The New York herald., 1922-12-23
YALE GRADSyBLAME
SYSTEM, NOT COACH
Alumni Weekly Urges Return
Of Old Plan to Develop
Football Teams.

New HAVEN. Dec. 90. In a frank
confession that It has little faith in tho
present Yale football coaching system.
laying emphasis that the trouble Hes
with the plan and not the man, the Yols
Alumni Weekly In it's current issue
urges more work by the football COM
mittee. return to the custom OF calling
In old players. q scheme whereby the
head coach is made to be Responsible
to the graduate committee and less con-
sderation to the salary question.
In part the editorial saya:
THE majority graduate opinion, an
we sense 1t. is that something has been
radically wrong with our football for q
dozen years, and to continue practice
that invites further disappointments Is
laissez faire policy that will not meet
the situation.
"As to the specific reasons for the
downward trend In Yale football since
1910 We lay no claim to supernatural
powers of diagnosis nor do we set up
our own opinions about 1t above those
OF others. We confess, however. to very
little faith in the system which has
been in vogue now for some years and
by which single coach (no matter who
he is) conducts the season in full au-
thority with a staff of recent players
under him and hardly responsible him-
self to an absentee committee with q
chairman having or exercising no real
authority over the situation.
No individuals Considered.
I'VE can say this frankly. because we
have no particular individuals in the
mind. 1t Ii the system that we are
considering. II every committeeman
and coach at Yale to-day were replaced
by others and the present plan continued
We should expect precisely the same
results next year and every year that
this was the case.
THE trouble lies in the plan. not In
the men who comprise it. For Il il a
plan that is not building UP a standard
lied system of play extending from
freshman to varsity teams, that has NOT
yet settled on any one successful system
OF offense and held to 1t long enough
for the players to know it so that they
can handle the technique automatically
and thus have the opportunity to use
their heads In emergencies. that has not
brought In enough of the open play and
reception of the new football or incor.
porated enough OF the ideas of that very
considerable circle OF other players OUT
side and at the field whose ideas would
be worth having.
Far Cry to Old System.
''1t is far cry to-day from the old
Yale system where the actual coaching
was subordinate responsibility and the
real generalship Of the season was in the
hands OF group Of older graduates who
gave their services and who added each
year to what Yale had learned in pre-.
vious years, and who thereby for de.
cades taught a consistently successful
game. geared to the possibilities that
the rules permitted.
I'VE should much prefer to see Yale
go back to the old plan, which brought
together all possible factors in a COM
bined effort of team. captain, field
coach, advisers and tactical head coach
to play the best game possible we have
the material with which to recreate that
remarkably successful organization. It
was successful because In its best days
1t was amateur. because the tactical
policy was the result of the most and
the best advice that could be secured
and because the final authority was the
captain. But II we are to have the COM
mittee plan (and Yale sports are to-day
organized on that basis), In our opinion
the football committee should have
more to do with the season and tho
PREPARATION for II, It should comprise the
best men available (men who can give
their time to the team in the old spirit),
II should call In all past players, who
could contribute anything worth while,
and the coach himself should not be the
single responsible head, while the SAL
ary element should be a very small fac
tor, IL 1t should exist at all. The oppo-
site method is not working. 1t has
naturally initiated to keep old players
away, to bar sound advice, and to throw
away that fine cooperation and solidity
of interest that was Yale's greatest ath-
letic asset in an older day"