There has been mostly good news coming out of the Yale football camp this week in terms of injuries as offensive tackle Roy Collins, receiver Chris Smith and running back Alex Thomas returned to practice. But the news was not all positive. Starting left tackle Wes Gavin will need surgery on his injured ankle and will miss the rest of the season.
"The ankle is going to require some surgery and he is not going to be able to make it back," Williams said. "They want to do it ASAP so pretty soon so it is just a matter of clearing out his schedule and getting it done."
Freshman Ben Carbery has played well in Gavin's absence so he will become the starter at left tackle for the rest of the season.
Of the previously-mentioned trio, Collins has been in there the most at practice this week although all three should be able to play against Brown on Saturday.
"Smith is good to go, Thomas is good to go although he is still gimpy but he practiced a little bit today and Roy Collins is good to go," Williams said.
Collins should move back into his starting right tackle spot. While it's no guarantee that Smith and Thomas will start, look for them in the game. That won't make the Brown coaches happy since Smith and Thomas played starring roles in Yale's 27-24 win over Brown last year. Smith returned kickoffs 79 and 83 yards for touchdowns in a span of 2:23 in the second quarter and also caught a team-high six passes. Thomas ran for 121 yards including a 27-yard TD.
One change in the starting lineup I have neglected to mention is that Brian Leffler has moved ahead of Wes Moyer at linebacker.
"We gave him an opportunity to start (against Columbia), he played well last week against Columbia so he is going to get that start this week against Brown. "He is stouter and against a team like Brown that really likes to establish the run game, he is a better match for what they do. With the competition that he was have at that position, we feel like he has played better than Wes at this point so we gave him an opportunity last week and he held serve so he gets the nod again this week. We will still play multiple guys but he will be the first guy out."
When Williams addressed the team after Thursday's practice, he told the team he thought it was a good week of practice. He also emphasized that the Bears are in the same situation as Yale in terms of being able to win the Ivy League title by winning out. That is not entirely accurate. Yale would earn at least a share of the title by winning its last three games since the Bulldogs would have to beat first-place Harvard (the only Ivy League team unbeaten in conference play). Brown would need to win and have Harvard lose a game in order to claim a portion of the title. Still, Saturday's game has the feel of an elimination game. It certainly makes it easy to get motivated for the early-morning practices at this time of the year.
"I think it changes the energy level," Williams said. "I think our guys come out with energy anyway but certainly when you have something to play for and you are back in the hunt, it makes it more enjoyable with a goal in mind. You have something you can touch out there. We were in the same situation last year playing Brown at Brown, we have some experience from last year. I like playing at home this year. We haven't been at home in a long time so this will be great, it should be a great game."
Practice ended on Thursday will Williams having senior defensive end Austin Pulsipher address the team. Pulsipher is the only Yale player to have an Ivy League championship ring. He was a reserve on the 2006 Yale team before taking a two-year Mormon mission.
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