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Never so famed as the late Knute Rockne, or Stanford's Glenn ("Pop") Warner, whose teams have lost to Southern California since 1927, Southern California's coach had an impressive record before he started to teach football west of the Rockies. Eleven years ago his Iowa team beat Notre Dame when the latter had won 22 games in a row. In 1921, Iowa won the Big Ten championship for the first time since 1900. When he went back to coach at Yale, whence he was graduated in 1908, Coach Howard Jones turned out the 1909 team that won all its ten games without being scored on and contained six Ail-Americans. At Yale, Howard Jones's celebrity was later dimmed by that of his brother "Tad" (Thomas Albert Dwight) Jones, Ail-American quarterback of the Yale team on which Howard played end. Tad coached Yale football teams after Howard went West, from 1920 to 1927. Not until he had built Southern California up to its present status was Coach Howard Harding Jones recognized as a thoroughly high-grade football wizard. Even then his éclat was not heightened by a "Jones System," like the Rockne and Warner systems. An adapter rather than an innovator, he uses both the Rockne shift and the Warner wingback formations for an offense that combines Stanford's deception with Notre Dame's precision and speed. Versatile and open-minded, Jones transforms his methods to suit his purpose, as he did in 1927 when he changed his defense by bringing his ends in close to upset slow-forming plays behind the Stanford line. In a patchwork of other football systems that have proven effective, he uses the huddle to muddle and makes flexibility, the art of the unexpected, his only inflexible rule. U. S. C. is the only major team in the U. S. that has no line coach. This is because Coach Jones makes the line his specialty and usually forms it of men who have previously played in the backfield. Jones's halfbacks rarely carry the ball; they are for interference. His fullback usually lines up just in front of the quarterback, who does most of the ball carrying, must be able to pass. run. kick. Jones's deception is less a matter of complicated ball-handling, in spinners and reverse plays, than in varying formations. The Jones shift is used purely for disguising formations instead of for gaining momentum. The shift most frequently leads into an unbalanced line with both guards playing on the right of the center, the inside one for running. Three favorite Jones formations: ETCGGTE ETCGGTE THCGGTE
H H H H E H
F F F
Q Q Q
Opponents consider U. S. C. plays on the right side of an unbalanced line most dangerous. Plays on the weak side of the line are likely to be spins or reverses, an occasional quick plunge by the fullback.
On the Pacific Coast, where non-scouting agreements are not fashionable, Jones has an elaborate technique of espionage. Aubrey Devine, onetime Iowa All-American, has been scouting Notre Dame all this year. Stanford's Pop Warner said that U. S. C.'s Stanford spy, Cliff Herd, knew more about Stanford's plays than the team. Gordon Campbell scouted California this year. Scouting is part of the duty of U. S. C. assistant coaches who get about $2,500 a season.