Sport: Strength in Depth

Unbeaten Navy sailed through Pennsylvania last week 33-0. The victory itself was no surprise, but the way it was won provided a startling tip-off on the power of Navy’s 1955 football squad. The star of the Midshipmen’s fifth straight win was a fourth-string, third-class (sophomore) quarterback named Thomas Forrestal,* of Cleveland. Forrestal passed for two touchdowns, scored a third himself, and masterminded his defense so well that Penn made not one first down in the 30 minutes that he played.

Any team on which a player of Forrestal’s caliber rates only a fourth-string berth must be a powerhouse. On the record and in the experts’ opinion, Navy today is exactly that. First-string Quarterback George Welsh is the leading ground-gainer and one of the slickest passers (40 completions in 61 tries) in college football. The team is rated No. 4 in the nation (after Michigan, Maryland, Oklahoma), the highest Navy ranking since their third-place rating in 1945, when the service schools still had the pick of the country’s football talent. Even Coach Eddie Erdelatz, an undemonstrative old pro, is ecstatic. “Tops,” says Erdelatz. “Absolutely tops.”

Navy’s strength this year stems indirectly from the Naval Academy’s tough attitude toward football. Unlike many civilian schools, Annapolis offers no snap courses for footballers and allows no cutting of classes for practice. To save precious training time in the fall, Coach Erdelatz this year tried a new system: each player going off on summer leave last June got a list of training exercises to follow, was ordered to run and scrimmage on his own time during the summer. Says Erdelatz: “The team came back this year in better shape than at any time since I’ve been here.”

Other time-saving devices forced on Erdelatz at Annapolis have turned out to be helpful rather than harmful to the Navy team. Practice is necessarily short (never more than 2 hrs.), which has its drawbacks—but also the advantage of fewer injuries. The team is pared down to no more than 35 players. “That way,” says Erdelatz, “we can teach everybody to do his job well.” Other college teams are taught as many as 125 plays. Erdelatz, whose players’ heads are being crammed simultaneously with such subjects as naval science, navigation and mathematics, teaches them only ten basic plays, with variations, but insists that they rehearse these to perfection. One result is less confusion and surer ball-handling when Navy takes the field. Another result: the varsity team’s average grade is 3.29 (out of a perfect 4.00), higher than the overall average of the three upper classes (3.10).

Navy’s footballers also rate high with another set of examiners: the football oddsmakers. Although they have not beaten Notre Dame since 1944, the Midshipmen were rated favorites to win their toughest test against Notre Dame this week.

Last week, with few exceptions, the oddsmakers’ choices stood up:

¶Although outweighed 25 lbs. per man on the line, Notre Dame outrushed Purdue 325 yds. to 75 yds. and won, 22-7.

¶Minnesota whipped across two touchdowns in the first quarter and seemed on the way to the season’s biggest upset against top-rated Michigan. But the undefeated Wolverines later rallied for two touchdowns, converting both to win 14-13.

¶After two straight defeats, Army’s offensive got rolling again and crushed Columbia 45-0.

*No kin to the late Defense Secretary James Forrestal.