Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-10-12
YALE ELEVEN !.
ISAPROBLEM
Hard to Explain Why the Els
Are Not Working Much
Better.
BROOKE HAS NOVEL
ATTACK AT PENN
Has Exceptionally Accurate
Man With Forward Pass
in Minds.
BY EDWARD r. BUSHNELL.

| IL il did not have its inconsistencies. One
of the hardest things for the critics to ex-
! plan is the curious brand of foot ball
| which has nsen played by Yale this sea-
son. The Ellis ought to be playing q top
motel, game. They began their prelmi-
/ nary practice September /. nearly two
weeks III advance of any OF their rivals
!! They opened the season with splendid
30 triumph over Wealeyan. but al the
end OF tive solid weeks work they almost
! S,Gt On the rocks when Maine held them
| - Il score Of 90.
! This peculiar result is hard to explain.
One week before the Maine team had
been swamped by Harvard by the score
OF Sc. For most of the week preceding
the Maine game the Yale eleven was ex-
periment.ng with q new attack brought
from Minneapolis by Tom Sheylin, who
i rad already guaranteed its effectiveness
Thee was good reason for Yale to trust
! the Judgment of Sheviin. Three years ago
lie Ca.rie to the Ellis help when they looK-
| ed 10 be beyond help. At that time the
Ellis were being butted about by the
| minor college elevens Shevlin. who had
been helping DR.. II. l.. Williams coach at
the University Of Minnesota, saw there
a tackles, shift play when he Thought
] was the best thing since the invention Of
tackles back He took the rirst train for
New Haven, and, although 1t was then
/ week before the championship game " In
Princeton, the Eli coaches took the new
play as the last resort. BY diligenl Work
! right up to the day Of the game the Tor
| nation was mastered ana with 1t an
otherwise weak Yale eleven Outpiayed and
defeated better Princeton team Using
| the same play Yale a week later played
Harvard a 90 tie.
| Reports from New Haven were to the
effect that the new play Sheviin taught
fha lie -s raal< MO- 10 A
the old tackles shift, and would be just
as effective. 1t had been doing much
execution against the scrubs, but when
lit was trieo against the University OF
Maine it Tell nat The men from Maine
held Yale forwards repeatedly. The play
proved to be so great failure that the
Yale coaches announced after the game
that ii would be abandoned entirety anu
| a new style of attack employed.
THESE Facts furnish new insight into
Yale's coaching system. They indicate
will surely reduce the effectiveness OF
the Yale attack 1t is rather surprising
in view OF. the ability which Howard
Jones has shown as a coach on previous
occasions. In 1908 lie was at the head
I of the Yale coaching staff. and gradually
developed a team which was a. it's best
in the Princeton and Harvard games.
and was, in fact, the best team Yale
ever had. How much of its strength
was due to the ability Of the men and
how much-ro the coaching has always
been matter OF conjecture. Yale, how
| ever, has not been disgraced, ana there
| is still ample time for Jones to build
UP an attack which will bring the Ellis
out OF the ru.. But just now, and es
OF the last few years. good many
Yale graduates, not to mention the UNI
dergraduate body, are bit worried.
PENIS Novel Attack.
Because /. was the biggest game of the,
wees there were good many foot ball
critics present at the Pennsylvania
Lafayette game last Saturday to see
what they could pick up in the way of
new foot ball. If they were at all OBJ
servant they saw more up-to-date foot
ball in single game than was displayed
In whole season on the eastern gridiron
last year. Pennsylvania beat a team
winch was its equal physically, and
greatly its superior in experience solely
by the employment of daring modern
foot ball. The forward pass which
George Brooke taught his men, and with
, MiIEn 'i ne osereame Lafayette was
This attack was built arouno one man.
Fullback Minds. Not since the DAYS of
idouser. the famous Carlisle Indian full
Dack OF Tour or nve years ago, has the
writer seen any man who could shoot
the forward pass with as much direction
and Tor such great distance as Minds He
throws the pigskin just as he would
base ball. The ball goes straight and
true to its mark rarely ever turning on
its axis. His passes vary from twenty to
| forty yards. Thirteen times did Minds
| hurl the forward pass against LAFAYETTE.
Seven times it settled into the arms of
the man Tor whom 1t was intended. The
SIN times 1t failed were dus to fumbling
or interference, never to the accuracy Of
| the thrower
The formation from which Pennsylvania
made this play is a brand-new contrlbu-
4 ~ TINT Hol1 .,,.I
advance in the effort to make this play
consistently effective. Possibly some
team will develop a defense to break il
up. but Lafayette was helpless and be-
wiioered. When the play started it had
four possibilities, an end run, a line
plunge. punt or a forward pass AS q
rule the forward pass was long delayed,
the ball criss-crossing in the back field
until 1t was finally returned to Minds.
stationed far back and with loads of
time to get the play-off This DELAY also
made II possible for him to have three or
four men down the field. any one of them
eligible to receive the pass. With SO
mucn latitude and such a wonderfully ac-
curate man to make the pass it was no
wonder that the play succeeded as often
as it did
Another feature of Pennsylvania.s at
| tack was the clever manner in which
MINDS executed the running punts. In
neither of the previous games had he
shown ability to kick an unusual dis
! lance. Consequently Coach Brooke took
advantage of the rule permitting one to
| Kick the ball at any point back Of the
| line OF scrinmaSe Instead of going back
| for long kick, Minds usually started on
an end run and punted the bali while in
motion. He is learning to place his kicks
we'll, and in this way was able to out
kick Lafayette. This is the same play
| which Harlan. the former Princeton half
back, worked SO effectively against Yale
Harvard Fears Overconfdence.
Foot ball prospects at Harvard are so
bright that Coach Haughton and his as
sistants fear nothing quite so much as
overconfidence. Individually the team
looks to be stronger than the 1912 cham
picnship eleven, but more than once a
great team has lost its most important
battle through conceit. Evidently the
| coaches have observed tendency on the
part of the players that the Yale game
has already been won, because right now
they seem to fear this more than they do
the Yale eleven or the possibility ct IN
juries. The Harvard Bulletin. the alumni
organ of the university. has already TAX
en- the student body and players to task
for showing such an overconfident spirit.
and has warned them that continue
ton OF it will increase the likelihood or
disaster.
| But il the Crimson eleven is properly
handled and the men do not become
spoiled by victory this ought TO be the
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