Yale Daily News

Harvard's main edge is clearly in the coaching department.

This is pathetic. Siedlecki needs to go. Can anyone explain to me why we went for it on 4th down with 3 minutes left when we needed 2 scores? I understand that it may have been plausible when we were on the 5, but after the penalty we were on the 10 and it just seemed absurd.

Just to stress the point #2 already made, any person who's ever played football knows you kick the field goal on fourth and goal from the 9 when you need two scores anyway. Hell, I've only played football through video games and I know that. If Siedlecki isn't fired, someone should at least buy him a copy of Madden 09 for Christmas.

OK--its time to face the facts. Yale football is in need of a major change and the football alums need to speak up. Losing to Harvard seven times in the last eight years is simply unacceptable. This past game saw more of the same horrendous play calling (including obvious confusion by the coaching staff on the sidelines).
Moreover, I was at an H-Y athletic luncheon the day before the game which was graciously hosted by Harvard. Tim Murphy showed up and said a few nice words of comraderie but Siedlecki was MIA. Regardless of whether or not he feels secure in his job, he should have been there. As a Yale alum, his absence was particularly embarrasing. The players and fans deserve better. I feel especially sorry for Mr. McLeod, who is a superior athlete and human being but whose promising football future was mortgaged at the expense of inferior coaching and player development. Its time for a change!

Fire Siedlecki...this is becoming a national embarassment and a reason for incoming football players to choose Harvard over Yale. Can him.

I believe you Yalies are being unduly hard on Coach Siedlecki. He is a good man who should be allowed to continue as Eli mentor for as many years as he is able, as far as I am concerned.

Yale putting up mediocre performances in big games, especially against Harvard, has become so routine that it's no longer disappointing, it's expected.

The football program needs a shake-up...fire Jack before Harvard takes the overall series lead.

Then again, when the Athletic Director, Beckett, has been quoted as saying that Yale's goal is to finish in the top half every year, maybe mediocrity is all that we can really ever hope for.

Fire Beckett, and shake up our Athletic Dept. too. Harvard and Princeton have demonstrated that one can field ivy league championship competitive teams in nearly all sports without lowering their admissions standards--why can't Yale?

I can only agree with the above comments. Siedlecki is atrocious. His insistence on running McLeod up the middle on every play (except the one time in the game when it actually made sense to run McCleod - at the 2 yard line) made Yale's offense totally predictable and ineffective. And it's been this way all season. What a waste of great football talent. He needs to be fired.

In addition to going for it on 4th down, can someone also explain why we've been running the ball up the middle for the entire season--no, for the last four years--on first down, second down, third down, in every possible situation, and then when faced with a 1st and 8 we elected to call six pass plays in a row???
A true dishonor to the best running back in Yale history to be 8 yards away from the end zone and not be given the ball with the game on the line on the final drive of his Yale career. What an embarrassment. Siedlecki should be ashamed of himself.

To posts #2 and #3: I think the choice to go for it on the last possession instead of kicking the field goal was correct, and fairly obviously so.

Yale needed a TD and a FG. If they got the FG, they'd then need to go the length of the field after recovering onsides kick to get the TD, and it was unlikely they'd get as close as they already were with the time remaining. Since you need the TD anyway, may as well take the best shot with what would probably be better field position. After an onsides kick, they'd be more likely to be in FG position than one where they would have a realistic shot at a TD.

One should play the odds; it doesn't make sense to extend the apparent end of the game if it means you'll have an even less chance of winning it.

To #9: The problem with running the ball at the end of the game was time. If if the runner was tackled inbounds, the clock would keep going, and Yale would still need another score, and there would be hardly any time left after the onsides kick.

Even after the final Yale play, there was only two minutes left. Had Yale tried running the ball and not made it a few times, there would have been less than a minute left even if they eventually had scored the TD. They had to score while preserving some time on the clock. (Plus it wasn't like Yale had had much success running the ball that day so far, averaging 1.9 yards per rush.)

Not that I'm defending the coach in other respects. But the end-of-game calls seem to me to have been correct, even necessary.

Siedlecki is a horrible football coach. His play calling is so predictable. it is a joke. Yale was clearly beat by superior coaching. Fire him.

Siedlecki doesn't just deserve to be fired, he has earned a good drawing and quartering.

Who cares? Ansonia High School could beat either team lol.

Never has so little been accomplished with so much. Time for a new coach.

Is there anything we can all do to ensure that Siedlecki is fired? Should we write letters to someone?

the record book says it all. losing 7 of last 8 games to Harvard projects an image of failure that Yale does not deserve. agree with comments that the game may have been out reach with a run, because of time, but the passing game is so low percentage when your quarterback hasn't been doing it -and you forget to protect his blindside (again- it happened earlier in the game). So give McLeod the ball, or the kid who just ran for 48 yards, and even if you lose you at least show you can score on Harvard and made it a 3 point game.Debating the correct call at the end of this game is a distraction from challenge of assessing the last 8 years of coaching performance Unimaginative would be a kind way to describe this coach's idea of offense. Ever heard of a screen pass, a flare pass, a draw play? apparently not. Coach's four plays are: McLeod off tackle right, McLeod off tackle left, pass (predictable) with no blind side protection for the QB, then punt. The list goes on. Get Siedlecki a job as a defensive coordinator somewhere and let's find someone as good as Murphy.

In four years of attending every football game at home and some away, it is high time to shake up our football coaching staff. Let's make sincere efforts to keep our defensive coordinators, but Sidlecki and the offensive coordinators are simply offensive. Our team had the ability to beat Harvard even with a great combo in Harvard's QB and star WR.
Beckett should go too, and not only because of football, but that is a subject for another time.

Yale is a fine school and its football program is more than respectable. In Ivy athletics, as in academics, there is nothing wrong with being runner-up to Harvard.

I disagree with others on the necessity of kicking the FG, but Siedlecki's terrible play-calling was apparent anyways throughout the game.

a few things:

1) to harvard '98 - you are really, really lame. That is all.

2) to Y'09 - I agree with you. Siedlecki is bad, but the real cancer here is Beckett. Yale's athletic department is just plain mediocre - and I think beckett wants it that way. We are middle of the road in nearly every varsity sport (there are a few exceptions - though these are mainly women's sports in which there are not many national varsity teams - squash, crew, fencing - not trying to take things away from those athletes at all - thank you for winning trophies!)

But when it comes to the major sports for both genders - we're average within the Ivy league. Coaches are never held accountable. The swim coach has been at Yale for 30 years and has never won the league?!?!

Beckett (and his haircut) are relics of the past and need to go!

How long Lord, how long?

I think there exists a secret plan by the administration (Beckett and Levin, mainly) to cripple our athletic department so they don't have to allow any more "dumb" athletes in. And its working - recruits don't want to come here anymore knowing they'll never win a championship.

And our recent record against harvard is embarassing. We invented football - the least we can do is beat our rival once in a while!

and here's something ironic - the text I have to enter in order to post my comment is "punting," which our football deam was doing a lot of on saturday

To Ronaldo, #16:

If you want Siedlecki fired, 1) write a letter to the editor of the YDN that will hopefully get published; 2) encourage people to email thomas.beckett@yale.edu, and richard.levin@yale.edu

I agree with Harvard'98 there is nothing wrong with bieng runner up to Harvard. Don't be so hard on yall's coach, maybe yall need more practice on the field instead of on the video games.

The offense hasn't scored in the last 2 games against Harvard and the offense has a total of about 200 yards in the 2 games. Either this is a total mismatch or our coaching stinks. I think we have the talent but Sedliecki is totally outcoached by Harvard. Our play-calling is boring and predictable. I feel sorry for Mike McLeod and our guys. Please fire Sedliecki.

It's generous to provide Harvard students with one of their few moments of undergraduate pleasure every once in a while, but it would be better for their character development if they were put into their proper place by a sound thrashing every now and then. It would certainly be a service to the nation to reduce the level of their completely unjustified pretentiousness and bring them back to reality.

That being said, I agree that Siedlecki gets outcoached. The play-calling is generally predictable. He seems to stick with his strategy even after it's clear it isn't succeeding, and the only Plan B seems to be "Make Plan A work." If QB Joe Walland hadn't called every play but one in the second half himself in 1999 to win that Game, one wonders if Siedlecki would have lasted so long.

In any case, it looks like the job is now open if anyone is interested.

Re: dsimon (#10), I must disagree with your logic. Down 10-0 in the fourth quarter, facing fourth and goal inside the 10, Yale undoubtedly should have kicked the field goal. You take points wherever you can get them; in fact, my argument is that you are "playing the odds" by taking the sure points instead of going for broke.

Keep in mind that there was a strong wind messing with the kickers all game long. Even if Yale scores a touchdown and recovers an onside kick, they wouldn't have been in "field goal range" unless they basically got inside the 10 again, even with Mante's strong leg. You can score a touchdown from anywhere on any given play; you can't score a field goal from outside a kicker's range.

The proper strategy would have been to go for the field goal, and either 1) kick onside and hope for a recovery or 2) kick deep and hope for a stop. The Yale run defense simply couldn't hold Gino Gordon and Chris Pizzotti at the end of the game or else the Bulldogs would, in fact, have gotten the ball back before the end of the game.

Aside from ex-football players (ie alums of the team), an extremely small number of people affiliated with Yale have any interest in the outcome of The Game. As long as it's played, it doesn't matter who wins, because the real fun is seeing old friends and tailgating. Who cares that Siedlecki didn't beat Harvard more often? What is this, Auburn-Alabama? Don't delude yourselves, attending the the events and tailgates is fun, but the Game itself is as meaningless as it possibly could be.

Unless the Ivy League decides to allow its teams to play in the I-AA playoffs, there is absolutely no reason to care about Yale football any more than, say, your high school alma mater's team. Beating Harvard is not an accomplishment. As long as the coach serves as a good mentor to the players, and encourages them to do well in school and do worthwhile things with their lives, then the coach is doing a good job.

Bring back Mr. Pont or Mr. Cozza

How about enticing Buddy Teevens away from Dartmouth?

Teevens was a high school classmate of Harvard's Tim Murphy, and both served as head coach at the University of Maine. Teevens also has big-time experience at Stanford.

@31: Teevens just recently headmanned the Green to their worst season in over 100 years, going 0-10--i wouldn't want him anywhere near Yale's football team, unless it was on the opposing sideline.

@32:

What a story it would make - from 3-8 with the Cardinal, to 0-10 with the Green, to 10-0 with the Blue!