Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 264, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 November 1912 — WEIGHT IS ESSENTIAL [ARTICLE]

WEIGHT IS ESSENTIAL

Game of 1912 Built for Big Men, Says Coach Hammett Director of Northwestern University Sacrifices Speed and Agility tp Beef and Brawn —Reversion to Contests of Early ’9os. Northwestern university’s football team for 1912 is built for weight and not for speed, according to Coach Hammett. The Purple athletic director believeß the game this season will be a reversion to the contests of the early ’9os and thinks that a weak, light squad will have utterly no chance against a heavy eleven, however the former may outclass the latter in speed, agility and knowledge of tactics. Hammett thinks the game of 1912 especially built? for such schools as Yale, Harvard and Princeton in the east and Minnesota and Michigan in the'west, where there is always an abundance of heavy men. “This game looks to me like the one we played fifteen and twenty years ago,” declared Coach Hammett. “I earnestly believe weight will count for far more than speed, agility and tactical knowledge, and 1 am building my team to conform to this belief. My team will be as heavy as I can get it and instead of sacrificing weight to speed, as I have done since 1905, I will turn the tables and sacrifice speed to weight. “I have studied the rules since they were first adopted and think the game especially built for the larger schools. In my opinion no small team can hope to cope this year with the great universities of the east and west and this is a good thing, for the lighter school will pay against each other and cut out their contests with the heavy teams, which is sure to lessen the number of accidents. Yale and Harvard are sure to profit by the change in rule for they have heavy teams. One think about the change in rules is that it insures competition for places. With the game so radically changed, veterans of 1910 and 1911 are entitled to no special consideration, for the things which won them places in previous years are of no avail to them now, and they n\ust demonstrate their superiority in the new game before they can come under consideration. “I believe most of the play this year will be in tackle drives and the tackles will be the pivotal men of the teams. There will have to be lots of .weight at tackle and end and the men playing these positions must be in perfect physical condition, for they are to bear the brunt of the attack. I do not look to see much of the open game. The forward pass never has been a consistent ground gainer, and with the four down rule I believe many teams which in former seasons relied upon the play will abandon it, or at least use it -Only upon special occasions. “The chief use of the forward pass this, year will be to keep an opponent’s line open. Weak teams will be unable to execute this, for a heavy team can play its line in close to watch for line plays and can kpep its heavy backs on the lookout for forward passes. There will be no necessity for keeping a lookout for onside kicks this season, and two good heavy back field men can smash all the for. ward pass combinations that are started against them. Heavier teams will be enabled to keep their opponents guessing, but the sole use of the forward pass will be a tactical one, not one relied upon for consistent gains. “Of course, the forward pass will be

used as a “trick play,” but will not be of any more frequent occurrence than the old style quarter-back run, which served the same purpose in the rules of 1905 —that of keeping an opponent’s line open. , “Instead of three lines of defensej I think there will be only two this year. I have studied out a number of plays for the year and worked them against all sorts of combinations on paper and have come to the conclusion the safest defense is one with the line up to the scrimmage mark and only the back field men backing up. I intend to play my center close up to the line instead of loose, as I did last year, and think he will be more valuable there. Of course, I may be mistaken, but if I am I will have plenty of time to remedy the defect after my early games/’