[2][3] The Dartmouth wrote that "Lillard, though an exceedingly light man for college football, was enabled to hold an end position on several of the strongest teams ever representing the Green.

[7] His appointment was praised by the Andover faculty which blamed the professional coaches for "illegal recruiting, and the commercialism which had crept into college athletics, particularly football.

[8] In December 1908, the Dartmouth athletic council selected the football staff which consisted of four graduates: W. J. Randall (1896), Leigh Turner (1901), and Joseph T. Gilman (1905), and Lillard, who was chosen as the head coach.

[6] Lillard took a leave of absence from Andover to attend graduate school at Oxford University in England[7] and then to coach at Dartmouth during the 1909 football season.

"[12] Lillard went on to praise the widespread participation in sports at English universities, and said virtually all of their students competed in rugby, soccer, lacrosse, or rowing.

Lillard contrasted this situation with the one at American universities, where, he noted, "about 100 picked men play ... surrounded by a large body of 2,000 rooters.