The Washington times., 1919-10-24

Georgia Teen, which races fltts-
burgh this week, has saved Its
goal line from all rival feet thus far.
and has won it's four games by con-
vincing scores. However. all accounts
of the struggles in the South clearly
indicate that the Heisman jump shift.
which has won fame throughout the
football world is losing it's power. ihe
teams are solving 1t with greater sue
cess and Heisman has been forced AT
last to resort to other means of devel-
oping a successful attack. He seems
to have resorted to the punt forma-
tion.
Shifts play, according to numoer
of critics, had their inception oack IN
the early COS. The Carlisle wing
shift. which Glenn Warner brought
from Cornell, and also used whiie
coaching in the South, is the original
shift play, or one of them, at any rate
The wing shift as explained by war
ner, swung two men from one side OF
the line across to the other side, the
backs followed the shift, leaving
man stationed to take the pass from
the snapper back. The quarterpack
thus stationed whipped lateral pass
behind the line to the appointed back
and the play at once started.
Develops Power In Attack.
By shifting at least two of the line
men and the three backs to certain
area naturally developed preponder-
ance of power on that spot, and unless
the defensive line shifted with sum-
cfent speed and developing movement
made II well-nigh impossible to stop
the play until II had gone a reason
able distance. 1t was the wing shirt
that moved Columbia down to
45-to-0 defeat by the Indians in 1893.
The Minnesota shift was an out
growth of the old wing shift. Dr.
Harry williams devised the plan of
having the linemen drop back TO an
illegal position and just before the
play started have them rush to their
places on the line and make con-
certed advance on the defense. Per-
lection in timing was essential to the
success OF this play. Minnesota USED
IL with great success against west
ern teams. and in 1911 Tom Shevlin,
called in by Yale to mend desperate
situation, introduced the play against
Princeton. Alas! A wild pass by
Ketcham gave Sam White his oppor-
tunity and the shift went for naught
The method of operating the Min
nesota shift was simple enough. The
guards and tackles dropped behind the
line about two or three yards. and on
a signal swung as one man to a posi-
tion on the line Of scrimmage. A mo-
mentary pause was followed by the
pass OF the ball, and the entire attack
ing machine swung forward. Unless
a team could shift with the attack and
still guard the short side against split
plays and cross bucks IL was rather
out of luck.
How Georgia Works.
The Georgia Tech shift offers sew
eral variations of the old Minnesota
shift. The entire line, except the CEN
ter, drops backward and outward sew
eral yards, while the backs form a
single line in the rear. On the signal
one. two or three linemen jump into
position on the other side of the line,
while the men on the strong side
take positions just outside Of the
newcomers.
The backs leap into tandem forma-
tion and the ball is passed to back
two, three or four in the tandem.
Naturally the most effective plays
off this formation is an off tackle
smash, for the defense unless espe-
cially coached is generally caught. un-
prepared for the puzzling move.s All
plays are run from the same shift, in |
cluding kicks.
No Longer Feared.
Shifts are losing their punch in |
these days for the reason that coaches |
have studied counter moves to check |
them. One system, and II seems to be |
as sound as any other. is to have the |
defensive line split open, each man |
taking a position three places outside ]