The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-12-13
BIG COACHES ARE
UP AGAINST IT
Past Football Season Does Not
Add Much Credit to Their
Regulations.

New York. Dec. 12.-Carefully consid-
erins the results OF the last football
season, they do not appear, as a whole
to have added very largely 10 the lustre
which may be supposed to surround
football coaches in the east. In the first
place, they have not made any imme-
date progress with new football. They
have not proved that they are resource
full enough to devise newer and better
strategy than their predecessors. and,
III some instances, they have not irne
as well with the material which hey
have had AT hand as the coaches did
in 1907.
While they may realize that there are
possibilities IN the game which are be-
yond its present development. t3ey have
been backward in attempting TO make
the most of them. In many Instances
they have not varied their teaching
from that of the orthodox football of
four --ears ago. and there has been
stupidity connected with their field re
suits, which, if the other team We're NOT
equally stupid in its conception OF the
sport, would have resulted in over
whelming defeat in more quarters than
one.
Coaches All Afraid.
In 1906 and in 1907 football made
strides which counted for something
There was never greater enthusiasm
displayed than that of spectato tors when
they began to see what the game was
about. This year il would appear that
almost every coach in the east had
fallen back to that deplorable state of
mind which Walter Camp described as
mental paralysis for fear that the
team would lose the ball"
The coaches this year, if they have
attempted to teach their elevens any
new plays. seem also TO have impaired
them with a certain element of fear, 80
that If they try a forward pass and il
does not happen to work, or an onside
kick and ii fails of its purpose, the
quarterback Immediately ceases his
open strategy and is content TO go back
on the old game trying TO make ten
yards through the line and, in the event
of its failure to punt.
If il is evident that the defense of an
other eleven is sufficiently good TO make
it certain that a punt viii have to be
used on the third down 10 get the ball
from immediate danger, why is it not
as sensible TO lose il trying to make
something by the use of forward pass
or an onside kick as it is 10 dabble with
weak plunges at the line, following it
up with q punt at such a well-certified
time that the defense knows the punt
viii surely be made, and if it possesses
strength 10 block kicks is better pre-
pared TO do so by reason OF the notice
which has so publicly been COMMUNE
Gated?
Attack Is Weak.
In their effort TO build a strong defen-
Sive game the coaches seem to have for
gotten that contest might be won by
2 very strong attack. Where has there
been an attack this year that was the
equal of the attack of some OF the elev-
ems in 1907? Yale smashed its way
through the forwards of Princeton on a
muddy field. 1t is the style OF game
that a certain element of Yale football
players like. Yet every man who grad
yates from Yale and goes elsewhere to
coach must not deduce from that the
e theory that all elevens can play football
similar to Yale.
As strong as Yale may have been
when the weather conditions We're to
the success of the team, the Ellis were
weaklings against Harvard. when they
did not have enough diversity of attack
TO carry them through to success, in
view of the plain showing that Har-
ward would have been fooled if Yale
had possessed anything which should
fool them.
Penn Did Well.
In the game between Princeton and
Yale, the Tigers in the first half turned
loose such a new system of advancing
the ball that the Yale men fioundered
around like truck cart in a bog. and
but for the rain it might have been
that Princeton would have held its own
in the second half. Yale offered nothing
in variety of attack that bothered
Princeton. but when the time came sim
ply bore the orange and black line down
by weight of numbers and sheer
strength. and thereby won
At Pennsylvania alone there seems to
have been an effort to combine so-calIed
straight football with new football TO
the credit OF the Pennsylvania coaches
and TO the credit of the players of the
Pennsylvania eleven it may be said that
they were nearer to the ideal of a first
class team playing football under the
new American rules than any which
took part in any games in the east this
season. Possibly Pennsylvania could
not have won from Harvard. because
Harvard is strong and big and versed
some in repelling open attack
As whole. too much attention has
been given to the defensive game in
football. 1t makes too cowardly a con-
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