those people that say you live your life with no regrets and just told him to soul search and do what feels right. I think if you do that, you can't go wrong.

"I think you would be inhuman if you didn't have stress associated with this. I just think the nature of this decision can weigh on you and you have the media, you have preparation for your games, nothing changes. You still have all these things you have to take care of and are involved in addition to this heavy decision you have to make."

Senior running back Alex Thomas was not ruled out of Saturday's game against Brown until about an hour before kickoff. But he was back at practice on Tuesday and Yale coach Tom Williams believes he will be good to go after missing the last two games with a knee injury.
 
"He got some reps early in practice and then we shut it down," Williams said. "I talked to him right after and he said it felt.. I fully expect to have him on Saturday. I thought we would have him on last Saturday but he said when he was warming up, it didn't feel good.  He came out ready to go, he went through all the motions and wasn't ready."
 
The news isn't as positive on junior receiver Chris Smith, who had a walking boot on his right foot after injuring his ankle on Saturday.


"I don't know if he will have him on Saturday," Williams said. "The walking boot on Tuesday is a precaution. Tomorrow we will reevaluate it and see if he can get some reps. I would anticipate him not being available this weekend.. That was kind of a freak deal.

"He made that one-handed catch and the guy fell on the back of his leg and rolled him up. Totally different injury. He is tough and if there is a way he can go, he will go."


Yale used both Philippe Panico and Kyle Cazzetta on field-goal tries on Tuesday and Williams didn't rule out making a change this week.
"The placekicking thing, we have to find a guy to get points when we have to go out and get points and do it when it is a big game," Williams said. "Competition always but we are always making a bigger emphasis of it this week. He's been great as a punter but he can also do that. When he kicks the ball, it goes (up). He has a nice little lob wedge but we have to get his timing a little quicker, He is coming. I would like him not to have to focus on that (field goals and extra points) but if we have to..

Williams has not ruled out making a switch at punt returner either Gio Christodoulou lost fumbles in the fourth quarter in each of the last two games. Christodoulou is Yale's all-time leader in punt return yardage but when the team works on punt returns tomorrow, both Christodoulou and Deon Randall will get looks.

"We are competing there. We will give a chance to give him and Deon back there and the best guy is going to play on Saturday," Williams said.

It's looking like Yale's offense is getting closer to being at full strength.

Offensive tackle Roy Collins, receiver Chris Smith and running back Alex Thomas took part in Tuesday's practice in varying degrees. All three players were injured in the loss to Penn. They were all held out of practice last week and missed Saturday's game against Columbia.

Collins, who injured his ankle, saw the most action on Tuesday. In the time I was there, he saw most of the time at right tackle with the starters. Thomas, who suffered a knee injury against the Quakers, was in the backfield for a handful of snaps. Smith, who has missed two games with a tender hamstring, did not take part in an team drills but did some individual workouts.

"(Thomas) is still a little tender but he got a few reps in today," Yale coach Tom Williams said. "Roy was back and pretty close to full speed and Chris was back. He didn't go through everything but he did go through individual (drills) and tomorrow we are going to try to get him some team reps and just kind of slowly ramp him up. I think we are getting closer to where we need to be health wise. They should be available for Saturday. Obviously the next couple of days will be important for Chris and Alex to get full-speed reps but they are on their way. The plan today is try to ease them into it and tomorrow and Thursday get them ready for game speed."

Starting left tackle Wes Gavin is still unable to practice because of an ankle injury and seems unlikely to be back for Saturday's game against Brown.

SEMONES HOLDING STEADY
I didn't get a complete sense of the quality of the hold on Philippe Panico's 38-yard field goal under white-out conditions on Saturday until I replayed the tape of the game.

The snap on the kick was low and slightly wide but sophomore Jake Semones calmly snared the snap and was able to get it down in time for Panico to make the kick for the first points in Yale's 16-13 win.

"I couldn't see it on the field because his back was to me and also because of the snow," Williams said.  "That ball was about this low off the ground (holding his hands about an inch or two apart) and to the side. He picked it and got it back in place with no problem at all. That is why he is so valuable.

"His holds have been like that all year and Philippe has great confidence in him. That is what made a difference in the kick, the fact that Philippe did not have to break stride at all. It was the difference in the game. I thought three points might be enough to win it and it ended up being the difference. It was a great hold, unbelievable but he has been like that all year. I think I was watching the TV copy and the guys said that the holder never gets any attention unless he drops the ball. That has been great because Jake has been good the whole year."

When the Ivy League announces its weekly player of the week, it would be fitting for one or more of Yale's offensive linemen to get the nod. Of course, there would have been a better chance of finding a sun bather at Saturday's Yale/Columbia game.

In a game played in a surprisingly potent storm, Yale made some Ivy League history.

After paving the way for Alex Thomas to run for 204 yards in a loss to Penn, the Yale starting offensive line of Ben Carbery, Gabe Fernandez, John Oppenheimer, Colin Kruger and James Talerico were at it again as Mordecai Cargill ran for 230 yards in the 16-13 win over Columbia.

I went through the record books for the Ivy teams and as far as I can tell, it is the first time an Ivy team had two backs rush for 200 yards in consecutive games. What makes the feat so impressive is that the Bulldogs were playing without both starting tackles as both Wes Gavin and Roy Collins were out with ankle injuries.

"Our O-line has really come together," said Cargill, who surpassed the 1,000-yard mark in career rushing yards late in the game. "It was (unfortunate) that Roy and Wes went down but we have a lot of solidarity up front. Our O-line is starting to mesh and we are looking to build momentum going forward."


I asked Columbia coach Norries Wilson how impressive it is to have two backs run for 200 yards in back to back games and I had to laugh at his response.
 
"I think Nebraska does it every week," Wilson said. "I think just looking at the stats, they have been intermixing the two backs. I don’t know what’s wrong with 41 (Thomas, who missed the game with a knee injury), we didn ‘t know he wasn’t going to play but (Cargill) made the most of his opportunity and they did a good job blocking for him.


"They are a real good group. They are playing Carbery as a freshman, they have a freshman who played last year (Gavin) who is a really good player. I really like 57 (Roy Collins). I think they have done a good job of playing some athletic kids who can play offensive line. They can reach block on the second step, they do a real good job of protecting their quarterback."
 
It is NOT the first time Yale had a 200-yard rusher in consecutive games as Robert Carr accomplished the feat in games against Cornell and Holy Cross but it is the first time it was done by different running backs.
 
A few defensive details thanks to Jordan Haynes since it was extremely difficult to make out many of the plays. On the fumble recovered by Will McHale which led to Panico's field goal, McHale deflected a pass which was caught by a Columbia lineman. Cliff Foreman then jarred the ball free and McHale recovered. Haynes recovered a fumble after a huge submarine tackle. Again, I couldn't make out the player and he said it was Kurt Stottlemyer. Because of the conditions made passing extremely difficult, Yale was able to aggressive blitz its defensive backs on obvious passing situations. Collin Bibb led the way with two tackles for a loss including a sack.
 
Wilson was asked whether he felt the play before Nick Okano's game-clinching interception should have been called pass interference.
 
"You have to ask the official on that side, it doesn’t matter what I think," Wilson said.
 
The Yale players heard that Brown beat Penn 6-0 as the Bulldogs were running the final few seconds off the clock. Now Yale can clinch no worse than a share of the Ivy League title it it wins its final three games. Had Penn won out, Yale would not be able to catch the Quakers in the standings.



The main focus on my game story is on Cargill's monster effort and the fact that Yale did not attempt a pass in the second half. I have a notebook with reaction from Yale players about the winter wonderland they played in as well as Philippe Panico somehow getting a 38-yard field goal through the uprights.
 
Speaking of the snow, Yale history buff Bob Barton (a former New Haven Register copy editor and regular at Yale games for years) came up with a list of other Yale games of the last 50 years impacted by snow.
 
Temple 1953 (Yale 32-6) early November, probably 4 inches


Harvard 1955 (Yale 21-7), probably 2-3 inches


Princeton 1967, there were snowflakes but rain, thunder, little of everything, no accumulation


Think there was also a little snow at Princeton in 1985, but nothing serious.
I am thinking that if you said this was the most serious snow during a game in more than half a century, you'd be right.

It was a bit of good news mixed in with some bad for Alex Thomas regarding his knee injury.

The senior running back from Ansonia, who ran for a career-high 204 yards in Saturday's loss to Penn, underwent tests on his injured knee on both Sunday and Tuesday.

While the results of Sunday's tests were inconclusive, the second examination revealed an injured posterior cruciate ligament. As a result, he will be forced to miss Saturday's game at Columbia. It could have been worse and put him on the sidelines for the rest of his senior season.

Thomas spoke about the situation after Thursday's practice.

"There is not a tear, it is just a PCL injury," Thomas said. "I am going to sit this weekend and hope to be back next week. I have a brace on and I am just rehabbing like a maniac right now trying to get back to where I need to be."


Thomas, who is third in the Ivy League with an average of 99.5 rushing yards per game, was understandably concerned about his availability for the rest of the season after falling awkwardly in the fourth quarter of the Penn game.

"You never know, you know something doesn’t feel right but you don’t know what it is until the doctor tells you," Thomas said. "At the beginning of the week, I was just playing the waiting game and hoping and praying for the best. This is not the best news, I have to sit a week which is not what I want to do but (realizing) that I get to play three more games here at Yale, it means a lot."

While Thomas may not consider missing this week's game "good" news, Yale coach Tom Williams believes that is about the best possible outcome.

"It is as positive as it could be hearing from the doctors that he is going to have the chance to get the strength back and continue playing," Williams said. "Obviously he has been a great player for us this season but him being able to finish his senior season would be important for him and important for us."

Mordecai Cargill is an experienced tailback for Yale with 769 career yards including 73 in the 2009 win at Columbia. Deon Randall may see more snaps at running back, although he may also be called upon to pick up the slack for injured receiver Chris Smith. Other options figure to be fullback Elijah Thomas, who was a tailback as a freshman, and freshman walk on Wynston Bouknight.


"Mo (Cargill) knows what he is doing and Wynston and Elijah both know what they are doing, they have a good grasp of the offense," Thomas said.  "I am here to answer any questions they have, I am here on the sideline each and every play. I am pretty confident in the guys that we have. I know they are pretty confident and excited to get out there on Saturday."

In his 2 1/2 seasons at Yale's head coach, Tom Williams has gained a reputation for not sugar coating things and speaking his mind. So it should not have come as a surprise when he didn't pull any punches when he was asked about the 10 penalties Yale was called for in Saturday's loss at Pennsylvania and if it was a concern heading forward.

Williams categorized the officiating in the game as "poor." He was especially perturbed at - among other things - what he perceived to be three uncalled helmet to helmet hits by Penn defenders on Yale quarterback Patrick Witt. The flagging of helmet to helmet hits has been a particular point of contention since the Ivy League suspended Yale sophomore safety Nick Okano for the Lafayette game for a hit he made in the fourth quarter of the Dartmouth game.

Here is what else he had to say about the officiating in the Penn game at Yale's weekly media gathering with Williams and a couple of his players (senior defensive tackle Jake Stoller and sophomore receiver Cam Sandquist were the players present on Tuesday).

"I am taking issue with it because every big game I have coached in since I have been here has been like that and it hasn't been very good. And I have video evidence of it. It is not great. My hands are up in the air right now because I am not exactly sure what can be done with it but I know there were some bad no-calls which are sometimes worse than the ones that are called. We have not been a very heavily penalized team since the first game of the season and we had 10 on Saturday which is unheard of for our football team. Most of them were questionable. I have a real issue with that. I don't know what is going on but I do know that it affected the outcome of the game. We have to do our part, don't get me wrong. We have to field the sky kick, we have to not fumble the kickoff return, we have to execute the 3rd and 1 and do all the things that we have to do to win the game but we don't need any help from the officials. We do enough on our own. Those are real concerns that I have. I think a lot of those calls are bogus to be quite honest with you, that is my answer to your question about penalties."
 
There will be those who will view Williams' words as sour grapes but the fact is that he has voiced his dissatisfaction with the officiating with me after wins and he is quick to give Penn credit for the victory. I believe he feels that his complaints about the officiating in the Ivy League have fallen on deaf ears so he is going public with his thoughts. I am sure his quotes will not be well received at Ivy League headquarters but I am also sure he will not back off his words even if discipline comes from the league.