OCR Text |
Show YOU might not think that football was back, with May on its way to June, but football is always back. It has few intermissions now from vjmTOTOV, January to Janu-r'-SaSsKESP"! ary, when you pack V 4' in spring practice 5 and the never-end. " sw hig nw of footbal v . talk. I found this i, !(. J true again on a re- "XT. cent jaunt through ! ' c? 016 Southeast where 1 ' record squads were K j3 J busy at spring ' .' practice in Florida, ha& 1 Georgia, Alabama .1 jr- and the Carolinas. Grantland Rice . Many of these practice delegations ran from 125 to 175 men. The early enthusiasm, even under blazing suns, was far beyond be-yond normal. I ran into Wally Butts, Georgia's coach, who coyly admitted his 194f Bulldogs would be better than fair "We had no line last fall," Wall? said, "but we have a good line now and with Trippl on hand for the backfield, plus a few more, we hope to be ready for Alabama and Oklahoma Okla-homa A. and M., to mention only two. Also L.S.TJ." In the meanwhile Alabama and Oklahoma A. and M. are facing the chance of losing Harry Gilmer and Bob Fenimore, two All-America stars. The beckoning finger of the army draft has called both for a physical test. These two have been in the 4-F class the last two seasons. sea-sons. But if they are taken, there can be no replacements to match their worth. Alabama has a great squad. But losing Gilmer is like losing a Sammy Baugh or a Luck-man. Luck-man. Losing Fenimore, the 195-pound 195-pound sprinter, passer and kicker would be no worse than the army losing Doc Blanchard. Florida Full of Hope Florida was running a high football foot-ball fever. Ray Wolf and a new strong staff are now at Florida with the best Gator prospects in several seasons. Miami university, Orange Bowl winner over Holy Cross, expects ex-pects to have a much better team than the 1945 squad. Snuffy Stirnweiss, backfield coach at North Carolina, reports the arrival ar-rival of halfback Justice at Chapel Bill, plus several additions that Carl Snavely can use with considerable pleasure. I also received the news that Bob Neyland will have another Tennessee squad that will be hard to clean away. Also that Wallace Wade, back at Duke, is busier than ten swarms of bees getting ready for a hard campaign. Southern teams have a stiff spring training grind and they are busier than usual with so many Bowls to be filled next year. With Neyland and Wade back they also face keener keen-er competition, especially if Frank Thomas at Alabama loses Gilmer. No one can say yet what Henry Frnka will have at Tulane, but you can gamble the Green Wave is rolling roll-ing forward. It might also be noted that no one can say yet just how many good football players the draft will remove from the scene all over the map. This draft procedure will wreck some teams while missing miss-ing others completely. Army and Notre Dame We ran into several Notre Dame ex-stars who advised us to keep an eye on Frank Leahy's 1946 squad. "The last two Army teams piled up 108 points against us in 1944 and 1945. : A beating is one thing. A massacre is something else. But brother it is going to be different in 1946. Notre Dame will be there with what it takes. This means line, backfield, power and speed. "Leahy will have both Kelly and Mello back. Here are two of the best backs Notre Dame has known in years. But they are only a small part of the material now on hand for spring practice at South Bend." "You don't figure any Army pushover?" push-over?" I asked the Notre Darner. "Certainly not. But Army won't be the Army of 1944 and 1945. Why? The line. Yes, Army will have or should have the best backfield in football, headed by Blanchard, Davis Da-vis and Tucker. But don't forget Army has lost a number of valuable linemen and that Army line has been a big factor in their victories. In the meanwhile Capt. Tom Hamilton, now on the job at Navy, finds himself caught between two fires Army and Notre Dame. Tom Hamilton is not only one of the best coaches In football, but one of the best inspirational leaders. Hamilton Hamil-ton has the foundation or basis for a hustling, fighting squad that can make it extremely uncomfortable for any opponent on Navy's schedule. Michigan's Troubles Hamilton was the one man who saved college football during the war. At least he did more for the cause than any other three men I know about. One team that may acquire more than its share of draft trouble is Michigan. Last fall Fritz Crisler had 18 freshmen on his squad, 8 of whom were classed : among his regulars. The Wolverines Wolver-ines had one of the youngest squads in the country and for this reason I may suffer heavier casualties. |