NAVY FOOT BALL
PROSPECTS
Here; are the prospects in general
for -^he I960 Naval Acadamy Football
Team, according to coach Wayne Hardin.
"Our objective during spring drills
was to improve each .individual ball
player. I feel we accomplished that
mission. Fe had a fine spring pract
ice. The boys worked very hard and
the spirit from the big win over Army
([*3-12) last November carried over in
to the spring workouts. I am very
pleased with the progress we made.
| "Our biggest problems are: (1) Quar
terback, where we lost veterans Joe
Tranchini and Jim Maxfield; (2) Back
field depth, and (3) Depth at the cen
ter position behind Frank Visted. Fe
had anticipated some headaches at the
end spots- where we lost such fine per
formers as Tom Hyde, George Bezek, and
Tom Albershart, but the showing of
holdovers Frank Dattilo, Jim Luper and
Greg Mather plus the unusually fast
development of a couple of good plebes
—Larry Graham and Gary Kellner—gives
us reason to believe that we could be
stronger at end than any other posit
ion. .;
k "Three candidates for the vacated
^ quarterback spot are rated very evenly
by the coaches. Hal Spooner, No. 3
man behind Tranchini and Maxfield last
season, . finished spring work in the No>
1 spot, Harry Dietz, who led the Navy
l£0-pquad team to the league champion
ship last fall, and Jim Stewart, up
from last year* s plebes, are ranked
behind Spooner, but both boys are awf
ully small.
"Joe Bellino at left halfback and
Captain Joe Matalavage at fullback,
give Navy as close a Mr. Inside-Mr,
Outside combination as we will ever
get. Bellino, our top All-America
candidate, was excused from spring
football practice so he could play
baseball, Matalavage turned in a ter
rific job in the spring. He has im
proved tremendously on defense and is
Continued next column_
driving hard for that extra ' yardage
when carrying; the ball.
"The unusually fast development- of
several piebes (who will be sophomores
in the Fall) was especially pleasing
to us. Larry Graham and Gary Kellner
a pair of good-looking end prospects,
and Vern Von Sydow, a quick, agile
guard, look like the best of the new*
comers. Actually, there are nine Mem
bers of last year’s plebe squad on our
lilt-man varsity group at the present
time. It is unusual for Navy to have
that many sophomores.
”We plan to use a diversified, wide
open style of attack utilizing variat
ions of the T-formation with spreadq
and flankers or combinations of both.
I think we will be an interesting ball
club to watch.
"Our halfbacks will be throwing the
ball this season, too, and we have
better receivers this year than last. /
Several of our boys are pretty good
place-kickers—Von Svdow, Mather and
Matalavage in particular—and' if our
attack bogs down inside our opponents’
liO-yard line, we will go for the field
goal. * r
"We will use the wild-card substit
ution extensively, but this does not
mean we won’t substitute by units when
the situation calls for it. * Our
quarterbacks won’t play defense at
anytime. I prefer to have them on the
bench to talk to the coaches on the
press box phones when the other team
has the bail".
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