When receiving the direct pass from the center the runner will either take the ball before starting, or in mid-career, the latter apt to be dangerous. When using these direct passes the runner must be sure above all things of getting the ball, for the natural tendency is to take chances or to overrun the spot at which the leather is to be taken on the fly.

Granting that the start is clean and the ball well in hand, the runner must bear in mind the necessity of keeping low - in the case of a dash outside of tackle or end, sticking to his interference as long as possible and cutting loose when it is of no more service. Incidentally, should an interferer prove reluctant to leave his feet to smother an approaching tackier, the runner should drive his man into the enemy, shoving him sharply with his free hand. In the course of a wide dash the runner may well lengthen his stride and pick up bis feet sharply so that he is "all knees in front and all heels behind." If at the same time he uses the straight arm and keeps his body low he will be about as pleasant to tackle as a forty horse-power hatrack.

Once fairly free and into a broken secondary defense the back may find it advantageous to change his direction and to change his pace. This last is as effective as it is rare, and is done by alternately shortening and lengthening the stride, the back taking care, however, that he is always at top speed when he passes or meets a tackier. The quick change of direction, notably in turning into openings, is largely born in a man, but the beginner should remember that the best plan is to make the turn as nearly at right angles with his original course as possible.

Both the change of pace and the turn are effective against a defensive player who is under good headway, but hardly as satisfactory against a tackier who has reached a point of vantage from which he can turn right or left sharply without any danger of overrunning the man with the ball. Once past the line of scrimmage the runner is master of his own movements and the best judge of ultimate direction, so that he may then turn in or out as prospects seem to warrant, shifting the ball from one arm to the other according to his needs.

The natural fearlessness of a good back ought to increase when he finds himself clear of the press and dealing with individuals of the defense in the open. The advantage is all his. If the tackier is coming up at full speed he is easy to avoid, and if he is preparing for his lunge after a sudden slow-down, he cannot go into the runner as hard, unless he is very big and powerful, as the runner can go into him. Now the big, heavy back, who is not particularly evasive in a broken field, and therefore practically compelled to meet his tackier, can often make the best use of his natural gifts by keeping his power and drive well under him, as Wendell, of Harvard, used to do, by taking short steps, and making certain of meeting the defensive player face to face, driving his shoulders into the tackier as they come together. In this way he will break many a hold, and the short steps will enable him to keep his feet handily while shaking free. Such a man will often stand up for five yards or more after two men strike him.

I have in mind at the moment the methods of three great backs, the Harvard captain of 1912, Coy, of Yale, and Tib-bot, of Princeton. Tibbot I have always considered one of the greatest end and tackle runners the game has ever seen. This Tiger star had a neat trick of practically "spilling" off the back of his own tackle and veering sharply out and into the open, where his change of pace, speed, use 8 of the straight arm, and faculty of drawing away the hips while his feet continued in their original course, made him an extremely difficult man to reach. Wendell was a master of the art of "bulling" through a tackier with his powerful shoulders, his short, almost mincing, steps hoarding up the final drive for the exact instant when the demand came for the ultimate ounce of power. Coy, on the other hand, had a high knee action, and although going into his man, ran higher, by far, than Wendell, and was "all corners" when he struck. The methods must be adapted to the natural gifts of the back, and so far as is possible, the back should be encouraged in the development of his own natural system, to be capped with such fine points as may be gained from experienced coaching. The one thing to avoid is an attempt to make all the backs follow a single system, to which one or more will be unsuited by nature.

When going into the line the back should have his feet well enough under him so that, should his opening be a clean one, he can shoot through to the secondary defense without stumbling forward and perhaps falling through sheer excess momentum, and when he finds unexpected opposition, such as a sudden choking up of the opening, it is all the more necessary that his steps be short and his legs moving like piston rods. In every compact mass that has for its core the man with the ball there will be a perceptible weakening one way or another, and for this the runner should feel, until such time as it becomes second nature to him. The instant he "senses" a giving way he should summon all his power in that direction, for if he is so thoroughly packed in that he cannot easily be tackled there remains a fair chance for him to break clear of the press, or at least to keep his feet for many an extra yard, working always in the direction of least resistance. This feeling of lessening resistance in one direction or another is difficult indeed to define. In some men it is practically instinctive, while others are obliged to acquire it through constant practice until it becomes a football habit.

Now in shooting through an opening only constant practice will enable a man to tell the exact instant when it is wise to cut in, and even after this is acquired, he will have to learn to take in in the single flash of an eye not only the opening itself, but the situation of the defensive players behind this opening so that before he is through he has mentally mapped his future movements. The good back is always thinking a shade in advance of the thing he is doing, if such flashes can really be called thinking.