Show ell fa FOOTBALL is moving in the dirac 1 tion of its record year I 1 am re ferring here to class and talent from over 40 football states there hat been no season before that could show as many fast and powerful teams due partly to returning GIs from the various battlefields of the world any one team that can finish this season unbeaten must call on a miracle there are too many who are good for example we might as well take up tile the matter of all america backs we brought tills this argument up before a group of coaches recently simple enough one of them said why not pick blanchard davis W idemey or cr and gilmer it isn t quite that simple simp le we countered what john lujack about fenimore buddy young end and what about tucker of army or justice of north carolina what about the best back on michigan ohio state or indiana or patterson of illinois what about the pick from notre dame and pennsylvania or columbia or one or two from the southwest including texas and missouri certainly notre dame should come up with a challenger from the group frank leahy has in tow perhaps johnny lujack if anyone Is trying to pick the four our best another conch coach said why not put eight names in a hat and pick out the tha first tour four which eight I 1 asked well the answer came here are seven anyway blanchard davis Weder fenimore gil mer and buddy young you dig up the other columbians Columb Colum bias ians backs you can imagine how the the argument will be in late november for example it might surprise many camp amp followers from the strong midwest and the strong south to know that lou little at columbia may end up with a better allaro allaround all aro around d backfield than notre dame mic michigan lo 10 indiana ohio state alabama a georgia and texas the line Is t there but the backs are headed by Kusse kusserow Kus and the brilliant passer kasprzak rated by lou on a par with luckman and governali with ith two big tackles columbia could give army alabama or notre D dame ame an even scrap but the line Is still tho the front wall it is the ad vance post and columbia so far the linen line needed ceded to face such a schedule my guess is thit that army has the best first line backfield in am football with something to spare this backfield in addition to blanchard and davis includes a brilliant quarterback and afine a alne passer in young tucker hear a jot lot more about tucker this fall than you ever heard before he can move right up with blanchard and davis alabama columbia and oklahoma A and M have allaround all around backfield strength above the normal so has illinois with an attack headed by young and patterson two of the best I 1 believe the strongest lines are at illinois yale notre dame and alabama notre dame may have he best of the lot but yale tar far behind alabama has a great center in mancha one of the best in many years illinois possesses top guards and notre dame has bas the best looking tackles oklahoma yale lines it might be added here that the oklahoma A and M line is one of the best a point wally butts of georgia might remember for their october mp meeting eting line Is strong from end to io end texas has allaround all around strength backfield and line and should be hard to handle in the count rys major state the two best ends of the year should belong to army in barney poole and foldberg veterans around pounds who know what it Is all about they will have to be better than good with the tackle problem army faces some squad may have two better ends than ardys big experienced pair but 1 I doubt it among the major teams the big guess Is navy capt tom hamilton undoubtedly tile the savior of college egg football through war years is as s good a coach as meet anywhere but navy has lost more good men than any team in ili the country the group of supposed stars under swede hagberg two years ago have either cither graduated flunked or resigned hamilton has little left from that old crew kelly scott jenkins ellsworth on and on are arc all gone most of the navy line Is missing but hamilton still has good football players left not too many but enough to give any team a busy afternoon navy took the major rap in postwar football where most of the others were getting their former stars back navy was taking a heavy deficit navy may lose many games more than two or three but these games will be ought fought to the last play with tom hamilton in charge |