Is tomorrow another day for the Elis?

By Sharon Lin

Jack Siedlecki, the Joel E. Smilow '54, Head Coach of Football, sits behind the gleaming executive desk in his new office. Over the summer, the football department moved to renovated offices on the third floor of Ray Tompkins House. It smells of new paint and fresh carpet; the new air conditioning system emits a dull roar. Perhaps the newness of it all bodes well for a Yale football team that finished 1-9, at the bottom of the Ivy League, in 1997.

JULIA TIERNAN/YH

On Sat., Sept. 19, the Bulldogs travel to Providence, R.I., to face Brown, one of the most formidable Ivy League squads. The Bears have returning First-Team All-Ivy selection James Perry '00, one of the nation's top signal-callers, and receiver Sean Morey '99, who has already broken four league records. Last year, at Yale's home opener, Brown crushed the Elis 52-14, and in the process set a bad tone for what would be a disappointing season. But this is a new season, and with new faces in the lineup and the coaching staff, there have been more changes in Yale's football program than just the office location.

New and improved

As Yale is a young, rebuilding team, Siedlecki will give many freshmen and new starters playing time. He is planning to start seven sophomores on Saturday in "a league dominated by juniors and seniors." Siedlecki would prefer to have more veteran talent: "[Starting seven sophomores] shouldn't happen again, not with exceptional recruiting," he said. Nonetheless, he noted that a rebuilding Harvard team was in the same situation a few years ago and went on to win the Ivy title just last year.

One new starter in particular shows great promise. Rashad Bartholomew, SY '01, a transfer student from the Air Force Academy, is expected to start at running back. Although he is uneasy about evaluating an untested athlete, Siedlecki said, "We think Rashad is going to be an impact player."

In preseason testing, Siedlecki noted, "[Bartholomew] had the fastest 40 and highest vertical jump, so he's athletically at the top of the team and we're very, very happy he came here." Furthermore, while Bartholomew is only a sophomore, he has experience against quality opponents, having faced top challengers such as Colorado State and the other service academies in his Air Force days.

"I think the team is ready. There's no reason why we shouldn't win," Bartholomew said. "Our wide receivers have a height advantage, our QB can play. If offense can keep it going, that's all we need." A self-described "hard-luck kid," Bartholomew suffered season-hampering ankle, hand, and back injuries during his two years at Air Force. He hopes to stay healthy enough at Yale to run track and play intramural A-hoops as well.

Siedlecki showed his willingness to trust his young players last year, when, in a departure from tradition, he played freshmen regularly. Jumping into play right away, however, is not always easy. "Freshmen have to get all this language thrown at them," senior running back Craig Freccero, TD '99, said sympathetically. "They're always going to be a little lost."

Nonetheless, Siedlecki is committed to playing his best players regardless of experience or seniority and feels that all coaches should do the same. Siedlecki also emphasized his coaching staff's admiration of consistent improvement. He cited Ken Gawrelski, TC '99, as an example of this. "Gawrelski worked himself up the depth chart by playing hard," Siedlecki said.

Emblematic of this insistence on making players prove themselves are the changes Siedlecki has made to the captain election process. He placed underclassmen on the captain ballot to show that leadership could come from all levels of the team. In another iconoclastic move, Siedlecki moved the captain election from the traditional fall banquet to the day before the spring game. He wanted the players who demonstrated leadership in the weight room and during offseason practice to have a chance to be captain.

He is happy with the result, captain Cory Carruthers, MC '99. "We have a great captain," Siedlecki said. This is not all he has planned for team leadership. Carruthers said Siedlecki has tried to "create a leadership core group within each class and group," which is especially important for a team with so many young starters.

Several veteran players have showed their ability to change for the sake of the team by switching positions. Jake Fuller, BR '00, moved from running back to wideout; Matt Bickford, JE '00, moved from the defensive to offensive line; and Eli Kelley, PC '00, moved to defensive end. "These three moves will make those upperclassmen more of a factor," Siedlecki said.

Amidst all this change, the passing game will be led by experienced players who have shown improvement. Quarterback Joe Walland, TD '00, threw for 246 yards in a Tues., Sept. 15 scrimmage against Union, which Yale won, 26-14. Siedlecki said that Walland "had a great preseason and spring. I feel good about him."

Offensive lineman Marek Rubin, ES '99, who will try to protect Walland, may have to be protected by Siedlecki from interested professional scouts. Three scouts came to watch Rubin during the preseason. Walland will be throwing to wideouts Ken Marschner, SY '99, and Jake Borden, JE '00, who together comprise the "biggest receiving corps [in the Ivy League], a pretty formidable crew," Siedlecki remarked.

There will also be a new face among the coaches on the sidelines tomorrow. Jerry Gordon, formerly an assistant coach at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, was hired this summer to coach the tight ends and to help with the offensive line. Yale has a "great staff," Siedlecki said.

The team features more than just new and improved personnel. The much-hyped new varsity weight room has received great praise from the players and staff. In Siedlecki's words, the "second-to-none" training facility has resulted in a "more productive and happier" team, without 6 a.m. lifting sessions.

Preparing for the future

In the opinion of several players, the main varsity core is used to Siedlecki now, and the team seems to be more unified this year than in seasons past. A few suggested that the departure of less committed players contributed to the renewed sense of unity. However, while the core group has been consolidated, Siedlecki knows the team needs more talent. "We have good players, but not enough," he said.

Siedlecki said that he is not looking past this season. "It's unfair to the kids now to look four or five years down the road. I never do that. I look to be competitive now," he said. Nonetheless, getting more quality players for the future is one of Siedlecki's primary goals. He said, "The biggest issue in rebuilding or trying to turn a team around is recruiting." Siedlecki is optimistic, noting that when he arrived at Amherst in 1993, it "was much worse football-wise. They hadn't won in about three years."

Yale is building from a stronger base, but competition for recruits is fierce. To compete, Yale sent 9,000 letters to rising high school seniors in April to get them thinking about donning a Bulldog uniform. Siedlecki is confident that the Eli tradition will be strong enough to allure top prospects. "We're Yale, we should do well [in recruting]," he said. This summer, about 200 recruits visited campus, and Siedlecki expects at least 100 more to attend games this fall before he goes on the road in the off-season to drum up more interest. Every hopeful fills out a card for the coach, listing his height, weight, position, gridiron achievements, and, most importantly, his class rank and SAT scores.

An increasingly important area of competition is that for transfer students. This contest was exemplified by the off-season clamor among Ivy League teams to land transfer students from Boston University's disbanded Division I-AA football team. One Boston University quarterback transferred to Harvard, two BU players transferred to Brown, including a 6'7" offensive lineman, and several transferred to Pennsylvania.

Transfer students have improved Penn in the past. Such players include Matt Rader '99, last year's starting quarterback from Duke. Siedlecki noted ruefully that Pennsylvania accepted some players who would not have made Yale because of its more stringent academic requirements for accepting athletes.

Yet he concluded, "We've done a great job recruiting. [Athletic Director Tom] Beckett had much of the recruiting mechanism in place [when Siedlecki arrived]."

If not this year...

Siedlecki must be doing something right, because he is getting praise from the competition. "He's done an outstanding job," Harvard coach Tim Murphy said. "There is no question in my mind that Jack and Yale will be successful. If not this year, then next, he'll see results." As for Harvard's chances at an Ivy title repeat, Murphy said, "It'll be a lot tougher this year, and that's not just coach-speak."

With the aroma of fresh blue carpet and new wood filling his office, Siedlecki sits at his desk covered with depth charts, recruiting letters, and stat cards filled out by recruits. Plans for this season and beyond are in the works. Perhaps he is pondering whether Harvard really will have a tougher time this year, or if this will be the year for Yale. If it isn't, the answer to a turnaround may be in those cards on his desk.

Photos of Joe Walland (7), TD '00, and Ken Marchner (88), SY '99, by Julia Tiernan.

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