Evening star., 1926-12-08


Dame players had to travel back to
South Bend and leave for Princeton
the following Friday. In analyzins the
chances of the two teams, | felt these
two long trips would take something
out of Rockne's players, but l admit l
was mistaken. The Notre Dame play
ers were in perfect physical condition
when they came into Palmer Stadium
and there were no visible effects of the
trip the week before. This was ra-
ther remarkable, as few teams can
stand much travelling.
We had made quite a study of the
Notre Dame system of attack and for
the first and only time in my coaching
experience | decided to play a box de.
fense in the backtield, with seven men
in the line. We felt this was the only
way to stop the Notre Dame running
plays.
The Notre Dame attack is based on
backfield shift. The backs assume
at the start the old-fashioned regular
position of three backs in a parallel
line with the quarterback under cen
TER. The hip comes next. with the
hacks jumping into a tandem position
either right or left, with the quarter
back sometimes still under center and
sometimes hipping with the other
backs.
Tactics ROCkne Uses.
Practically all the Notre Dame plays
are run from close formation. The
quarterback handles the ball on line
plays, while the direct pass is used on
tackle SlantS and end runs. The end
istthe pivot of the Notre Dame attack.
When the play goes to the flank, and
after the backs have "hipped," the
end is supposed to hip" outside the
1;n,kle lust before the ball is put into
play, getting into position to box him
from the outside. 1t would seem to the
casual observer that this changed po,
sHion of the end would give away the
ltay, but II is almost impossible of de-
lection because of the clever taking of
the end on other plays. When the play
IS. not an end run, the end goes
through the same motions as he does
when he hips" out. but never really
leaves his original position. He takes
an original jump out on one foot. but
this is only a bluff. 1t frequently
served to fool the defensive tackle
who. after he has been outf1anked, al
ways is anxious about getting boxed
and. on seeing the end start his jug
cling, Immediately shifts wide. This
is Just what the end wants. as the
tackle has drawn himself out of posi-
The Notre Dame backfield. consist
ing of Stuhldreher. Layden. Crowley
and Miller, acted their parts perfectly
100. I never have seen better back
field coordination.
Discarded TwO-Team Idea.
Before the game we gave consider
able thought to how to meet Rockne's
tuoteam idea. Feeling certain that
he would play the second team, OF
shock troops, first, we considered
whether it would not he good idea to
1,ut our entire second team in first
nnd hold the regulars out until the
\otre Dame Arst team came in. We
discarded thic plan, because our sec
ond team was not strong enough. AS
a matter of fact, Rockne used good
.iudgmet tnat year in keeping his first
Team out of the game for the first
few minutes. While his second team
had nothing like the offensive Of the
first team, il was in reality his best
defensive aggregation. and in this re-
spect was even stronger than the first
team.
We felt our one chance .ay in rush
ing the second team &c Its feet and
Getting an early lead N the game
We sent the Princeton team on the
field with positive instructions to
M.ks every effort - set an early