Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 289, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1912 — PUNTER AID TO TEAM [ARTICLE]

PUNTER AID TO TEAM

Accurate Kicking 16 Important Under New Code. Field Not a Handicap and Criticism of Shortening of the Gridiron to One Hundred Yarde la Misplaced, Says Eckersall. Although changes in the football rules have met with almost universal approval, there is one alteration in the code which has come in for a lot of criticism. The shortening of the grid* iron from 110 to 100 yards has handicapped the punters, and this change is the one which the coaches do not like, writes Walter H. Eckersall In the Chicago Tribune. Opinion is that the punter does not have a chance to place his attempts as he did under the old code and that the alteration does away with one of the most important factors of the game. This may be true in a certain sense, but a reliable punter is just as essential to the success of a team as he was under the old code. It is admitted that more touchbacks result because of the shortening of the playing field, and the abolition of the onside kick, byt an intelligent kicker does not have to kick the ball in a manner which will result in touchbacks. In the gamesplayed this season the usual custom of the punter has been to get the ball away without regard as to where it is going. The punter kicks the ball high and as far as he can. He never thinks of kicking it away from the men in the backfield or placing it in such a manner that the catchers will fumble it. He also never thinks to boot it out of bounds forty or fifty yards down the field. If these facts are borne in mind and carried out there will be few reasons for criticising the rules committee for shortening the field. If a team is on an opponent’s forty yafd line it is a whole lot better to boot the ball out of bounds on the opposing eleven’s five or ten yard line than it is to drive it over the goal line. When a touchback results the offending team has the privilege of putting the ball in play by scrimmage on its twenty yard line or punting from the same mark. If the latter is adopted there is no chance to block the kick and the ball generally goes to the opposing team on the thirty or forty line yard. If the ball is kicked out of bounds on the defensive team’s five or ten line the opposing aggregation has a chance either to blpck the attempt or hurry the kicker in such a manner that he will not obtain the best results, from his punt. There are so many possibilities to the result of a punt that the coaches should not overlook the principle of teaching their kickers to either kick away from the men in the back field or boot the ball out of bounds. The kicking game is a mighty good one, and it has been responsible for many hard fought victories. A man may be able to boot the ball fifty or sixty yards, but the value of his attempt is lessened when the catchers run it back twenty or thirty yards. As the average punter boots the ball from distances ranging from eight to ten yards back of his scrimmage line, his efforts are of little value when he places the oval in a position where it can be caught and run back with ap* ifarent ease.