Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-10-13
GEORGIA IS RATED
NEAR NOTRE DAME
Closely Approaches Rockne
Conception of 0ffense,
Writer Holds.
BY LAWRENCE PERRY.

N YEW YORK, OCTOBER 10
M Georgia has come nearer
l Y to the Knute Rockne con-
ception of offense, which
holds that every play Is a poten-
tial touchdown play, than any
eleven, aside from Notre Dame,
that the writer has ever seen.
Harry Mehre, the coach, has done
splendid Job with the Athens
outfit, not only in manual way,
but in infusing the eleven with a
unifying spirit.
Seldom, indeed, does one get such an
impression as the spectators at the Yale
bowl received when the Georgia first
team sprang into the game at the be-
ginning OF the second period. One
could both see and feel the snap and
drive of those eleven men. It was pre-
ciSely as though q length Of copper
cable had been made alive by the sud.
den introduction Of high voltage.
This Notre Dame system Of attack
took a beating in important quarters
on Saturday. The Army convincingly
defeated Michigan State. Maryland de-
feated the Navy and Washington was
swamped by Oregon, which used DR..
Spears we'll known line and backfield
shift-probably the closest analogy to
the old Minnesota shift now being
played. And Northwestern broke Notre
Danes long winning streak Of 20
games by holding the irish to a tie.
But in this case a torrential rain and
a water-.soaked gridiron prevented the
turning in Of valuable information con-
corning the attack Of either Of these two
great teams.
Is Difficult Task.
But irrespective of the showing Of
the standard Notre Dame offenSe
throughout the country last week the
fact remains-and Georgia demon
strated this-that when the footing is
good and worthy material has been sue
cessfully taught, no finer method Of
attack exists Fundamentally it is easy
to teach and easy to learn, but when
it comes to the production of results
under high preSSure-that Is to say,
against the powerful and discerning de-
Tense of a major oppcnent-the task
becomes much more difficult
Just analyZe the So-called perfect
play-the play, by the way, in which
Homer Key was shaken loose against
Yale on Saturday-in respect tc its
blocking assignments. The No. back
hits the defensive end in, and the No.
3 back. coming through. hits him a
flash of a second later. That defensive
end is never permitted to come into
the backfield. The No. back, having
nicked the end, goes to the left half
back with but a seconds delay. The
No. back, having also nicked the 1l-
fated end, hurries into the backfield.
The end, often single handed, knocks
of the defensive tackle. The No. 2
back, with the end showing ability to
care for the tackle, shoots into the
backf1eld and works on the fullback,
thus giving the ball carrier. who Is
running inside or outside end. three
interferers ahead Of him to take care
of the secondary. The guards swing
out and around, cleaning up on the
defensive tackle or the fullback. or the
center, If he is rowing, as seems neces-
sary.
perfect play" But it requires
coach with a genius for precise In
struction to impart 1t as Rockne i'm.
parted it and it requires disciplined
men Of alert mentality and physical
speed and strength to demonstrate 1t
on the field. All of which. therefore,
rebounds to the credit of Harry Mehre
and the Georgians who have sat at
his feet.
Michigan State was at a disadvan-
tage AGAINST West Point. masmucn as