The Indianapolis times., 1930-10-01
BY KNUTE ROCKNE

Member, All America Board of Football
reg. U. S. Patent Ohicel
There always has been lot Of
conversation in football circles re-
3 garding systems. First, there is the
Warner system. This involves two
wing backs and consists largely OF
crushing power attack by a big
. plunging fullback along with single
and double reverses. The Warner
system calls for a plunging fullback,
large number two back for block
ing and one of the wing backs must
have some size. The other wing
hack who carries the ball on re-
verse and double reverses may be
small.
The deception in the Warner at
tack comes from the half spin. 1t
is a mighty fine attack, particularly
when the timing is accurate. 1t re-
ouires big men and lots OF practice.
It also is effective as a forward pass
formation as four of the eligible re-
ceivers, the two backs and the TWO
ends, are in a good position to get
out into the OPEN
: The second system in wide use is
the kicking and passing game from
punt formation. This system mas
heen carried on very effectively Dy
such teams as Michigan, Vanderbilt,
Missouri, Princeton and others.
Their style Of game is to keep try
ing long forward passes and II they
don't succeed to kick long and ac-
curately down the field. Their idea
is to complete long forward passes
if they can. If these are unsuccesS-
full to put the defensive team in
a hole by means of we'll placed
punt.
Kicks for Position
They punt for position and they
hope either to recover a tumble OF
the opponents or to tempt the OPP
ponents into some audacious tactics
in order to pull out of the hole into
which they have been placed. This
sort of game isn't much to LOOK
at but has been very successful and
teams using this, although they may
be outrushed a great deal, often get
the breaks.
. The Howard Jones system Is SINH
lar to Or. Spears system and con-
sists of ten-man shift ending up
with only one wing back. A wing
back is one who. lines up just back
and outside of the offensive end.
Roth Howard Jones and DR.. Spears,
off this shift, may finish up with
about eight variations of the same
formation. This makes their at
tack very effective. unless the rules
committee makes the shifting team
stop for four or five seconds in
order to give the defensive team
.inie to read the details.
Power Plays Feared
In stopping a shade over a second
Z however, to lose momentum, the
system has been very effective. Both
Jones and Spears have developed
: fine fundamentals of line play which
makes the power plays through the
line lust as much to be feared as
the sweeping end runs or the well
masked forward passes.
The fourth system Of play which
has been quite successful is the man
iri-motion used from either close
formation or a spread. In the lat
ter case the flank man is in mo-
ton before the ball is snapped. This
has been developed successfully by
Stasg at Chicago and Steffen at
: Carnegie Tech. This system re-
uuires expert timing so that the
man in motion can turn forward
the instant after the ball is
snapped. He may block either a
tackle or an end or he may go down
/. the field as pass receiver.
There Is a fifth system of play
which depends very largely on
i. formation. A spread formation,
however, is not as effective as it
used TO be as smart defenses have
: been built up to meet value with
value. However, with a very clever
chap back ten yards behind who can
Kick. pass and run the formation
may be dangerous. However, it is
mainly used in killing time, or to
: execute a punt. A team using a
spread, however, is helpless when
they come to the ten-yard line. the
zone! of intense resistance. and .