Football, as it is understood especially by captain and coach rather than by the spectator, begins much earlier than the uninitiated might imagine. It is hardly too much to say that so far as the two representatives of the system are concerned another season's work begins immediately after the conclusion of the final game. Mistakes have been made in that game, or perhaps theories that have been hitherto nothing but theories, have proved sound and of sufficient value to add permanently to the football stock of the institution in question. Most of the players are apt to forget football after a few days and turn their attention to some winter sport. Not so the captain and coach, who, if they hope to be successful another year, begin at once the building process.

On the night of the big game there is unexampled opportunity for the head coach to obtain the opinions of graduate coaches, who, of course, have been out in force, and if the game has resulted in disaster there is some pretty plain speaking at the dinner to the team that immediately follows the final game.

Throughout the season there has been as a rule some conflict of opinion among graduates as to the expediency of certain styles of play, for much of football is fairly debatable nowadays, and the last night of the campaign is the best possible time for attack and support of these opinions with the achievements and blunders of the big game fresh in mind. There is leas restraint in the course of the discussion than there would be were it left to a later date, and the men who have been in the game and borne the heat of the combat and perhaps the burden of defeat are in proper mood to learn the lessons of the afternoon's struggle.

If there is anything radically wrong with the system it should be brought out at once, for there will be more and better critics on hand than it will be possible to gather together before another fall. Most of the radical changes in system, indeed, have been in their incipiency right after the big game, and the subsequent proceedings are largely deliberative. Such has been the case notably at Yale and Harvard, where a horde of old-timers is to be found available at the conclusion of the game, and outspoken old-timers, at that. It will be possible under such circumstances to crystallize opinion to some extent and make the path of coach and captain alikeeasier before the winter breaks up and there is any chance for spring practice. It is not my purpose here to deal with the ethics of spring practice or preliminary practice in the fall. It is enough to say that both are in common use and are not without their results.

As soon as a captain is elected he at once takes stock of the material left over from the team for another season, and receives the fullest report possible from the man who has been handling the Freshmen eleven, since only the Freshmen and the second eleven can act as "feeders" as a rule to the 'varsity squad nowadays. It is a wise captain who looks up the scholarship of the men who are to be available another year, who has a quiet little talk with the laggards, and who, in exceptionally troublesome cases, calls in a graduate to help him impress upon the possible delinquent the value of a high standard in studies. An appeal to the loyalty of the player is often not without results, and it is here that the captain begins to make his influence felt. He is captain off the field as well as on, on the campus and in the class room, and if he is to be a, successful one, he must keep steadily at football out of season as well as in.

The head, or resident coach, busies himself with a review of the season, and files away for reference his observations and those of his assistants and scouts, that the "system" may go on without a hitch and may profit not only in the following season but in many thereafter by the experiences of the campaign just closed. Subsequent proceedings present no serious obstacles if the season has been fairly successful and the head coach has been confirmed in his methods. Simpler still is the course to be followed should the general undergraduate and graduate football spirit be high. Happy the coach who is working with what Dr. A. L. Sharpe, of Yale, calls an established "football family." In an institution ideally adapted to the successful pursuit of football a fair knowledge of technique is spread pretty well through the university, and intelligent undergraduate criticism is an exceedingly effective weapon. Unintelligent undergraduate and graduate criticism, on the other hand, is an unmitigated nuisance and should be treated as such.

The clever head coach will make every effort to keep the university from getting out of touch with the team. To this end he should be seen frequently on the campus and wherever the undergraduates congregate, making of himself a link between the team and its supporters. He should never hesitate to act as volunteer spokesman for the team, and should be as frank and open as possible in telling of its progress. In getting ready for the season he should take care that through the university publications and through other means there will be a thorough understanding of just what the prospects are before the season opens and just what, in a large way, are the problems that coach, captain and team must solve. It is a mistake, I think, to belittle good material to the team's supporters, and an equally great mistake to raise any false hopes. The head coach must have the support of the university behind the eleven, yes and behind the second eleven as well.

It is a good sign when a large crowd turns out for the early practice, broken up into small groups shouting for individual favorites. This close following of the early work should be kept up and encouraged, and for this reason he is a wise coach who puts not his faith in over-much secret practice. Even the most loyal of non-combatants find considerable difficulty in working up anything but machine-made enthusiasm on the day of the big game over men whom they do not know by sight. It is in ways like these that a "football family" is built up.