T-Secrets

One day seven years ago, the University of Notre Dame campus experienced the nearest thing to an earthquake it had known in 107 years of history. By order of suave, iron-willed Football Coach Frank Leahy, the revered Notre Dame shift, perfected by the great Knute Rockne and immortalized by such Notre Dame heroes as Christy Flanagan and the Four Horsemen, was unceremoniously junked. To replace it, Leahy wheeled in the T-formation.

In the mutinous uproar at South Bend, buildings seemed to tremble--but none crumbled. All that happened was that Notre Dame, operating from Leahy's new T, became more devastating than ever. In 49 games, against the most rugged opponents that could be found, Leahy's T-men rolled up an awesome record of 42 victories, 4 ties, only 3 defeats. Last week, Coach Leahy bared a few of his T-secrets and coaching tricks in his new book Notre Dame Football--The T-Formation (Prentice-Hall; $3).

Up Two & Opposite. To the layman, the wonder of modern T-football is that anybody but a mathematical quiz-kid can comprehend it, much less play it. At Notre Dame, even the basic quick-opener, known as "43" or "the bread & butter play" (see chart), has a maze of variations. When the Notre Dame quarterback has called the play number ("43" signifies that the "No. 4" back is to ram through the "No. 3" hole) and the team has swung out of the huddle, Leahy's tackles have about two seconds to size up the position of the defensive team.

Then both tackles call signals for blocking assignments on the play. It sounds confusing, but to good T-men it isn't; on a play to the right side of the line, the players listen only to the right tackle, and let the left tackle chatter his deception signals unheeded. If the right tackle sees the "3 hole" is clogged, he may cry "Up two," and play "43" becomes "45." If the defense shifts heavily to the "play" side, he may shout "Cancel," whereupon the quarterback calls "Opposite," and the play hammers at the other side of the line. Obviously, Notre Dame tackles need to be quick-witted as well as big.

Leahy switched to the T mainly because of its flexibility, then made his version the most flexible in existence. The trick is to hit from one formation -- with quick-openers, mousetraps, fullback laterals, passes -- catching the enemy where he is weakest at the instant the play begins.

Mirrors & Backboards. To be able to master the T, says Leahy, his boys must first kindle a "burning desire" to learn. One of his psychological stunts consists of having a player look into a mirror and ask himself "if he is giving 100% for his teammates and his school." Since deception is the crux of the T, faking is pounded into Notre Dame backs along with the other fundamentals. In practicing fakes, Leahy's quarterbacks must almost deceive themselves -- they have to stare at the man they are faking to so intently that, afterwards, they can tell Coach Leahy how many fingers the other fellow had extended.

As in all Ts, Leahy's quarterback is the man about whom the play revolves. Leahy finds that new quarterbacks learn five times as quickly on a basketball court indoors. By wearing sneakers indoors, they have more traction and develop more self-confidence in their ability to spin and cut. At Notre Dame, the gym is also used for pass-catching drills, with passers bouncing footballs off the backboards; it makes Leahy's players more adept at grabbing deflected passes during a game.

Few fundamentals of the game escape attention in the 244 pages of Leahy's book. Virtually the only omissions are description of his new huddle (the players facing the line of scrimmage) and his new T with two quarterbacks squatting behind the center. Rival coaches will learn more about these new wrinkles before the 1949 season is over.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.