The Sunday telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1914-1927, 1916-11-19
Football Not y Coaches
Game Says Sol Mefzge7

ment one is confronted BY the su1-
cess Of men like Haught0n, Warner
and Banklart as college football
coaches i Il would seem that wherever
they go they meet with victory
zuppke, Williams and Stage have been
nearly as successful i'll the middle
West, in the long run, and Dobie has
stood alone. as a great coach on the
Pacific coast.
Confronted with such facts it APP
pears that football Isl a coaches game
yet 1T seems to me not to be. The
success Of these men is not due 70
strategy, but to thcir abilities to make
their players think correctly. Fully
#seventy-tive per cent OF football & is
played with the brain and the player
or team which cannot GO beyond it's
coaching in its duties lacks the very
element that goes to make Victory
Let us go back to&the old days of
the game. i recall an incident in a
GPennsy lvania-C Cornell game when the
coach sent us the signal TO punt The
quarter was playing his kind Of q
game, he knew his team and he dis
regarded the signal and rushed the
ball. In a few minutes Pennsylvania
scored its first touchdown.
One Year ago / planned what I
thought was most effective forward
pass for use iii midfe7d. III our final
championship game my quarterback
called this play when on the
opponents five yard line and | thought
doom was ours. Three times that day
e5used this same play for touchdowns
in this same position on the field and
/ had 10 acknowledge afterwards that
This Judgment was better than mine
land that lie sized up conditions as he
lsmet them far better than the coach
Izcou1d from the side lines, where be
could not set the feel Of the game.
II Ghenowcth, 81. West Virginia, was that
quarterback.
II This fall when Syracuse used q pc
#cHliar spread formation against Pitts
4 burg, known ii football parlance as d
freak formatio The 5Pittsburg team:
was unable to break 1t Up with its les
( ignated defense. Within a short time
1.-THE Pitt players held u conference or
the field changed their defense and
4 thereafter broke UP the attack.
Il 1.-THE Washington and Ieffersc.z
/ againSt tale we used a freak forIna-
/ 4tfon nn#attack Yale was in a good DO
|. siti0n defensivcly to break up tile play
&but a Washington and Jefferson half
back. Ruble. sized up the situation
#adoptcd his runto the defense insteat
LOT following instructions and caughi
\ the pass for remarkable gain. Time
land again in that game Ruble used his
l#lead to advantage on passes and sIIe,
cessflllIy completed them when had liz
followed Instructions to tie letter. the
4 pass would have been incompleted
\ That sort or playing and the GOODNESS
II OF. NtcCrcight in passing GOODNESS
That cannot be taught IA plnycren
i sabled Washington and Jefferson Il
/ stage a come back that was remark
1 ablo in that Yale had oyerwh elned III
before 1t started. And yet some SAY
\ football Is a coach's game.
\ The coach Is q big flctorain football
4 1t is up TO him to plan the plays ant
select the players. but he lis pool
A coach who does not turn tho game
over to the players. They must pla!
1T and they alone can sense what j.
best. And each player must go be
II stated things for each man to DC Of
each play, but beyond that there Il
something to be done. which canno
be defined. but (which turns the tide on
way or the other. The boy who hai
y the head and the heart to go some
what beyond his Instructions is tn
I8player the coach seeks out and de
4 Dends upon. whether he be quarter
back. end or center
So often has every coach been pul1e
l@out5of a hole, so to speak. BY the play
or. that it is high time this nonacns
about football being a coach gam
Esshou1d be denied Unjust tax e my 1la
Ifon To a long list of splendid boys VIII
have saved and won many ia ganeIfo
lime when was coaching them hecaus
theysYent beYond any chipgERnyQn