Evening star., 1926-10-27

All important plays are OlagrammeO
and the players are asked to study
the diagrams. Here they discover
Just how every man is to move; what
every man is to do when the ball is
snapped.
Thenc Is this about a diagrammed
play: 1t may look like the proverbial
million dollars on paper. but prove to
be the value of a plugged nickel when
put into execution against a certain
team.
When you work out a diagram you
know what the offense will do, pro-
viding that every man does exactly
what he Is taught to do. But that is
only half Of what enters into success.
ful execution; the other half is the
defense.
On a certain play your tackle and
end may be asked to box in an op-
posing player. II he eludes them,
which is not at all unlikely, the entire
play fails.
You never know what the defense
will do on a certain play. especially a
trick play. You know what you hope
they will do. but they do not always
respond to your hopes.
Stupid Opponents Dangerous.
A smart play always works best
a smart defensive combination. You
can. be fairly we'll certain of what an
intelligent player will do. but you
never know what a stupid opponent
will do The intelligent player will do
the right thing: the unintelligent one
may do the right thing. but more like
ly he will do something entirely
wrong and no coach can guess what
1t will be.
In foot ball you may diagram a
fake play. This will be safe against
an intelligent team. You know just
about what every man on the oppos.
ing team will do, how he will act to
stop the play when it starts. Then,
after you get every defense man
moving in the direction you want him
moving in and doing just what he Is
supposed to do you suddenly switch
into an entirely different action. You
catch him off guard, you have him
boxed in and blocked off and your
runner moves ahead.
This same play. succeeding so well
against the intelligent team, may fail
against the team of little experience.
or a team that has not been well
coached. Several players will not do
the right thing. They will move In
the wrong direction. They will. as
likely as not, through their very stu
pidity. stop the play.
The team that makes the feweSt
mistakes should win any game where
TWO teams of equal physical ability
are engaged, but it has also happened
that games have been won on
blunders by the team that blundered.
Winning a foot ball game on a raw
mistake is not unheard of.
Still, diagrams are necessary. You
need them to school the offense. Your
trick play can succeed only If all of
your IL men act in harmony. each
doing the work assigned to him. /
have seen great plays fail because
a single man failed to do what was
asked of him.
Scout Is Respectable.
The scout has become an integral
part Of foot ball: too integral, as a
matter of fact. to suit a number OF
men who have a leading voice In the
conduct of the college game. There
has been a persistent effort in the
last few years to have the foot ball
scout abolished.
There was time when the foot
ball scout aroused the same feeling
that an army has for a spy in times
of war. He worked In secrecy and
often in disguise. He always hid his
mission. He gum shoed" his way
about during the foot ball season and
often weeks before the season opened.
He had to.
The attitude toward foot ball
scouts has changed. Now he is well
coined. That may be too generous a
term, but he is surely neither hated
nor disliked. He is not unwelcome. He
reports at the athletic office and is
granted seats in the grandstand or
press box and everything is done to
help him in his work. at least every
thing that can be conveniently done.
How far the scout helps a foot ball
team is problemetical. Foot ball
coaches regard him as a prime neces-
sity, but at times he is of much more
help to the opposing team than to the
one he represents.
A few years ago, a week before
a major college game. five scouts ar
rived to watch their opponents OF the
succeeding week engage a minor col
lege team. One of these scouts was
10 watch the tackles and ends. an