The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-09-06
THE HERALD'S SPORTING PAGE
.ECKERSALL ON
FOOTBALL RULES
Coaches Have Chance to Show
Their Ability in Working
Out New Plays.
BY WALTER II. EckERsALL.

The new rules, with their numerous
possibilities, furnish the coaches with
plenty of food for thought. and the ma
since last fall thinking up new plays
which they hope will defeat their rivals
Never before has football presented so
many chances for the coaches to show
their true worth. In the old game there
were set plays which were used by
every eleven. and it was no trick to
make a team proficient in them. The
coach had simply to give the team its
signals, the plays the signals called for,
where they went, how the linemen were
to charge, and what men the interfer-
ence was supposed to take off. Most
OF this the player knew before he came
TO college, because of his preparatory
school experience.
Different Proposition Now.
Now II. is different. The coach must
think up plays which are suited to his
team. II ne has a fast shifty back
field, with an average line and a good
quarterback who can throw the bali
at any angle and from any position, he
can invent numerous plays of the open
variety with the forward pass and the
onside kick playing the most prominent
parts On the other hand. il his team
be composed of slower and less shiftier
men he will have to revert to the old
style game as much as possible, with
enough of the new game sprinkled in
to keep the other team guessing
There are many matters which a
coach must turn his attention to the
moment the candidates come out on the
field. One is a kicker, both of the drop
or place and the punt. The other is
man who can throw the ball accurate
ly. Numerous games were won last
year because some team had a player
who had the faculty of booting the ball
over the cross bar at opportune times
The most striking examples of this
in the west were the performances of
Capron, the Minnesota star. Almost
unaided he tied up the game with Wis
consin with. his drop kicks after il ap-
peared to be apparently lost. and he
scored all the points the Gophers made
against Chicago in the game for the
western championship, besides making
many other goals in smaller games
which helped swell the score for his
team.
Value of the Punter.
The punter under the old rules was
most important asset to any team, but
his services are needed more under the
new regime. 1t was a frequent saying
that this team or that team would play
a kicking game in some contest because
they had good punter. Why shouldn't
they play a kicking game? 1t saves
the kicker's team much physical en-
ergy, at the same time taking the heart
out of the opponents whose forty or
fifty yards of hard gained ground is lost
by one single boot of the kicker on the
other team.
The alteration in the new rule that
states that the player who first touched
the ball on the forward pass must re-
cover it. providing IL did not touch an
opponent, will put a premium on the
man who can throw the pigskin with
the same accuracy as the ball player
throws the horsehide. Even last sea-
son. in the majority of cases, 1t was a
hard matter even for the player to
touch the ball who was supposed to re-
ceive IL, and after touching ii he sell
dom recovered it. 1t was simply a
scramble after the time it was legally
touched, and the luck element entered
into the game to a considerable extent.
Now the plays will have to be care
fully planned. The man who is to re-
ceive the ball will have to be gotten
out in the open by means of some sort
of strategy, Where he will be free from
interference. The player who throws
the ball will have to be protected more