WIESBADEN, July 6 — The USAFE football clinic's chief instructors, coaches Terry Brennan and Bud Wilkinson, whose Notre Dame and Oklahoma teams have been rated strong preseason favorites for the 1955 national championship, arrived at Wiesbaden Air Base yesterday and each wasted little time repudiating his team's powerhouse ranking.

"We're very weak up front," appraised ND's Brennan, "and we'll be lacking experience at quarterback."

"Our entire backfield will be new and green," echoed Wilkinson, "and our line has been weakened by graduation."

Outlining further reasons for his lack of over-optimism, Brennan disclosed that only two of his last year's starting 11 were returning this fall, "Our entire line including Dan Shannon (All America end) and Frank Varrichione (star tackle) is gone," he said, "and this year's captain-elect, left guard Ray Lemek hasn't recovered from a serious leg injury he received against Southern California last year.

"Then, of course, Ralph Guglielmi (All America quarterback) and Joe Heap will be missing from the backfield."

On the positive side, the poised 27-year-old mentor counts returning backs Jim Morse and Don Schaefer among his blessings as well as first-string quarterback candidates Paul Hornung and Larry Cooke. Between the latter two he believes he will eventually find a capable replacement for Guglielmi.

"The only question is," he mused, "how long will it take them to accumulate enough experience to do a consistently good job."

Brennan also lists center Jim Mense, tackle Wayne Edmonds and guard Pat Bisceglia as men with potentially enough ability to keep the Irish at least close to the top of the national heap.

Wilkinson's refutation of the experts followed argumentative lines similar to Brennan's. "I don't know how so much can be expected of us this season," he said. "We've lost both our All Americas, end Max Boydston and center Karl Burris and all our backs Including talented guys like Buddy Leake and Gene Calame."

For the past eight years though Wilkinson has managed to come up with championship-caliber replacements despite the immensity of his graduation losses. This season he admitted he'll have a few prize prospects around like guard Bo Bolinger, center Jerry Tubbs and quarterback Jim Harris.

With this in mind it shouldn't be surprising to see the Sooners walk off with their eighth Big Seven title in eight years and a national rating as usual among the top three in the country.

Incidentally during their discussion both coaches enthusiastically endorsed this year's only NCAA rule innovation — the change that eases the one-platoon curtailment, permitting starting players who leave the game to return to action once during a period.

The new rule will diminish the danger of player-injuries, Brennan declared. Under the strict one-platoon regulation, he said, coaches would hesitate before replacing a starter unless the player's disability was unmistakable, "Now we can make sure he's all right and send him back within a few plays," he observed.

Both Brennan and Wilkinson favor the liberalized one-platoon arrangement as compared to the two platoon. "Too much specialization is bad for the sport," asserted Brennan. "It's just as bad as it would be for baseball if one platoon did the batting and another the fielding."

The coaches admit, however, that working under the one-platoon system forces colleges to go to greater lengths to proselyte their athletes. "You gotta line up more guys to find a guy who can go both ways for you," Brennan explained. "It was much easier to find and train a guy to play exclusively defense or offense."

Brennan and Wilkinson, along with the assistant instructors who arrived with them — Gomer Jones, Oklahoma assistant coach; George Dickson, Notre Dame backfield mentor; Ken Rollinson, Sooner trainer; and two outstanding officials — Albie Booth, former Yale great and Ron Gibbs, National Football League Referee, open the USAFE clinic today at Rhine-Main.

The clinic will run through July 12 with classes conducted daily from 8:30 to 5 pm and 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm. On Sunday, only the afternoon session will be conducted.

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