The Shift | |
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The shift, was one of the most spectacular developments of modern football. It quickly became popular. It was new and spectacular, and gave the untechnical football fan a chance to see something of the game besides mass huddles, flying wedges and stretcher bearers.
Rockne often underlined that the shift was not his invension. From time to time he presented a different version of itīs discovery. The popular theory though was that Jesse Harper brought it to Notre Dame, having seen something of it demonstrated by coach Alonzo Amos Stagg of Chicago.
But it is said that Stagg of Chicago and Williams at Minnesota were the great masters of the evolutions and gyrations of the football shift. They were the pioneers who had not even been consulted by those who would abolish it.
The shift and the forward pass have done much to popularize football. Itīs said that about a third of the teams in the country used the shift in some form or other, both high school and college.
Harperīs testimony on this subject, is highly interesting: "The Notre Dame shift was not discovered by anyone. Like Topsy, it just "growed". I was in and out of Chicago and heard upon my return that Stagg had been shifting his line. I have reason to believe that "Doc" Williams copied something of that and went on to develop it". "The shift we first used, was from a "T" formation of the backs, with a balanced line. Whether that was original with us or not I do not know. Neither do I know how we happened to get into it. Maybe It was because we didnīt know any better, and just got into it accidentally. I do know that Notre Dame was the first team that ever developed a full offense from the shift. But Iīll be hanged if I know who had the idea first".
When Rockne was assistant coach, he worked in perfect collaboration with the head coach, Jesse Harper. And he saw the additional color that could be infused into the game by the shift. The news that there is something new going on travels fast. It was after Notre Dame got beaten 0-28 by Yale in 1914, the Irishīs first defeat in four seasons, Harper decided to make a big change in his attack.
Rockne offered something else, something new: "Letīs work on the timing, so that our backs are away on the snap so fast that the defence wonīt be able to adjust".
Rockne had another gimmick too. That was the famous and completely refined Notre Dame shift: "Letīs flex the ends along with the backs. Put one or both of them out two, three or four yards as needed. It will make our real point of attack, give us more momentum and get as many men as possible to that point on every play".
Rockne went on to explain how they could consentrate on the weak points in the defence. With the offence set in a T formation the defence had a chance to move in against the offensive teamsīs strengts. But with the shift, the defence wouldnīt be sure where the blow was coming. After the Notre Dame backs had made their shifts, the ball could be snapped at the very instant the shift had ended, and although the defence might try to compensate they really wouldnīt have enough time to do it properly.
Rockne also added a couple of moves he had dreame up as a player to help a smaller end move a heavier defensive tackle. With the ends flexed wider on the line of scrimmage, the new techniques would have an even better chance because of the improved blocking angle.
Rockne had already started the talk ball rolling with a few tossed passes in 1913. And he didnīt stop with the forward pass. Soon, the news of the shift, the speed of his boys he turned out, the size and veight of his men, were the topics on the toungues of the sporting world.
If there was one phase of football which Rockne carried on a continous campaign, it was that part of offensive tactics known as the shift. The Rockne system was based on the shift.
The shift has the élan of the Cossack and the rhythm of the Chester Hale girls. It has augmented the pageantry of the game and has become an integral part of football. Itīs best technical advantage is that it gives the small man, the clever chap, the quick mover and quick thinker a chance to play the game on equal terms with the big bruising fellow.
Rockne defended the shift on another basis, that of giving the small man a chance in football. And he enabled many a small man to have his chance and profit by it. He never did bother much about his players size. Brains were what he wanted first, and fighting spirits thereafter. He contracted to get matrial possessing those talents, and get somewhere with it regardless of size.
All of these things, was part of the forsight of Rockne.The fact that he had no audience to applaud his innovations didnīt slow him up.He kept on eliminating clumsy plays, inserting swift ones, trying to shape up the game into something that demanded more than mere brawn. Rockne didnīt want movement in seesaw fashion. Every movement had to count for something, and no movement could be vasted.
It was Rockne who made brains the first qualification of a good football player. He began to give his mind free play, and reached beyound the gridiron for his ideas. He did not have the single-track mind like so many of his colleagues in the profession. He didnīt want movement in seesaw fashion. Every movement had to count for something, and no movement could be vasted.
The Notre Dame offense, down to Rockneīs final year as coach, was basically the same as this which "just growed" under Harper. More than that, the signal system in vogue in Harperīs time is still used by Notre Dame. Rockne varied it only to fit emergencies. The offensive system that Rockne had devised, and which his illness of 1929 prevented him from putting into operation in itīs entirety was flashed in 1930, and represented perfection.
Thus the four horsemen, who brought speed and rhythm into a Notre Dame backfield, were operating with an offensive that might have looked basically the same as that which was used so effectively by Gipp, by Barry and Mohardt and by Brandy and Wynne. Similary the 1930 team, Rockneīs last, operated with an offensive that was, in Harperīs judgement, "the most popular and beautiful offense in football".
When Rockne spoke to his player working on the shift he would use soft words in speaking to his players. He used words like "Thatīs lovely", "thatīs marvelous", and "thatīs sweet" to his players. And it worked. Somehow when he spoked those words in that low tone of voice the players got the count better. He even had his men singing in beat time to make rhythm more accurate.
Some mention have been made of the addition Rockne made to the system that "just growed" at Notre Dame, the system that was based on the shift. His earlier teams had no particular attack against the weak side of opposing defence. He found these opponents massing their defence against the shift, and the plays that Knute devised himself, or took from others and improved upon, were a natural consequence.
One of these plays was a forward pass from a split buck. The split buck was one of the Notre Dame favorites, and there is testimony to be had that Joe Brandy, quarter back in Gippīs time, was the first to suggest to Rockne that a pass could be worked into the play.
"No, itīs no good", said Rockne. Brandy insisted that it was, and went so far as to demonstrate, but Rockne held out against it. Evidently he took time to study it, privately, for when Harry Stuhldreher, one of the four horsemen appeared at Notre Dame, the play was used by him.
Success af Notre Dame teams contributed largely, no doubt, to the agitation against the shift, and its opponents crystallized their attack around the charge that the shift gave momentum. "Momentum?", Rockne answered, "The crab is the only creatureable to get momentum moving laterally. Our objective is straight ahead,and not the sidelines. We are prepared to come to a full stop after the shift, before putting a play in operation. But we fail to see why we should be required to stand out there long enough to permit an opponent to know what we intend to do. Our idea is that a shifting team should not be required to stage a tableu, so that mentally sluggish opponents can discover their own good time what is impending".
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