Norwich bulletin., 1917-11-14

Of the word All else being equal he will take top rank in football And on wet field the Oregonian, playing, as he does, through season of rainfall, would show the rest of humanity that wet grounds, forward passing and bunting are birds of feather. The southern colleges. as rule, are represented by younger teams than those playing elsewhere To be sure there are notable exceptions to this statement there are to all state ments relative to football but the fact nevertheless remains so. Of course such a rule may not hold during war on account of the draft. This year few teams have players over twenty one.
 That which all coaches wish in the
 way of a football squad is experienced material and-the material must be
 man-size. Unless this is so a system
 of play is of little use. It takes play
 CTS with the right knowledge and the
 proper power and strength to make any system success. That is why
 that college or that section of the coun-
 try which draws the bulk of we'll
 coached preparatory players takes
 That isaWhys football is such a vaIua-
 b]e training for war. No. matter how we'll 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 mastery as we'll. Tn the present scheme of trench warfare the allies are working fcrssa mastery with. the
 bayonet. That. and that alone, must
 be. superior in every detail to the bay onet and hand-to-hand fighting of the enemies of mankind. Without it the highest strategy and the most over towering barrage are as naught. This trench war must be won by the indi- vidual fighting skill of man. Once we reach that state of perfection in bay onet fighting--and we are reaching 1.-the result depends on the skill and strategy of the leaders. just as in football the success of, great teams is due to the members of these teams being better tacklers, blockers, inter- ferers and handlers. of the ball than their opponents After that comes systems of play and strategy
 Thus we get a different view of football than hitherto. We gave some what more credit to our coaches for victory than it seems to me they have sometimes deserved We have lauded to the skies the unconquerable sys- tems of coaches, failing to note that the players. masters of the individual duties of play. have been most neces- sary to assure the success of these 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 en- yironments. They have had material which knew the rudiments of the game before it reached college. material that lad seen the best of football played and material which. given a system which is nothing more than placing the individuals at an advantage in each maneuevre-has been able to run Tough Shod over all opposition. All of which goes to show that without ma terial the best of them are due for big upsets.
 e It has rarely been the, task of a col lege coach to teach men football. True, he has had to instruct some of his candidate in the A>-B-Cs of the game. l know of but one instance in the modern game in which the coach of big university eleven has had to start fE at the bootom and coach his can didates in every department of foot ball They had not seen the game played:, they knew nothing about it. It would be task similar to sending enc Of our coaches to Oxford or Cam bridge for the purpose of developing an eleven.
 by football for the American article. Andrew l.. Smith, former Penn full I back and coach. who had also coached at Purdue, was appointed to coach the California eleven. Smith came and met new. task for football mentor that was staggering. Results had to be obtained in hurry. Smith knew that the men he wanted to mold into a team were those who could tackle and interfere. He instructed the squad ih these points on the dummy and af- ter thoroughly grounding them in this way took his next step. It was neces- sary for him to know who had profited by these dummy lessons before he could pick a team or begin scrim- mage. He had to learn in a hurry as 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. T. put three of them, with the ball, on the 25-yard line and three others on the goal-line told the men with the ball to make a touchdown and off they would go, two interfering and one running back of the interference. The three on the goal-line were to make the tackle that would prevent a touchdown. By TO- tating the men each had a chance to carry the ball, to follow interference, to make interference and to tackle
 We kept squad of sixty men go- ing that way and it was not long be- fore we knew who was who. By care fully watching them we soon learned vp1f frh r.f xre Sr,if fa<7 fav+ ttx