Norwich bulletin., 1916-12-12
GLENN WARNER GREATEST
COACH OF ALL TIME
Warfer Has Exceptional Ability to
Solve oppoaIna Attack.


Warner Has Exceptional Ability to
Solve Opposing Attack.
BY SOL METzGER
One Of the great lessons Of the past
football season was that sheer power
and drive will win out nine times in
ten games. Those elevens Of the East
who have stood foremost-Brown
which have stood foremost = Brown,
Colgate, Pitt and Yale, and am not
attempting to rank them-all had
power and drive. They played slashing
football both on offense and defense
when it was needed and relied on
nothing else. Yale had more actual
power than any of the others, though
Colgate was not far behind. Brown, on
the other hand, possessed in Pollard
back of supreme ability at running in
a broken field, whereas Pitt, to my
mind, showed the highest development
| of machine play.
/ 1t was the ability Of Warner to get
men into the interference on wide
| end plays both to the strong side and
to the reverse that gave Pitt it's pow
/ ar. To meet this attack the defense
had to be spread and this opened the
way for the line smashing that gave
Pitt most versatile running offense,
one hard to stop. There was little
need of generalship in running such a
team, the simple expedient of using
few plays was sufficient to gain vic,
tory.
Warner, more than any other coach,
best solved the attack in football this
fall. It was not great backs like Hast
| ings, McLaren, DeHart and Morrow.
who made the Pitt team take rank as
i one of the best of all time. On tine
contrary, it was the cooperation Of
every man in each play Team work
reached a high point this fall at Pitt.
1t is not my purpose to attempt to
rank football elevens. I do not know
| whether Pitt is better or worse than
one or many others but I do know
| Warner has produced the best ma
chine in many years. 1 think this
years Pitt eleven on a par with any I
have ever seen and I recall Harvard
in 1901. Yale in 1902 and many good
elevens of these and other colleges
since that time. And I attribute the
success of Pitt to Glenn S. Warner. it's
coach. True. Warner had the material
and will have it next year, for that
matter. In fact no coach can meet
with success without it. Those who
think differently have not studied foot
ball. and have but to go back to 1914
4 when much of this same material at
Pitt was in ether hands and not sue
cessful; yet. at that. it was more than
good enough to overwhelm the Carlisle
Indians, then coached by Warner and
then lacking material Indeed, the at
tack of the Pitt team this fall is based
ner his last year with the Indians. It
| failed then because it lacked power.
It was overwhelming this fall because
it had just this needed power.
! Warner is PROFESSIONALLY one of the
greatest coaches of all time. His work
has been remarkable. He is a Cornell
| graduate class of 1894 He began his
coaching career in the fall of 1895 at
the University Of Georgia. He remain
ed there two seasons and produced one
I fOf h. hos oil r0f- hos vor.
known. In '97 and '9s he was coach at
Cornell and while there he won all his
games except with Pennsylva MIA.
which were lost 40 and 1875. He then
went to Carlisle and Immediately put
the Indians on the football map. They
had played all the big teams up to that
| time but had never won. His eleven
defeated Pennsylvania 1875 in the days
when Hare and McCracken were max
Il ing football history at PENNSYLVANIA
| and then overwhelmed Columbia Ss46-0
after the New York boys had WHIPPED
Yale. In 1902 the Indians again caus-
ed trouble with the big fellows. That
Il eleven beat Penn. In 1903 the Quak-
ers were again vanquished and Har-
; ward won thrilling battle 12-11. That
was the year Warner sprung his hid
DIN ball trick at Cambridge on a kick
| off. thus enabling Johnson to run the
length of the field for a touchdown.
Cornell got Warner back in 1904
1
come Pennsylvania but was unsuc
tcessful. His last season at Cornell
was the best as the Quakers were
played to a scoreless tie. From 1907
| to 1915 Warner was with the Indians.
Pittsburgh got his in 1915 and has
been among the leaders since. In fact
Warner has been signed to coach
through 1920 because of the remark
able record Of the team the past two
years.
The football outlook at Pitt for 1917
is particularly bright. Captain Peck,
center; Heron, end; Soppitt guard,
and Thornhill, tackle, are the only men
lost from the varsity and as but two
substitutes graduate there is ample
material to fill in the vacancies.
Warner is the most experienced
coach in the East and has served long
est. His attack has always been fore
most and it is original. He has never
been bound by precedent but has con-
ceived new principles to apply to foot
ball. He was one of the first to make
| telling use of the open game and won
some of his most notable Indian sue
cesses with this style of offense. War
ner was particularly fortunate in being
| able to gain an inside knowledge of
the great eastern systems of play
when at Carlisle, which he did by en-
gaging various college graduates to
assist him from time to time.
Warner has much patience in work
| ing Will Tie getting re-
suits where others might fail. Pro-
ducing finished players at Carlisle
fro mraw, Red material gave him that
, virtue. which now serves him SO well.
He is an advocate of clean football and
the Pitt team plays it that way. If it
did not I would say so for hate the
other kind.
/ His strong running formation this
season tends to spread the defense as
he plays his quarter back outside the
. tackle This calls for direct passes
from the center and also gives him an
extra man in the interference who,
combined with three line men and
two other backs in leading end runs
makes his attack extremely strong
The Pitt team is composed almost
entirely of students from the vicinity
! of Pittsburgh. It is with few excep-
4 tions the Same material which went