The Washington herald., 1907-10-28
Walter Camp Says Spectators
Are Getting Dissatisfied.
HOW LEADING TEAMS LOOK
Yale Expert Says Setback at West
Point should Rouse Ellis to Greater
Princeton and HarVard-Penalties
Factor in BrOwn-Penn Contest.
BY WALTER CAMP.


attri1uting it u the too great frequency
mostly for Illegal and lncompleted for
ward passes. one can only say that they
should not find fault with the officials.
There is no question but that spec
tatOrs and players are complaining that
| they find too much official in the game
( this season. 1t seems that about halt
/ the time there is either a discussion be
tween officials or the pacing Off of fifteen
yards and the ball being brought back.
OF course this largely comes from the
misuse OF the forward pass In which al
I teams seem to 1e indulging 10 very
great extent, but that does not cheer the
spectator any more than If the fouls and
penalties were entirely for other reasons.
Almost as soon as the play becomes inter
esting, that is, when there is any appreci-
able progress. the horn sounds or the ref
eree's whistle blows and back comes the
ball TO the spot where it started from.
then fifteen yards further back is paced
of and the ball put in play once more.
Continuity of play lessons and the chance
Of fuTbles and fiukes increases.
Strong on Defense.
It was rather strange. but quite sUg-
gestive that Yale and West Point, under
similar coaching systems. should be the
only ones, with the exception OF Dart
mouth and Amherst. who. up to October
20. had not been scored upon, and that
these two should meet and the defense
OF each prove sufficiently stable 70 pre-
vent the other scoring. Condolences have
been the order of the day TO Yale through
various sources for her failure to infict
a defeat upon Bob Forbes team It was
hardly as unexpected as might be as
sumcd for the annual recurrence OF this
sO-Called surprise has in a measure pre-
pared the way for the conclusion that the
Yale-West Point game is afways a hard
and close one.
This Is, however, not to belittle the
glaring weaknesses in offense disclosed
0y that game in the Yale team. IL was TO
be expected that Yale would stop up
West Point, for tale had good material
to begin the season on, and has. as a rule.
always been particularly strong on de-
fcnsc. no matter how undevelOpcd the at
tack may be in the early part OF the sea-
son. But the attack. beside lacking devel-
Opment WAS never really geared UP into
anything like action until the very end Of
the half. and the end Of the game
Many critics have said that this was due
70 the officials stopping both sides as soon
as they get going and the incompleted
forward passes. which on repetition by
both sides seemed TO render the teams
slack OF performance.
Yale Needs RousInE.
For all this, the team that Yale sent
up looked like team that has power,
but is sluggish and needs lots OF rousing.
1t is probable that a certain severe lesson
which Yale received has made its mark.
refer 70 the year when Shevlin's eleven
administered such beating to West Point
and showed Columbia under on the next
Saturday. only to find the team in the
last two games OF the season fading
away so rapidly that fl hardly managed
70 win these games. although in midseason
far and away ahead of any opponents.
Yet for all this reasoning, II is GER
tainly making Yale coaches and Yale
partiSans very reflective when they study
PTiuceton's remarkable form and con-
tinuance of fast play and general devel-
Opment. Weak opponents offer something
Of an explanation, but there have been
times IN the recent games played by
Princeton when her opponents were
strong temporarily, and yet Princeton
came back with such whiTlwind Of at
tack as to sweep them off their feet
In fact. I doubt II October ever ended
With a more marked difference between
the apparent scoring powers of these two
traditional rivals The question is. can
Princeton hold the pace2 II she can
keep her men up to this remarkable
form. then the work OF the Yale team
and coaches for the next three or four
weeks viii be a bigger job than any of
them have ever tackled before.
Harvard Is Coming.
AS for Harvard. a good many things
seem TO be coming their way. But much
of this is due TO the fact that the Har-
ward team is following the ball better
than ever before, and It is this following
the ball that finally determines which
side gets il when there is a misplay or
a tumble. They found a strong team
when they met the Navy. but even with
their attack in rather undeveloped shape.
they were able thanks to using some
variety. 10 take advantage OF the mid
shipmen and secure the victory
There is less opportunity to measure
the Cambridge team than either Prince
ton or Yale up to this point, but there
Will be some chance a little later on
which will show how far the varied de-
velopment has progressed and what ef-
feet the varied kicks OF Burr and New
hall alternating, will have on the oppo-
nents. II looks as II 1t would worry
them quite a bit
The Pennsylvania-Brown game showed
quite eonelusively how difficult it is to
get team warmed UP when repeated
penalties cause pauses and setbacks. ANY
one witnessing the game felt in the mid
die Of the first half that Pennsylvania
had begun to strike her gait, and the runs
were just beginning to work smoothly
when suddenly back they would come.
The same is equally true Of Brown, who,
toward the end Of the, first half, was lust
getting into stride Whether the teams
will improve in this respect later In the
season is a question upon which hangs
much Of the real backbone of the seasons
play.
Middies Look Good
The Navy Is coming on well and GER