Scouting Yale

Has anyone seen Bo Hines?


The Elis can run the ball.

Everything else? Not so much,

The end.

Okay, that's not the end. But you could really summarize things like that and be mostly right about this Eli team this year.

This is a team designed to run the ball well as evidenced by the fact that almost everyone who gets the rock gets good yards. RB's Alan Lamar, Dale Harris, Deshawn Salter, and Candler Rich can all do damage, with the freshman Lamar looking like the best weapon.  But QB Tre Moore, is also a good runner... when he isn't getting sacked, which is a lot. Even with all those sacks, Yale is averaging a hefty 176 yards rushing per game and 4.6 yards per carry. In their one win this year against Dartmouth, the Elis surprised the Big Green by playing Lamar for the first time and he burned them for 180 yards on the ground. Yale may be out of surprises by now.

But the passing is a mess. Moore's completion percentage is below 50 and he's netting under five yards per attempt. Star receiver Christopher Williams-Lopez is out of the lineup and does not appear in the two-deep for Friday night's game either. The much ballyhooed Clemson transfer Bo Hines is also AWOL. Yale's opponents are averaging almost 200 more yards in the air per game. Myles Gaines is the most effective healthy receiver for the Elis now, and he only has a total of 153 yards receiving with one catch accounting for more than a quarter of that yardage total.

On defense, the rushing D actually hasn't been that bad. The Elis allow under four yards per carry, (just barely at 3.9 per rush), and eight rushing TD's allowed after six games is not terrible. But the passing stats are indeed terrible. Opponents are averaging more than nine yards per attempt, are completing 66% of their passes, and have a 23-3 TD pass to INT ratio.

Evidence of the problem comes from the fact that junior DB Hayden Carlson is leading the team in tackles... by a lot. Sophomore DE Kyle Mullen is having a strong year, but he admittedly is getting plenty of passing attempts and sack opportunities because opponents love to throw the ball so much against Yale. The great Victor Egu, the guy who dropped his commitment to Cal Berkeley to come to New Haven, does not even have one tackle for a loss yet this season.

The secondary tackles a lot because of all those completions. But they don't pick off many passes. Of the 220 passes thrown at Yale this season, (36 per game), only three have been intercepted. Carlson has two of them, Senior Foyesade Oluokun has been a pass breakup machine with six already this year. But his efforts are simply not enough.

On special teams, sophomore PK Alex Galland has been pretty good with four of six FG kicking and a long of 38 yards. Galland and Bryan Holmes have been sharing the punting duties with solid, but not spectacular results. The best special teams weapons the Elis have is punt returner Jason Alessi who has a an 82-yard return for a TD and good seven yard per return average on all his chances other than that TD. Lamar is a good kickoff returner when he gets a chance.

And of course, all of this doesn't tell you anything about what you need to know about the internal strife in the Yale program that led to so many preseason defections, most notable DT Copache Tyler. It doesn't take a Columbia fan to know a program in trouble, but it helps. And this Yale program is in trouble. If the Elis don't win on Friday night, what's left of the people still supporting Head Coach Tony Reno will be fewer and further between.