“There’s one thing about the passing game,” said the coach. “If you can’t have a good one you’re better off with none. And having a good one isn’t so easy. You can plan it out on paper so that it looks like a world-beater, but if your ends and backs can’t reach the ball and handle it perfectly, your plan’s a fizzle. You didn’t have much luck last year, Pep, and neither did Knowles or Suydman. Catches were mighty few, even when there was a fair chance. I’m not saying this in criticism of you, but just to emphasize the fact that it’s the individual player who counts in the passing game, and that if we’re to show anything in that line, anything worth while, we’ve got to go into the business in real earnest. Half the value of the forward pass is in keeping the opponent scared. If you have a passing game and he knows it, he’s looking for it more than half the time. But you’ve got to really have something. If you haven’t, he soon discovers it and pulls his backfield in. Just as long as you’ve got the goods, even if you don’t deliver them, he will play a fifth man back and weaken his line by just so much. That fifth man is almost invariably the center, and a quick plunge at the center position will usually gain. Personally, I think that no one has yet discovered nearly all the possibilities of the forward-pass as an offensive play. I believe that, unless a change in the playing rules comes that will place restrictions on the pass, another five years will see the old line-plunging game subordinated to it. But I’m getting away from the business of this gathering. “Suppose you fellows put your minds to work along the lines suggested this evening. Start with the fact that, no matter what else we have when we meet Kenly, we’re going to have speed, and lots of it. Then try to think of the best way to use that speed on attack. I’ll take care of using it for defense. Figure out a--let us call it an all-purpose formation, a formation from which we can hit the line, run the ends, punt and pass. It’s possible. I’m not certain that the Princeton formation doesn’t come pretty close to it except as to punting. Anyhow, put your minds to work, fellows, and see what comes of it. We’ll get together again Wednesday evening here, and we’ll try to get more of the team on hand. Remind me about that, Mister Manager, and I’ll tell you who I want here that evening.” “Shucks,” said Charley Levering, “I never could dope out plays. On paper, I mean.”