Show P PROBABLY the main reason that rear adm james M holloway jr head of the U S naval academy chasn t called us in to help select navy s next coach is that ad miral holloway is an extremely smart person one of the finest types west point or annapolis have drawn to date and a better aduca tor than he is a football selector another reason is that the ad miral figured we would cast our vote for capt tom hamilton who is now navy s director of athletics captain hamilton a brilliant navy officer only needed a bit more mod era ern experience and a slightly less rig orous schedule to be a match tor for any one he was far be 0 vt t hind such coaches as fritz cansler lou little frank leahy and many others in expert j ence and e expert 6 ence is the most a vital requisite ot of any football toot bavi coach grantland Grantlan rice dRice suppose navy had its pick of the fielda who would be the one to select among the best coaches in college football in no selected order we could name th the following leahy notre dame crisler alic michigan higan little columbia red blaik army matty bell S II 11 U jimmy phelan st mary blary s blair cherry texas jim tatum maryland wallace wade duke paul bryant kentucky red sanders vanderbilt bobby dodd georgia tech wally butts georgia and bernie bierman minnesota but how many of these can navy get I 1 don t think navy could get leahy crisler or little I 1 doubt that navy would reach for blaik I 1 ve heard two names mentioned lately phelan of st mary s and tatum of maryland either would be an ex cellena thoice phelan s 1945 or 1948 1946 st mary s team was certainly as well coached as leahy s notre dame teams or crisler s michigan teams leahy and crisler currently are rated on top both are brilliant coaches but no one knows how large a part the best material plays in football coaching and material in ili my book material is far more important than coaching leahy and crisler have had tar far the best mate rial lately they have had material that completely outclassed rival players through the last year and both know it they have been meeting teams that never had a man who could make their first squad line or back field notre dame and michigan steadily get the best material in the midwest a strong football sector there is no such monopoly in other sections since the war army and navy took a drop a terrific drop on navy s side material is important but a smart keen alert coach also is a big help modern football moves at a killing pace there are so many new offenses and defenses defense i that a coach slightly behind the times Is completely bewildered A football coach Is the hardest working instructor in the realm of sport no other coach in any other game faces such consistent pres sure no other coach faces so many problems has so many worries so many shocks the pro game is full of fine coaches paul brown steve owen sutherland greasy neale buck shaw on and on but the answer here is still largely material I 1 have no record of navy s ma tenal for 1948 but it should match army s and with a pro coach such as phelan or tatum or one of that class navy isn t going through a season again winn ng rig one game a year navy has won only two games in the last two years this wont won t hap pen through 1948 0 A possible tangle the big nine either is gambling on minnesota to win her conference crown next fall fail or figuring the west coast is s too dazed to care what hap pens at least nothing so far has been done about sending her second or third place team to the rose bowl game in case michigan and ill nois run 12 1 2 our information on illinois is slight but our information on michi gan is complete and it indicates that the wolverines will be just about as tough next fall as they were last season michigan loses a flock of stars including chappuis verges mann ford and but there will be more than enough stars left to plug the gap and make the W wolverines olve rines again as formidable as any squad in the land bernie bierman at minnesota will have a fast powerful line one of the best in football but he could use one or two of michigan a backs the point is this suppose michi gan wins again and the big nine sends out minnesota or purdue to play against the pacific coast con ference champions I 1 have an idea you will bear one of the loudest squawks that ever churned up the coastal waters of the purling pacific |