Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-10-31
|ntersectiona| Football
Has Made Gridiron Game
Uniform in Recent Years
East Lets Go Tenacious Grip on Old Mass Play,
as West Shows Advantage Of Open
Work, Passes and Shifts.

and led up to them in certain positions
on the field.
Forward Passes and Shifts
The middle west Experimental far
more rapidly and largely with the for
ward pass in all it's forms than did the
east, and there was a time for two or
three seasons when their men were .ex-
ceptionally facile, not only in making
the pass, but particularly in receive
ing it.
The south, owing somewhat to the
influence Of Heisman of Georgia Tech.
developed more largely along the line
Of shift plays, although Minnesota, un-
Ter Williams, also made much OF these.
1ntersectional contests have intro
duced the developments of one section
to another very freely in the last few
years, with the result that the game
in all sections takes on d greater sim
flarity, and it is much more difficult
to state absolutely that one section is
ahead or behind another in any par
ticular development.
The following features do, however.
stand out. Notre Dame last year car
ried the timing of plays, both shifts
and forward passes, to a greater
height of perfection probably than n
team III TIC Souutif. uttISld Itch
had a stronger and more united shift
in which the ,linemen took part. and
Penn State, with Killinger. had the
quickest sharp backfield shifts.
Chicago demonstrated to Princeton
The mystifying effect of changing for
nations, sometimes merely as a blind.
at other times massing their interior
ence.
Harvard. in the attack by which
Owen scored, showed n of the most
deceptive of the plays in which the
position and the point of attack change
after the ball is snapped. Iowa com
hined the kick, forward pass and run.
with excellent precision. Center, with
vidual plays. but had learned through
contact with Harvard the year before
to build up a defensive line at the same
time. Lafayette and Washington and
Jefferson showed the advantage of ire
mendous power in line play.
Eastern Line Piunging
Altogether as the situation stands.
the big eastern teams are likely to
strike harder through the middle of the
line and to defend more tenaciously
against line plunging, while the other
sections are much stronger, not neces-
sariiy in the mere execution of the
forward pass, but in the masking of the
man who is to receive it, either by
sending him in one direction, and then
having him cut in and turn to receive
the pass. or by sending one man ahead
and delaying another man and even
following this with a third man.
1t is also the strong impression of
the writer gathered from watching the
teams that as j rule the big teams If
the east make fever plays or tend to
play rather more slowly thar the west
ern teams. They are also rather more
conservative in the use plays according
to zones. and the use of the kick for
a defensive weapon.
Dobie-coached teams. as illustrated
by the Navy when he was there, by his
record out on the coast, and his late
work with Cornell. showed the backs
getting up to the line more rapidly and
hence needing smaller openings, but
that has not been sectional as Dobie
has been able to do it with eastern
| teams as well as with. western teams.
On the whole, intersectional contests
have improved the game quite marked
ly by this very Interchange of methods.