Evening star., 1919-11-13
Modern Foot Ball Tactics.

Tt is we'll worth while to study the
1919 foot ball season from a techni-
cal standpoint and note in what an
impressive way the game has de-
veloped under the possibilities of the
present rules. 1t is no longer fact
that the mere possession OF a star
player or of merely experienced men
who have. through not only mod
ern but the most up-to-date coachlng.
been kept fully abreast of the RAPID
changes of tactics. spells consistent
row. of victories. A team must nave
not only good men but modern plays
at their fingertips and a defense suf-
fciently elastic to meet modern plays
and up-to-date tactics on the part OF
the opponents. BY way of illustration,
there has been no more startling ar
raw of facts to prove this contention
than occurred during the first half OF
| this season. ending with the games of
November ].
For instance. North Carolina
brought up a team to New Haven,
and, while they were defeated, they
scored on Yale by the use of an on
side kick. Technically, the ball was
touched so that it would have made
players were evidently unfamiliar
with the use of the on-side kick. The
next thing that followed was that
Boston College. coached by Cava-
naugh, came down and defeated Yale
simply because they knew that Yale
plays and they therefore presented
] the modern semi-circular defense,
pinching the line up from tackle to
| tackle and checking Yale's every ef-
| fort. Then Colgate defeated Brown,
Cornell and Princeton in order by the
use of modern forward passing.
Pittsburgh defeated West Virginia
no less than 26 to 0, and this West
Virginia team was one of the best of
the season even then. But they knew
nothing about modern mud acleats or
| the wisdom of letting wet, Shiny
ball running along the field come to
| a stop before endeavoring ordrop. on
it, and the result was that Warner,
using kicking game against them
and with his team properly shod, de-
! feated them badly. But West Vir-
| ginia learned its lesson and showed
when they defeated Princeton on No
vember I. 25 to O. Center College
studied West virginia's attack and
defeated them.
| Syracuse took the Pit shuro-', r." M,
which had defeated West Virginia.
and. using to the full their superior
ity in the line, beat Pittsburgh, "a to
e only however. a week later 10 nnd
a line quite as good as theirs and as
modern in plays and going down tc
a defeat to Washington and .Jeffer-
son by a score of 13 to 0. Pennsyl-
yania, which had been coming along
Iswimmingly and winning easily over
anything in sight, were almost as
badly off as West Virginia, when they
came to the muddy day with Penn
line and with wing men who pre-
vented any outside attacks and who
got down the field in such a manner
as to take the heart out of the Penn
sylvania catchers.
Colgate had a victory taken away
from them by a tie score with Dart
mouth, simply because they did not
know how far to put their kicker
back when there was tearing line
man like Youngstown, the Dart
blocked kick in the very end of the
game due to that lack of knowledge
left them with a tie score when they
had apparently earned a victory
Harvard had come through well by
the use of a large amount of good
material and got a much-needed les.
son in the Springfield game in which
fortunately, they had already scored
sufficiently to make the game sure, by
finding that they were not entirely
safe against forward passes. The
Army found a similar situation with
the weak Tufts team.
Out in the middle west. Ohio State
with a well rounded team, and using
all modern methods. and taking every
advantage of the asset they had in
Harley but not depending entirely
upon him, defeated not only their
minor teams. but put Michigan under
the yoke. The combination of run
ming and forward passing from kicl
formation combined with shifts both
Of the line and of the backfield, as in
;. stanced Invest Virginia's wei
rounded game, against Princeton