SEPTEMBER 26, 196S THE MICHIGAN DAILY SMU To Spring 'I' Formation on Wolverines ' By GARY WINER All of the football talk about "I's" and "T's" with wings is enough to get someone to apply to Michigan State next semester,1 where they only need be concerned with agriculture instead of the alphabet.- It seems as though every fallI some new set of terminology isJ formed, but one might wonder9 whatever happened to the good old "straight-T" formation? What's that one might ask? Well . . . it's something that isn't used any-j more; or at least not by anyone, of consequence. This day and age; calls for splendor and confusion. Actually, very little has changed in the playing of football accord- ing to Michigan's freshman foot- ball Coach Dennis Fitzgerald. "You probably could pick up a 1912 Pop Warner book on football and find in there just about used today." every playl Finer Points This bit of advice, although in- teresting, doesn't initiate the nov- ice to the finer points of the for- mations previously mentioned. Anyone attending this Saturday's football contest will see Southern Methodist employing an "I" of- fense, while Michigan will go with its usual "wing-T." When Bump Elliott became mentor of the Wolverines, he in- stituted the "wing-T" offense. Its modern origins can be traced, how- ever, to Forest Evashevski, now athletic director at Iowa. The offense lines up just as though it were using a "straight- T," with one exception. Either the left halfback or the right half- back, will line up closer to the line of scrimmage and as a split halfback (wingman). The wing- back can station himself either to the inside or outside of the end. Meanwhile, the other halfback usually splits slightly to the left. Advantages As the quarterback is calling signals, the wingman, generally speaking, will go in motion. As the ball is snapped the wingback should be just about behind the Musial Voted Cardinal VP ST. LOUIS (P) - Stan Musial, who will play his last major league basceball game Sunday, was voted a vice-president of the St. Louis Cardinals yesterday. August A. Busch Jr., Cardinal president, said the board of direc- tors'- decision would enable The Man to attend a club organiza- tional meeting at Busch Stadium today. Musial was with the Cardinals in Chicago yesterday for their final game of the season with the Cubs. Chicago fans were giving a "Stan Musial Day" for his last Windy City appearance as a player. , fullback and in this situation sev- eral plays can progress. The defense must guard against a handoff to the man in motion who then either will run around the left end or cut into the line. Another possibility is that the quarterback can fake such a hand- off and either give to his other halfback or fullback. Or the sig- nal caller can fake to all three and drop back for a pass or run a roll-out option pass play to the right. Thus, the whole secret is the variety of plays that can be run from this simple procedure. On occasion, the wingback will not go into motion at all. Thus he can either run out for a pass or more often act as a blocker against the defensive end, enabling a Michi- gan mane to sweep the end for a long gain. The defensive units has to play loose in order to protect against the pass or run. Tricky Maneuver One of the trickiest maneuvers used by Michigan is the double reverse. In this sequence, the wingback retnains still while the quarterback calls signals. The handoff is to the left halfback, who begins to run right as though he will sweep the end. As he is doing this, the wingback begins running left, takes the reverse handoff from his teammate, cuts through the line, and is off for an- other Wolverine score. Southern California popularized the "I" last year, although Notre Dame tried the same offense sev- eral years ago for a couple of sea- sons. Coach Hayden Fry of South- ern Methodist decided to go with this offense this year. The "I" is a little more compli- cated than the "wing-T," hence it has more combinations for plays. In the "I," generally speaking, the quarterback, the fullback, and one of the halfbacks will line up di- rectly back of the center. The oth- er halfback is lined up either as a wingback or a flanker back. Now, as the quarterback calls signals one or both of the other two men in the "I" moves to a flanker po- sition. Honest Defense Sound confusing? Well, that's just exactly what it's supposed to do. Lester Jordan, Mustang's ath- letic publicity director, had this to say. "From the I' they can go to anything in the world. They try to do anything at all which will annoy the defensive team." Fitzgerald remarked that the "I" allows a team to line up at a moment's notice into any number of different formations, and this I r {5{"yr;d ,.ye} ?1s .{,:r, 'r }3r~yYv de" o 'd +r-. .;3 .;': r: d'" shY.A ": 'r: Yr, t ! .;"?r::}d ;:;j i LADY LEVI'S SLIM FITS Black and "White" ....... $4.49 Men's Jackets.. .. $5.49 and $5.98 $89.95 CQO sn I I A)h I r nn lgqm-BL