It is true of football as it is of war that the commander of the defense must disseminate his forces. The attack may always work along the safe interior lines, concentrating the "destructive elements" on one point after another, while the defense must see that all points are equally well guarded. Generally speaking, however, it may be said that the morale of the defense is stronger in the East than in the West, while the Westerners get more encouragement out of a few successful attacks than do the Easterners. Again consulting Major Wagner, we find that that authority divides the attack in warfare into three distinct phases, as follows:

"1. The preparation, which consists of the reconnaissance of the terrain and the hostile position, and the use of artillery and long range infantry fire to shake the enemy and prepare the way for the assault.

"2. The assault proper, which begins with the arrival of the infantry at effective ranges, and ends with the final charge on the enemy's position.

"3. The completion, which includes the occupation of the position by a formed body of troops...and the re-formation of the victorious troops disordered by the assault. In case the assault fails, the third phase consists of the withdrawal of the attacking troops."

These three divisions apply forcibly to football, and may be translated from the art of war to the art of football, about as follows:

1. The preparation, which consists of the use of the long-range kicking game; a study of the formation and range of the defense presented by the enemy; just enough of the running game when fairly close to the center of the field to test the defensive qualities of the enemy's personnel; when past the center of the field a sparing use of the simple forward pass to induce the defense to spread, and a general shaking up of the enemy by hard tackling down the field, thus unnerving as much as possible the men in the defense who are handling kicks; and every possible effort to block the adversary's kicks so that his punter will be hurried as much as possible. Every effort short of a display of the strength of the running game should be made, to disorganize and exhaust the enemy.

2. The assault proper, which begins with the arrival of the football infantry - the line, fresh and strong; and the backs, who have done little or no running to speak of - at an effective range; which means in the neighborhood of thirty yards from the enemy's goal line; or, the running attack failing, a last resort to fire action in the nature of a forward pass over the goal line, or a field goal from drop or placement.

3. The resumption, which means the keying up of the defense to the sharpest kind of work the moment play is resumed, so that the ball may be regained, and the policy of attack continued as in the first instance. It is sometimes wise at this point, especially if the scoring has been accomplished early in the period, to remove from the game the men who have borne the brunt of the assault so that they. may be rested and sent back into the affray at the moment when the team shall have again found itself in promising position for the delivery of another decisive assault.

It should be added that in football the "reconnaissance of the enemy's position" consists to some extent in putting the burden of proof on him, by kicking the ball to him as much as possible, learning in this way what he intends doing with it and what he is capable of doing with it.

Under the caption "Long-range Fire," Major Wagner writes: "The time of beginning the firing will depend Upon many circumstances of terrain, supply of ammunition, morale of the troops, and the target offered by the enemy." He warns against the exhaustion of ammunition before reaching the effective ranges.

In football the ammunition consists of the most effective plays at the team's command, and these must not be wasted until the eleven is within effective range of the enemy's goal. Granted that the opposing eleven is a strong one, well coached on the defense, it will rapidly diagnose plays that are shown at too early a stage, and thus be enabled to stop them without gain, and often for a loss, when used at what would otherwise have been an effective range. Many a team has come to grief, or has at least lost a golden opportunity for victory, through premature use, in its own territory of the sort of ammunition known as "scoring plays," so called because they are in the nature of novelties, and depend alike upon deception and cold and accurate execution for success.

Concrete examples may be found by the dozens. Harvard against Princeton in 1911, and Dartmouth against the Tigers in 1912 are outstanding illustrations. The Crimson sprung a beautiful fake forward pass play at longe range that gained twelve yards the first time shown, and would have been invaluable when the Cambridge eleven later found itself within reasonable striking distance. The Hanover eleven used a play of much the same type when deep in its own territory, for a gain around a Princeton wing of twenty-five yards. In each case kicking on first down or the use of a simple running play would have better served the purpose. As it was, the plays were used where they were unprofitable, and were valueless on the second attempt, since they had been diagnosed.

In the matter of long-range fire the war and the football programmes are farther apart, for in the girdiron game a safe rule is to begin it at once, when the wind is at the kicker's back; and there is no terrain to be considered. A fumbling enemy is the best of targets, and in such circumstances a pair of ends fast down the field can do heavy execution. It is perhaps needless to state that the kicking should be greatly varied as to direction, and if there is evidence that the enemy is able to run the ball back for good gains, the punts should be Bent sailing out of bounds as far down the field as possible. This phase of the game is discussed at length in another chapter, wherein the entire kicking game is considered. For the moment, however, it is sufficient to state that this "long-range fire" is one of the deadliest features of football, as it is of warfare.