The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1910-11-18
TOES The THING
IN new FOOTBALL
Analysis Of Games Shows Kick
er'S Work Counts Most.
OPEN PLAY SEEN OFTEN.

Revised Regulations Tend to Eliminate
Line PIunsins and Mass Moves.
Spraoklins's Bootine Beat Yalej
Sellers, Chicago and Indiana.
The toe is the thing in new football.
Without good kicker the average
team stands a poor show of harvest
ing any laurels. Never before in the
history of American college football
has the Importance of a reasonably
sure drop or place kicker been empha-
sized so strongly as this season.
Under the new rules the attack has
been weakened to such an extent that
it is next to impossible to gain ground
consistently by rushing If two elevens
are reasonably well matched. The old
time marches down the field have
been conspicuous by their absence this
year, and scoring by so called straight
football has become almost a lost art
Good Kicker Essential.
Under the circumstances good drop
or place kicker is essential to any
team as the only means in many
cases of bringing about a score. The
coaches have not been slow to recog-
nize this fact, and more attention has
been paid this season to developing
from two to five men who can be
called upon when occasion demands
than ever before. The trouble is that
under the stress and excitement of a
big game the men fail to do what ap-
pears to be so easy in practice, and it
strikes one that some of the coaches
are not paying enough attention to
their drop and place kickers in the
daily scrimmage work.
1t is one thing to drop a ball over
the bar between goal posts or to make
a kick from placement in practice,
with plenty of time at the disposal of
the player; it is another thing to drop
a goal from the field or kick one from
placement when needs must and when
the player is likely to be hurried or
slightly interfered with in getting the
ball away Dartmouth was counting
on Barends to beat Princeton because
| of his striking ability to kick goals
from placement. 1t has been no effort
at all for this player to kick five out
/ of six in practice with remarkable ac'
| curacy and precision, but he failed in
four attempts against Princeton for
the reason no doubt that the work
had to be done so hurriedly with the
Princeton forwards charging through
that any novice might have done as
we'll This is not said to cast any re
Election on the skill of Barends, but is
used only as an illustration, and many
other examples could have been picked
! out.
Harvard failed in four tries at field
goals against West Point, Yale in two
against Brown. Sprackling, on the con
trary, kicked four out of five fol
Brown against Yale, one not counting
because of foul. To correct this faul
some coaches would do well to devote
a certain part of the scrimmage worl
each day to kicking goals from thu
field or from placement when thu
player would be just as hurried as il
an actual game. The men get plenty o
practice off by themselves in the art o
kicking, but not enough in actual for
nation work.
Toe Men In the West.
} Otto Seller of the University Of I'LL
nois defeated the Maroons, and agail
1t was Otto, the selfsame kicker, Wit
! put Indiana off the map.
! Minnesota has not depended on an.
particular kicker to win its games, a
, this has not been necessary, but 1t /
quite likely that one will be needed Il
the Michigan game should the team
be anywhere near equal. Many of tn
teams seem TO have found kicke
mighty handy under the new interprs
tation of the rules. This phase Of tn
pastime has, of course, opened up tn
game more than was thought probabl
early in the season, although lin
plunging and semi-mass plays have b