Sequachee Valley news. (Sequachee [Sequatchie], Tenn.) 1896-1952, 1913-11-27
TEAMS ARE TOO SLOW
Football Follower Says Modern
Play Lacking in Speed.
Contention Is Upheld, In Small Way,
by Recent Showing of Maroon and
Hoosler-Hyde Park the First
Real Fast Team.

Ever and anon some ola time FOL
| lower Of football rises to complain OF
the slowness OF modern teams as com,
pared with those of a decade ago. A
man who played the game in the lat
ter COS and the early part of this GEN.
tury was among those at the Indiana
Chicago contest, and after the con-
test the chief subject of his conversa-
ton was regarding the lack of speed
displayed in the teams lineup.
IF teams were as slow as that when
| played the game" he declared, they
would have been drilled for speed to
the exclusion of everything else.
Coaches in the old days would not
permit loafing in lining up, and once
lined up the plays went off with a
snap that l have not seen in the last
five years"
His criticism was partly justified,
for both Chicago and Indiana were la
mentally slow getting the ball into
action. This was partially explained
by the failure of the Maroons to know
their signals. With only two weeks
of preparation, Stage was compelled
to give his men moro than they could
digest in the way of formations, for
Indiana was so strong it was not wise
to take chances with the Hoosiers. In
consequence, only three or four of the
plays were fixed firmly in the minds
of the players and there was notice
able confusion in getting the plays I'M
der way at various stages of the
game.
Indiana contributed her share tow
ard slowing up the game by lack of
condition. Criticism of lack of speed
however, is not always so just. If
anything, the speed of teams now is
better than it was in the days of "old"
football. There were few teams of
ten or fifteen years ago with more
than ordinary speed despite every fav-
oring factory The first fast team
was the famous Hyde Park High
School eleven of 1902, and although
the college teams on which members
of this squad played later were fairly
fast, none of them were much better
than the teams of the present. With
weight at premium, it is scarcely to
be expected the old teams could class
in speed with the ones today, where
speed is the chief requisite for indi-
vidual candidates.
The growth of formation" football |
has much to do with the seeming SLOW
ness. 1t is the exceptional team
which goes on the field nowadays with |
less than thirty formations to re-
while it was the exceptional !
eleven in the old days which had more
than ten or twelve to remember. The |
old style attack consisted of straight |
bucks, cross bucks and end runs, with
their variations. The lineup was near
ly always the same, only few for
like the tandem, the whoa
back and a few more, having been
invented,
Series plays were the rule rather
than the exception. One set Of sig
nails usually served fer three or four
successive plays in the old days, and
often team would traveres half the
length of the field without the quar-
ter-back calling numbers more than
three or four times. Now the series
signals have been abandoned owing
TO the exigencies of the game. Each
play is separate problem, and its So
ution depends entirely upon the posi-
ion of the ball, the amount to be gain
ed and other circumstances which
could not possibly be prepared for in
advance.