 We rejoin events as word spreads of the approaching Michigan Georgia Tech football game and the crisis, or impending crisis, of Will Willis Ward defense. Buddy Morehouse continues the story. The way it worked back in college football then is that freshmen weren't allowed to play in the varsity. So Willis Ward and Gerald Ford couldn't play at all when they were freshmen. They were just on the practice squad. When they were sophomores, they were able to play.