The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-11-12
IndiDidudL POWer Necessary
 h Football; Same Style ot PlQY Is Used Ouer Country
Southern Colleges Rule Composed of Young Payers-Ex
 perienced Material One Great Desire of All Coaches Game in Various Sections Discussed
Fly SOL METZGER ,,cI, of Washington and Jefferson

I material and-the material must be man
 size. Unless this is so a system of play
 is of little use. It takes players with
 the right knowledge and the plst CT
 power and strength to make any sys-
 team a success. That is why that coi-
 lege or that section of the country which
 draws the bulk of we'll coached prepara-
 tory players takes highest rank in the seasons football That is why football I is such a valuable training for war
 MUST POSSESS MASTERY 1 No matter how well drilled a team | is in system and no matter how per | feet the system no team can win it's
 games unless it had the individual mas 1 tery as well. In the present scheme on trench warfare the allies are working l for a mastery with the bayonet That, and that alone. must be superior in ev- l cry detail to the bayonet and hand-to- hand fighting of the enemies of man kind. Without it the highest strategy and the most overrowering barrage are as naught. This trench war must be
 won by the individua, fighting skill of man. Once we reach that state of per lection in bayonet flghtins and we are
 reaching it-the result depenGa on the skill and strategy of the leaders, just as in football the success of great teams
 is due to the members of these teamis
 being better tackler. blockers, interfe.
 CTS and handlers of the ball than the., opponents After that comes systems of play and strategy.
 Thus we get different view of foot ball than hitherto. We gave somewhat more credit to our coaches for victory than it seems to me they have some times deserved. We have lauded to the -I- txf coac ches, failing to note that the play CTS, masters of the individual duties of play, have been most necessary to assure the success of the teams And we have been too prone to laud our eastern coaches for many successes which. in the nature of things, must be attributed to their environments They have had material which knew the rudi- ments of the game before it reached college material that had seen the best of football played and material which, given a system-whlch is nothing nor than placing individuals at an adyant- age III each maneuver-has been able to run rough shod over all opposition. All Of which goes to show that without ma terial the best of them are due to biz upsets.
 SOME START AT BOTTOM It has rarely been the task of a col lege coach to teach men football True, he has had to instruct some of his can didates in the A-B-C's of the game | know of but one instance in which the coach of a big university eleven has had to start at the bottom and coaah his candidates in every department of football. They had not seen the game played; they knew nothing about it. 1t would be a task similar to sending one of our coaches to Oxford or Cambridge for the purpose of developing an eleven. Last fall California discarded rugby football for the American article. An drew l.. Smith. former Penn fullback and coach who had also coached at Purdue, was appointed to coach the, California eleven. Smith came and met a new task for a football mentor that was staggering Results had to be ob- tained in a hurry. Smith knew that the men he wanted to mold into team were those who could tackle and inter- fere He instructed the squad in these points on the dummy and after thor oughly grounding them in this way took next step. It was necessary for him to know who had profited by these dum- my lessons before he could pick a team or begin scrimmage. He had to learn in hurry as a football season does not wait for the coach. This is his own story of how he picked his men:
 T divided my candidates into squads Of three men each. I put three of them. with the ball on the 25-yard line and
 three others on the goal-line. I told the men with the ball to make a touch- down and off they would go, two inter- rerlng and one running back of the in terference. The three on the goal-lne
 were to make the tackle that would pre-
 vent touchdown. By rotating the men each had chance to carry the
 ball. to follow interference, to make in- terference and to tackle.
 RESULTS WERE GREAT
 We kept a squad of 60 men going
 that way and it was not long before
 we knew who was who By carefully
 watching them we soon learned which or them were suited for the various po- sitions on the team. Then we began team drill. Every step had to be simplified and explained in advance. Making them follow the ball was a big problem I
 hit on scheme of blowing a whistle alter each run, each man stopping when he heard 1t. In that way I soon got re- suits.
 "Of course we used only a few for | nations and simple plays last year. But we got to know them and could execute them. The one thing. though that got results was working the men in squads of three against squads of three. never saw anything get results as that did. We were able very early in the game to weed out the weak players" smith has been getting results fr tnls, his second year. A victory over the oregon Aggies is already chalked down and California Is on the rapid road 10 success. Best of all the public has