The Washington herald., 1910-04-10


serted in the football rules at the recent
meeting of the rules committee in New
York win prove more revolutionary than
any rule ever adopted before, and will
render football next fall a greatly
changed game Since all line plunges de-
pend entirely for their success on the
pushing Of other players. this method Of
gaining ground must be abandoned. This
means that the ground from tackle TO
tackle. where most Of the gains In the
past years have been made, will be for
hidden territory in the future, forcing the
coaches and football strategists to figure
out systems Of plays along new lines.
With the center OF the line rendered
safe, the defensive play will be greatly
changed Also The line will be weakened
TO strengthen the ends. which must neces-
sarily be the objective point Of most
Of next years play. Under these eondi-
tons the coaches must change their en-
tire systems Of play New strategy OF
both offense and defense must be worked
out As was the case after the big
changes in 1906. it viii probably take
several years TO try out the various pos
sibilities under the new rules. and to de-
termine finally whether they will I'LL the
bill
Meanwhile the coach who is quick TO
grasp the possibilities unseen by his
rivals is going 20 be the successful one.
1t will give Glenn Warner a chance again.
F,e 1-o1T
by putting before It plays dreamed Of by
no one else In that year Warner brought
his Carlisle Indians down to Franklin
Field, and, by using the spiral forward
pass, swept the Pennsylvania team of
its feet and beat it q 10 c. This
method OF passing had never been seen
before, but since then it has been adopted
by all teams.
Line Smashing Plays.
In past years every team in the country
has had Hne-smashing plays as the basis
OF Ofense They used forward passes,
on-side kicks. end runs and trick plays,
too, but when all else failed. when they
needed only a yard or two or when they
neared their opponents goal line. they
would almost invariably fall back on old
time line plunging. OF all the plays in
the repertoire of Pennsylvania Yale OF
any other big college team. more than
half were aimed between tackle and
tackle. and these in a game would actu-
ally be used even more than their nu-
meTical proportion.
Woodrun-s Guards Back Play.
This step practically puts football back
where it was in the early sos, when
all play was to a large extent individual.
before the high development of system in
football Then George Woodruff came to
Pennsylvania and started his guards
back play, concentrating the attack OF
five large men on one point. This proved
so effective that it was copied through
out the college world. Yale and Harvard
called it tackles hack" but it was the
same play, they merely placing the two
tackles in tandem formation instead OF
the guards
These plays proved so effective that
rule was passed forbidding the taking of
more than one man out of the line, but
this did not have the desired effect, for
teams took their biggest man back and
drove him into the line time after time.
with the backheld behind 10 shove, with
almost as much success az before.
After the season Of 1895. an outcry arose
against the mass play, and the rules COM
mittee tried TO restrict it by requiring six
men g. be in the line Of scrimmage and
prohibiting the taking Of Ineman back
Line piunging and mass plays continued,
hos ha
rules committee innumerable schemes
were presented for further limiting the
power Of the mass play. but the commit
tee, mindful of the failure of Its past ef-
forts. decided not to try longer to rem
edy, but to kill once and for ali. and the
mo pushing or pulling" clause was the
result.
With the center of the line closed
against attack. and the defense able TO
bolster up the ends because Of assurance
that the line is safe, It is hard to see how
any team can gain ground. This difficulty
viii be even more pronounced if the for
ward pass is at the next meeting re-
stricted TO behind the line of scrimmage,
as now seems likely. Some favor rem
edying this difficulty by reducing the dis
lance TO be gained. Walter Camp wants
the defense correspondingly weakened by
requiring the defensive team to have all
its players within the same distance
across the field as the offense shall elect
to occupy. This would surely make it
possible to gain the ten yards at present
required. The opponents Of the scheme.
however. contend that it would make a
game OF football little more than a pro-
cessiOn. as end runs would be unstopable.
While the most important changes have
already been made, there are still sug-
gestions before the committee which in
an ordinary year would command great
attention. They are:
First-To restrict the two teams to a
width Of 10 yards, or to compel the de-
Tense TO stay within the same compass
as the offense shah elect to occupy on
each play.
Second-To restrict the forward pass TO
behind the line Of scrimmage.
Third-TO leave the forward pass as
it is at present except that the fifteen
yard penalty for an ineompIeted pass be
removed. the ball going back to the point
from which it was passed at the cost Of
one down.
Fourth-TO inhict a penalty for crawl
ing by the man with the ball after being
tackled.
Fifth-To abolish the kick off and the
goal after touchdown.
Sixth-To establish a neutral zone OF
three or five yards around the man re-
cefviney q kick into which no fqpbInr shall
penetrate till the ball is actually caught
These suggestions via be thoroughly
tried out by Yale, Chicago, Pennsylvania,