Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1911-12-07
OPPOSE TO CHANGES
Caspar Whitney Lays Football
Trouble On The Coaches OF
The Country In An In
terview.
STICK TO THE OLD GAME.
Football Authority Declare Coaches
viii Not Forget Line Smashing
Days And Get Away From
Them.

Caspar Whitney is standpatter
on the football rules. He declares
that the trouble with the present-day
football is not with the rules, but
with the coaches-that a regenera-
tion of the old coaches is needed. In
his statement, issued yesterday, Mr..
Whitney says:
'We are about to engage in the
annual pastime, finding fault with
the football rules. in this it is in
conceivable that the Y ale-Harvard
90 game should be the logical re-
suit of poor play-for such a contre-
temps the rules must be at fault.
So the disgrunted shout, More at
tacking power
81 have been asked what changes
are necessary, and | answer: None
that are radical
''To fundamentally disturb the
game would be mistake from any
viewpoint save that of coaches un-
able to take advantage of opportu-
mites offered.
Football is now more interesting
and nearer sport; its strategic possi-
bilities are greater than ever. Play
ers do not ask revision. Nor the pub
lie. 1t is the coaches, but not the
best majority of them.
Football needs not new rules, but
generation of new coaches or regen-
Grafton of old coaches.
1.-The rules open the game, admit
of loose ball, give speed, brilliance
and strategy. Coaches have failed to
make good and the majority turned
out teams playing old football.
"Dr. Harry Williams, of Minnesota,
last year produced from ancient his
tory rejuvenated formation-the
shift. This year no team was so
lowly as not to have a variation of
this simple, over-rated lineup.
Two seasons have passed and this
is about the only new thing in forma-
tions. OF original development of
the forward pass and onside kick as
little may be said
Bearing this in mind, it is easy to
understand why many elevens are
stronger on defense than in attack.
The loose ball bogey has been a
coach's nightmare.
Complaint is made that the rules
produce scoreless games. Against
Princeton Yale had eight chances to
score by field goals and realized one.
Harvard had three chances against
Yale and Yale had two, but both fail
ed to count. Princeton had one chance
against Yale and two against Harvard
and realized against both.
"Is the failure of Yale and Harvard
to be charged against the rules or to
miserable execution? The rules give
opportunity to score, but I do not un-
derstand they are to hand up field
goals on platter. No team | saw
this fall failed to score through fault
of the rules.
"The forward pass had advanced
little. Many coaches profess to think
little of it, but secret acknowledge its
potentialities and are not up to it.
Used without great skill, it has the
danger of a loose ball, and no play
offers more strategic value.
"This year showed the penalty of
poor play. Harvard and Yale failed
for no other reason. For the same
reason Army failed and Navy made
good. The year laid heavy hand on
unclean handling of the ball and blum
dering effort to turn opportunity into
points.
Princeton, Dartmouth, Navy, Carl
isle, Trinity and Chicago deserve
mention, though none showed the quail
ity the rules encourage.
1.-THE rules brought what football
needed. By increasing the difficulty
of making ten yards, they balance at
tack and defense. They prevent mass
ing on an Individual and force open
play. They put premium on brains
and make for higher grade of play.
If there is trouble it is with the
coaches, who won't forget the old
game, or lack ingenuity to get away
from it. Let there be no tinkeIine
with the rules to cover coaching def
ciencies. Rather insist that coaches
come up to date"