The Bulldogs finished the 2018 campaign at 5-5 with a 3-4 Ivy League record. After being picked to finish first in the preseason polls, the season certainly did not live up to expectations. From the first contest versus Holy Cross, it was apparent that the defense did not have the same level of talent as the 2017 squad. Dartmouth, Princeton and Harvard had their way with our defense, while an anemic offense cost us a victory against Columbia. If we had played Holy Cross later in the season, we likely could have pulled off a victory and having Rawlings or O’Connor in the Columbia game would have reversed that outcome.
The good news for the 2019 campaign is that almost everyone is returning. Crowle, Roman and Peggs graduate on defense, while role players such as Locke, Lager and Marcinick depart on offense. Galland, Horn, and Simino will need to be replaced on special teams. The offensive skill players are the most talented players on the roster. Rawlings and O’Connor are both superb quarterbacks who haven’t even reached their full potential. Lamar, Dudek and Alston form one of the best backfields in Yale history. Klubnik and Shohfi cannot be contained by Ivy League defensive backs. Howland and Roman could be 1st Team All-Ivy players by the time they graduate in two years. The offensive line is the weakness on offense, although returning all five starters is critical to next season’s success. Eiselen and Strother did not improve as much as we had hoped from 2017 to 2018, while the new starters of Warfield, Hinish and Cepalia did not play well consistently enough to dominate opposing defensive lines. The offensive linemen need to hit the weight room harder than they ever have this offseason, continue to study film and improve communication.
The defensive line was dealt a lethal blow before the season had even started with the loss of Mullen over alleged sexual misconduct. Roman was the top pass rusher, so developing another speedy end with moves will be a priority. Osorachukwu Ifesinachukwu or Reid Nickerson could potentially fill that void at end. Matthaei and Keeler return at defensive tackles and they need to get more physical at the point of attack as well as improve their abilities to shed blocks. Fraser, Goodyear and Raine could rotate in with them next season. Callender battled through injuries and seemed to regress from 2017 to 2018, but we think he’ll bounce back to have a fantastic senior season. Moore, Kissel and Sampleton all had their ups and downs throughout the year. We need at least one of those players to step up and assert dominance over opposing offensive tackles. Burke, Pope, Awodiran, Dean, Hill, and Carey all return at linebacker. Pope is the best of the bunch and we’d like to see him take on a leadership role in 2019. The linebackers across the board struggled with shedding blocks, tackling and covering running backs out of the backfield. The secondary in 2018 can simply be described as a disaster. Corners ran stride for stride with receivers and then refused to play the ball over and over again. Safeties offered little run support and were out of position in the passing game. Open field tackling in the secondary was non-existent as no one would take proper angles on ball carriers. Simple ten yard runs turned into sixty yard touchdowns repeatedly. Reno needs to find four trustworthy defensive backs through an extended open competition. The combination of Alburg, Dixon, Thomas and Henson just doesn’t cut it. Abraham, Granberry, Oldacre, Agbeyegbe, Dunham, Ellis and Hickey all need to be given every opportunity to claim a starting role as this unit is in dire need of a radical transformation.
37 replies on “Looking Ahead”
Excellent review by the Moderator. Objective and candid with appropriate constructive criticism. Justified optimism regarding the offense and a lot that needs to improve defensively.
I agree entirely with the above. A 5-5 season: 5 for the offense and 5 against the defense.
I agree with most of the moderator’s assessments of the Offensive Unit as well. We are extremely deep and talented at all the skill positions. Considering we replaced three starters on the Offensive Line I felt they performed reasonably well. I do think Strother is more suited as an interior lineman. He seemed to get beat on multiple occasion’s by faster defensive ends in pass protection. Warfield looked solid but did get pushed around on occasion. Being he is a Sophomore he has an opportunity to add some needed muscle next season. The same can be said for Sophomore Hinish. Maybe Sexton can come back healhy next year and Sterling can move back inside ? I really think the Offense has a chance next year to put some numbers in the record books. They might need to with our defense.
Sterling is 100% better suited to be an interior guy. He is overly tight in the hips and too often gets exposed on the edge.
I fear Sexton has played his last game for the Eli due to his injury history.
gentlemen; an excellent review for the upcoming year with an exclamation point in reference to the defensive backfield. our blue squad needs to find a run stopping linebacker who consistly can make tackles. The problem is the defense will be primarily the same as last year unless there are some players who were not listed on the depth chart who will move to the head of the class next year.
100% agreed about the O and D. That said, I would be shocked if we are 5-5 next year. For one thing, Rawlings hopefully will play the whole year, and if he doesn’t O’Connor will be more experienced and throw less picks. Add a recovered Dudek & the other RB’s and WR’s and you have a remarkable offense. The D almost can’t possibly be worse, and its coaches and personnel know what they need to work on. 2019 may be reminiscent of ’14, when our offense was record-busting and our defense pretty bad. The final record that year was 8-2 and I foresee a similar one in ’19… hopefully with a stirring Rawlings/Lamar etc. sendoff win at The Bowl over the Cantabridgians, giving us at least a title share.
The defensive line was the main problem on defense. They really missed Copache Tyler who ate up blockers allowing the linebackers to often go unblocked. Without him they resembled the disastrous 2016 defense. He was the main missing piece. Yale needs to improve the size and strength of their defensive tackles more than anything else. They should seriously consider moving one of their offensive lineman to defense.
New Yale commit: Trenton Johnson , Safety, 6’2” 190 lbs, St Mary’s, Albany, Ca. Offers include Army, Navy, Air Force, Rice, Nevada, San Jose State and Vanderbilt amongst many others.
The major qualifier regarding Yale’s outstanding offensive backfield talent is the perennial injury problem. It seems the past few preseasons we look forward to seeing our star runners continue their heroics only to see them get stymied by injury e.g. Salter, Lamar, Dudek. This year we thought we would have Dudek and and Lamar and that only lasted about one and a half games. The year before we thought Lamar and Salter would be rotating in the backfield – thank goodness for freshman Dudek. We are hoping once again that Dudek and Lamar be the one-two punch that will help Yale compete for next year’s Ivy championship. Keeping these two stars injury free is vital given the uncertainties about our defense.
We need more beef, muscle and truculence in the middle of both lines. We haven’t recruited well in this area for several years, and next fall’s class, though admittedly far from complete, looks like more or the same. The lines should always be priorities, not afterthoughts. I hope we’re not scrambling around in late January and then filling up the class with a ton or so of already passed-over flesh.
gentlemen; in my humble opinion i agree mr. tyler was a run stopping machine coupled with the loss of mr.herubin and mr mullen made it difficult to run the pigskin against our blue last year. the biggest difference speaking on the obvious was the loss of safeties mr. carlson and mr alessi who were sure tacklers attacking runners near the line of scrimmage and linebackers mr. opplinger and mr. oluokun who played the linebacker position the way it should be played. there is no one on the current squad to fill this void which will require coach reno to beat the path to find recruits otherwise we regrettably can expect our blue squad’s defense to be similar to last year’s squad
I agree 100% with the moderator!!! The thing about college football is and the Yale defense is that when you have a defense full of sophomores and freshman, they look like freshman and sophomores. The good thing is every year I played I got bigger, stronger and faster. The on the job experience and hard knocks could have a really positive effect on those guys. Look at Foye and Oplinger as freshman and look at them as seniors. Don’t be surprised if this defense is better that expected. Think about this Pope has never been through a Yale offseason. I expect him to be really good next year.
You want to stop running backs from getting hurt? First you have to have a big physical tough line to open holes.Second stop running the backs into the line without a lead blocker. MY third point start uses a fullback the backs cannot do it alone Scrap the old offense and go to a two back set or the power I.You want to see points on the board change the offense or we will be 5and5 or 4 and 6 . Here what im saying it will happen.
We don’t need more points on the board; we need to allow fewer points – lots of them!
Anonymous 1:18 is a clown. Power I? No one including Alabama runs a 2 back set anymore. Why do you keep bringing this up when it is so obviously wrong. Is your kid a fullback?
Yale’s offense was clearly not the problem and that is with their best rb missing just about the whole season and their starting qb missing last 4.
Yale’s season next year is all about improving the d on all 3 levels and of course minimizing injuries
Im a clown .Will see next year when all your running backs are hurt because they do not have a lead blocker. The Yale line is average for the league and it will be the same next year. Same stupid plays . The Harvard game same plays as the start of the season.And remember this Yale could beat the good teams.
I should have said could not beat the good teams.
To Late 9:28 you already said it.!! This Yale could beat the good teams.!!! LOL Go Bulldogs
Has the 2019 schedule been released? What outside teams do we play?
Fordham, Richmond and Holy Cross
All the ivy teams play outside.
gentlemen; it is interesting that out the rise in the use of the fullback and so-called hback in the sunday group contests on short yardage and goal line situations. I for one would like to see our blue utilize the signal caller under center with these positions in the same short yardage situations..
Anonymous 9:28 – name a team that runs a power I formation. Clemson, Ala, UGA, OSU, ND, Oklahoma. – all run 1 back sets. No one in NFL has a fb.
Of all the things to complain about Yale’s offense was not the reason. Aside from Columbia, offense was plenty potent.
Princeton will be good if they can replace qb. Dartmouth will stink. Lose entire OL. Toast.
Perhaps we shouldn’t be too pessimistic on the ability of our defense to make significant gains next season. A number of games in 2016 were as bad as 2018 in terms of how the defense played. e.g. Colgate 55-Yale13, Lehigh 63-Yale 35, Penn 42- Yale 7. Princeton 31-Yale 3.
Tyler and Rymiszewski did not play in 2016 but things came together by the Harvard game and Yale had an outstanding defense in 2017 with essentially the same personnel as the year before.
I am hopeful that among our horde of DBs (with many more on the way) we can find at least four reliable starters who will do more than race merrily down the field with those they’re covering and tackle them (or not) after long completions. My real worry is our dearth of disruptive defensive linemen. Does our HC, a former DB himself and a coach of DBs, fail to recognize the importance of other food groups?
I wonder, if Yale has a plethora of WRs next year, can a couple be turned into DBs? We know they would be fast, and can presume they will go for the ball, unlike some of the DBs that played this year who had their backs to the ball too often.
The DBs were told not to turn to the ball. If they did they got yelled at for turning.
That is in fact very true.!!! That is Reno and Vashell. Allegedly , both their forte .? Stink
Thats stupid how many long passes did we give up this year. That coach should fired. If he hers next year its going to be a long year.
It’s been like that , for many years.. very disappointing.?
Here is the 2019 Football Schedule. There is no Bye week. That is a misprint.
https://fbschedules.com/ncaa/yale/
https://theozone.net/2017/09/dont-ohio-state-cornerbacks-look-back-ball/
This may shed some light on the common DB technique question.
Agree with above opinions re: weak pass coverage for many years. What helped in 2017 was the exceptional pass rushing abilities of Oplinger assisted by Mullen and Callender ( who seemed to play with injuries this season). Collective talent of that trio doesn’t occur often at Yale or at the other Ivys.
gentlemen; i sincerely hope mr. remember’s optimistic prognostication becomes a reality next year for our blue squad. the transformation of the sophomores on are blue 1958 squad to the 1960 championship season was truly a joy to behold.
This is a terrific summary by the moderator. Yes….the offense is loaded and the challenge will be playing time for all the talent at the skill positions. Also not mentioned but clearly in the mix will be Charles, Rouse and Sandifer. I believe the line will be better with another year with their new coach. A healthy Dudek and a return to form by him adds another dimension. The staff needs to add some subterfuge to get him in the open field more often(screens, draws, shovel passes, circle routes, sweeps). All to often it was obvious Zane was getting the ball.
On defense you have to hope maturity will lead to improvement. It all starts up front….linebackers can’t play if their if their lineman are getting manhandled. The backs have got to develop better anticipation and ball skills. If in fact they are not being coached to turn and play the ball at it’s apex then I’m mystified(not for the first time) by new coaching methods. I would like to see continuity on the starting defense and less platooning, last second substitution and last second play calling. Line up, recognize down, distance, formation, motion, offensive shifts, and play the ball. How can you do that if you are looking at some coach on the sideline or worse yet still lining up? You have to assume the staff realizes a re-evaluation of defensive concepts is in order. Number one need on this team….disruptive defensive lineman that will allow for a strong cohesive team defense to be built.
For those of us in the Wayback Machine, yes, 1965’s sophs became 67’s seniors, 1966 sophs became the ’68 seniors. Ditto how the underclassmen of ’96 and ’97 became the 1998-’99-’00 group.
This is a terrific summary by the moderator. Yes….the offense is loaded and the challenge will be playing time for all the talent at the skill positions. Also not mentioned but clearly in the mix will be Charles, Rouse and Sandifer. I believe the line will be better with another year with their new coach. A healthy Dudek and a return to form by him adds another dimension. The staff needs to add some subterfuge to get him in the open field more often(screens, draws, shovel passes, circle routes, sweeps). All to often it was obvious Zane was getting the ball.
On defense you have to hope maturity will lead to improvement. It all starts up front….linebackers can’t play if their if their lineman are getting manhandled. The backs have got to develop better anticipation and ball skills. If in fact they are not being coached to turn and play the ball at it’s apex then I’m mystified(not for the first time) by new coaching methods. I would like to see continuity on the starting defense and less platooning, last second substitution and last second play calling. Line up, recognize down, distance, formation, motion, offensive shifts, and play the ball. How can you do that if you are looking at some coach on the sideline or worse yet still lining up? You have to assume the staff realizes a re-evaluation of defensive concepts is in order. Number one need on this team….disruptive defensive lineman that will allow for a strong cohesive team defense to be built.