Omaha daily bee., 1916-11-26
LIGHT HALFBACKS
STARS THIS YEAR
Coaches Choose Little Fellows
with Speed Over Heavy Line
Plungers of Yore.
PITY THE POOR COACH
BY FRANK G. MENKE.

BY FRANK u. MENkE.
Lightweight halfbacks are CHEERING
in most of the 1916 plaudits. That's
because they have been doing the bulk
OF the performing for the big col
legcs. II the pickers do their job
with fearlessncss and justice this fall,
il is quite likely that the All-American
backheld of 1916 won't displace an
average poundage Of much more than
100.
Chick" Harley of Ohio State, the
dazzling performer in the west,
weighs only lSS. Driscoll of North
western, can't force the scales beyond
the las mark. Fritz Pollard, the dus-
ky Brown wonder, notches, l54. Eddie
Casey, ranked among the best half
hackers in the east is l55-pounder.
Maulbetsch Of Michigan is down
somewhere near 1863 or 40. Oliphant,
Of Army, unquestionably the foremost
ball carrier along the Atlantic sea-
board, is something of lightweight.
Hubbell of Colgate weighs less than
100. Hastings and DcHart, the
Panthers stellar pair, are light men.
Moore OF Princeton weighs in the
neighborhood OF 100. ...B
And so it goes down along the half
backing lane, to show that the days Of
husky halfbacks are over. The new
game has placed premium on speed.
Given the choice between fast, light
man and bulky, terrific line cracker,
the coach will invariably seize upon
the former. Mass plays no longer
are vogue. When they are used oc-
casionalIy, the team depends alto
gethcr upon the linesmen to make a
hole for the halfbaek.
Pity the Coach. .'
1--WE often wondered" asks Sol
Metzger, whether anything can COM
pare with the nervousness, the worry
and the frettng that coach must
undergo during the big games in
which his team figures ."
Metzger, star of the Pennsylvania
teams OF decade or so ago, now is
coach of the Washington and Jeffer-
son eleven.
I'm the days when ] played foot
ball, always was keyed up to the
highest notch for days before our big
games" he added II couldn't sleep
nights thinking about the game; try
ing to map out plays to be made.
| was nervous and anxious for the
game to start. And so it was with
all the boys. But the minute the
kickoff was made all the nervousness
was gone. The strain was over-the
game was on.
But how different it is with a
coach. He's just as nervous as any
of his men, And that nervousness
does not leave him when the game be-
gins. Rather, it increases. He must
sit near the side lines and watch his
men in action. From his viewpoint
he can see many errors, many oppor-
tunities, But he is practically help
less. He is almost overmastered by
a wild impulse to jump onto the field
and help out his boys. When he sees
the opposition racing through the
lines OF his team. or skirting the ends
at will, he is wild to go in there and
help bolster up those weak spots.
"But all that he can do is to sit
and watch and worry--and hope"
Triple Pass.
Many have tried the lateral pass
this year and last-but few have found
it uniformly successful. 1t takes too
long to execute it and very often the
team using it is trapped into big
losses.
The play, of course, is a pass to one
man, forward pass to another and
second forward pass to the final
man who is to receive the ball. It's
pretty play to watch, when exc
cuted perfectly, but very often the
second man, while posing himself
for a throw to the third, is tackled
from behind or in front, and instead
/ OF gaining the team loses on the play
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