The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-29
COACHES DISCUSS FOOTBALL RULES  Yost and cGugin Advocate a
 Few Changes
RULE FOR A FORFEIT
Change in Wording of Certain Para graph Is Recommen mended so That There Will Be no Confu-
 sion of Ideas

Nashville Tenn, January 2S.-(Special) In the effort to obtain pertinent sug- gestions regarding the workings of the new football rules tried out with varied results last season and obtaining sugges- tions touching possible changes in the in- terest of improvement, inquiries have been sent out to many coaches and gem eral authorities, replies to which are to be used by the general rules committee soon to meet in New York. Coaches Yost of Michigan and McGugin of Vanderbilt have collaborated upon their ideas anl have prepared their suggestions which do not criticise the general intent of the present rules which both warmly approve in the main. Their observations have to do almost entirely with doubtful and con fusing wording of rules, but one material . change being advocated. that of allowing line man to drop back without having to go to the present required distance of five yards. This Is offered in the stated interest of relieving the backfeld men of the entire burden of advancing the ball and better equalizing play.
 Their joint statement Is as follows: ''The third paragraph of section I. rule IS, at the bottom of page Ill, as at present worded. prohibits any player of team that has punted and who has gone down under the punt more than 20 yards from using his hands until the ball has touched the ground or until an opponent has caught it. The same rule prohibits a player of the side receiving the kick from body-checklng those going down ,,tda fhA kt4 hot1 lxoes ally been caught notwithstanding that those who have come down under the punt may have advanced beyond the 20- yard zone. Therefore, while the ball is In the air, even though all players are be- yond the 20-yard zone, there can be no interference of any kind. This may have been a result intended by the rules com mittee, but officials whose attention was called to 1t ruled that non-interference Is intended until the ball Is actually caught, the wording of the rules should be changed a note to officials appended. .'
 Under the heading Penalty on page ITO, the word kick Is not used, but at a late meeting it was ruled that the words kick and pass should be used inter changeably. This penalty provides as amended or interpreted, that on a third down, If the side kicking or passing the ball commits a foul in the 20-yard zone, that the ball shall be forfeited to the op- ponent at the point of the pass or kick. This would appear well enough as far as the pass Is concerned, but is too severe in case of kick, the ball having to be brought back to the point where the kick was made. On the third down. a team does not have to forward pass. but is nearly always compelled to kick. If some slight and perhaps some unintentional fowl is committed, the penalty is very se- were, ordinarily something like 40 yards. A penalty of ten yards from the point where the ball was put in play the downs to remain the same, would be ample pun ishment.
 There is another change that might be made and which would result in ben eft. Under the present rule seven men must be on the line of scrimmage at all times and there can be no pushing or pulling. This puts all the work of ad- vancing the ball upon the men in the backfield and as there can be no helping of the runner the burden is severe. If the rules were so amended as to allow any man on the line of scrimmage to be drawn back and used in advancing the ball without necessarily going back five yards, still leaving seven men in the line as now provided. the backfield men would be relieved of some strain and the work would be better distributed. The result of this would be in. harmony with the general purpose which we have had in mind all along: namely, prevent ing any man from being Overworked and to keep all as fresh as possible besides further opening up the game.