Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-01-11
FOOTBALL RULES
UNCHANGED FOR
SEASON Of 1914
Intercollegiate Code as 1t Now
Stands Gives More General
Satisfaction Than Before.

|THERE will be few, If any,
changes in the football rules
for 1914. The intercollegiate
code gave more general satisfaction
throughout the season just closed
than ever before in the history of the
game.
The principal criticism made
against the 1913 brand of football was
erected rather against the lack of in
| ventiveness by coaches than the
rules under which the game was
pia, ed II the game as played by o
particular university or in a given
section was dull and uninteresting, the
fault was not with the rules.
In the Middle West there was far
more satisfaction over the style of
football played than there was in the
East In a general way, the West
played progressive football.
In the East there was manifested
everywhere. a spirit of conservatism,
while several universities which were
al one time leaders with their pro-
gressive ideas gained an unenviable
reputation of being stand patters.
Football men have closely studied
the situation in both West and East,
and have been unable to point out any
reforms made necessary in the rules.
The extent to which the game is 10
be improved will depend solely upon
the progressiVeness of coaches them
selves.
East Against Pass.
The feeling still exists In the East
that the game could spare the for
ward pass and be improved in conse-
q1ence. This conclusion is reached
because in practically all the cham
ponship games played on Eastern
grIdirons the forward pass was not
only complete failure, but a BOOM
erang as well.
The play was an utter failure in the
Harvard Princeton, Princeton Yale,
Yale Harvard and the Pennsylvania
Cornell games, The forward pass was
successful less than 10 per cent of the
times in these games. Not only lid
It fail to gain ground in this proper
ton, but nearly half the time when II
failed for the attacking it was inter-
cepted by the defending sid and re
turned for big gains.
The forward pass is supposed TO be
an offensive play, but from the time
Il was first introduced it has lost far
more ground than it ever gained.
| Curiously enough, it Is not defend
ed so much for its value as an often
! siye play as it is for breaking up an
| opposing defense, but football men are
I BEGINNING to see the fallacy of this
defense of the play. If a part of a
teams offense is retained simply TO
break up and weaken. an opponents
defense. it is, high time for the rule
nqyarc To EpI pFhnr of hnd #
eQlaHziNg attacks and defense.
West Favors Play.
This estimate of the value of the for
ward pass does not hold in the Mid
| die West Football experts are di-
| rided in their opinions as to whether
the success on the play in the Middle
West was due to their scientific de-
yeopment Of it or a weakness in the
construction of a defense for it.
The claim is made in the East that
a moderately perfect defense for this
play can stop it nine. tenths of the
time, If this be true, it follows that
Inc West, in it's efforts to develop
scoring plays by the forward pass,
neglected proper defeLse for 1t.
In a discussion of the relative mer-
It's Of the football played in the West
and East this conclusion is inevitable
that the West overemphas sized the
| offensive game, while the East paid
entirely too much attention to the de-
Tense
Cnless football coaches are obliged
10 adjust themselves to more radical
| IeNsions of the rules, it is fairly GER
tam that next year will see a more
even development of the offense and
GtIense in the West as well as in the
Western men have already taken
me initiative in one reform in which
NE East is tagging far behind. At a
recent meeting of the Western Inter
collegiate Conference Association It
was voted that for the first two games
yl the 1914 season the players should
oe numbered, and that if the expert
Heht proved a success the rules
should be made obligatory for the re-
halnder of the season.