People complaining about teams running up the score has to be one of the things that bothers me most about high school sports. It's soft. But I will say, is it worth it to keep in your 1's and risk injury in a blowout? Even if the oppenent keeps their ones in? I'd just say keep my 1's in until the 4th no matter how big you're up and let your back ups play the 4th when there's no chance of coming back for the other team.

 

I could get behind this philosophy, although injury would never play a factor in my decision making.

According to Coach Homer Smith, Bear Bryant said the best coaches start winning the next game after they had that game in hand. I take that to mean, whatever is best for your team is what you do. If a game is in hand, especially mid to late season, I like to protect bodies and get meaningful experience for our depth. I am not a big fan of scoring a bunch of points once a game is in hand. But, what is best for the guys I coach drives my decision making at that point in a game.

 

Coach... out of curiosity and respect for your opinion..what is your feelings on teams who leave their 1's in on your subs and take deep shots, onside kicks, or try running their Offense with tempo to try and make the score more respectable?

Up by 40 and leaving starters in and drop back to pass and OH NO, LOOK OUT. All State QB gets hit and is OUT FOR THE YEAR. GOOD JOB COACH.

 

That can happen at 0-0.

 

Yeah but its 0-0 and anyone can win. At 40-0, its over and you just lost your best player. Thats on you.

Yeah but its 0-0 and anyone can win. At 40-0, its over and you just lost your best player. Thats on you.

 

My best player can blow out his knee during a non-contact drill in practice. Is that on me too?

No, you have to practice and freak accidents happen. What would be the point of keeping starters in that long? In the overall goal of your program what would be the accomplishment? If you're 40 better than someone, do you really need to prove you're 70 better if that's the case? I really have no problem with it either way as long as you're not out there trying to show the other team up, but just don't understand what would be the purpose in the grand scheme. A lot more to lose than their is to gain in those situations.

No, you have to practice and freak accidents happen. What would be the point of keeping starters in that long? In the overall goal of your program what would be the accomplishment? If you're 40 better than someone, do you really need to prove you're 70 better if that's the case? I really have no problem with it either way as long as you're not out there trying to show the other team up, but just don't understand what would be the purpose in the grand scheme. A lot more to lose than their is to gain in those situations.

 

It's not about proving how much better I am than the other team. It's about running my offense, perfecting the scheme, and getting better. Many times one team is better, and everyone on the field knows it before the game starts.

Coach... out of curiosity and respect for your opinion..what is your feelings on teams who leave their 1's in on your subs and take deep shots, onside kicks, or try running their Offense with tempo to try and make the score more respectable?

 

It doesn't bother me. I have been in their shoes many times. I understand that guy is trying to survive and keep his program afloat. He is trying to create positives for his kids. For that reason, we will wait later than most before we sub on defense. A team gets a couple quick scores... things can get crazy. You can't start to sub until you are 100% sure the game is won. If I am 100% sure that we have won, I try not to worry about them scoring as much.... other than I know the defense takes pride in a shut out. We try to protect the shut out, but not at the expense of losing a player for a game down the road. Like the Bear said.... when you have a game won, start working on winning the next one. Getting a starter hurt on a play after the game is won, does not help you win the next game.

 

And.... I did it against Wayne County in the first game this season. I was criticized for not playing more kids after the game was out of hand. My response was...."did you see us play? We need the practice!!" What I did in that scenario was work on things that needed to be worked on, but try to protect bodies as well that were banged up. We had plenty to work on.

^^^Thanks Coach!

 

Very good insight and well said.

My best player can blow out his knee during a non-contact drill in practice. Is that on me too?

 

Your best player is used to win games, after the game is won they aren't needed any more.

 

 

It's kind of like having the middle rotation guy in baseball, once it's out of hand then you send him in and let him do his thing. It's like letting those 9-12 guys on the basketball bench in the game.

 

 

 

I think the Bear Bryant quote is the best philosophy, especially when it comes to high school athletics.

 

It's not about making a point, and to an extent it's not about perfecting whatever you feel you need to work on. It's fine to keep everybody in for as long as you want. It's fine to run whatever you want. But, if someone is consistently putting up running clocks on people, is there really that much that needs to be worked on? And on the flip side, if you're putting that running clock on someone, are they really going to be good enough to give you a good look at anything? If they couldn't give you a game, then they probably can't give you enough of a good look to get a good feel for anything, can they?

 

 

One thing I think that hasn't been mentioned is there are plenty of guys who will use the running clock time to give a guy some touches who maybe didn't have anything yet or hadn't quite gotten there. It doesn't mean anything, but it is at least something for that kid to hang his hat on. I've seen plenty of times when a team gets to 36, and when they get close the coach will try his best to make sure that a certain player gets more shots to get in the EZ. I once saw a guy up by 50+ throw to a kid and score, and the other team got pretty upset but after the game the coach let the other guy know that he was a kid with a pretty rough home life and had bounced around foster care. Took a little bit of the sting out of it.

 

 

 

There are also teams who refuse to take out their starters just to prove how good they are. Nobody gets hurt, and it doesn't cost them anything that year. They put up huge numbers and have a great season. Then, the next year after everyone has graduated, you're trotting out guys who barely saw any sort of real action on a Friday night. And you can talk about "that's what JV games are for" all you want, but the difference between those JV games in the evening with whomever you can get are just a little bit different than that cross-town rival under the lights on Friday. Game speed is just a little bit different. Everything operates on a little bit of a different level at that point. For me, it would have been nice to have had him experience that as often as he could, even if it was mop-up duty last season.

Here is my take on this:

 

I coach my team, you coach your team. I think a coach should take his starters out when he believes it is best for his team and its development. Maybe it is better for that them to take the starters out early and let more kids play. Maybe for that particular team, the starters need more reps against a particular defensive front or coverage that it will see later in the season.

 

It is not my job to keep the score down; it the job of my opponent to do so. It is my job to keep my opponent's score down. It has never bothered me if an opponent left starters in.

 

Having said all of this, a coach must be willing to accept the consequences of leaving in starters too long. If he loses a starter due to injury, it is his issue to deal with.

Duece, if you get the opportunity to coach, I would suggest that you find the most struggling team you can to bring your coaching talents to. It's not until you're on the receiving end of blowouts with a team that just doesn't have the Jim's and Joe's that you truly find out how you would treat other teams if you were on the giving end. You find out how classy some coaches are when they find ways to keep the score down. And then, you run into coaches just as you described you would be.

 

I've been fortunate enough in my life to play for a very established program and to be part of a coaching staff at a school in their 2nd year of football. We didn't win a game and scored our first point in game 8. I learned more about coaching from my 3 years at the program than I did everywhere else. It was painful, no doubt, but well worth it.

 

Oh, and the programs that are struggling are always looking for good coaches.

 

I'm confident that your stance might soften after being on the receiving end.

Duece, if you get the opportunity to coach, I would suggest that you find the most struggling team you can to bring your coaching talents to. It's not until you're on the receiving end of blowouts with a team that just doesn't have the Jim's and Joe's that you truly find out how you would treat other teams if you were on the giving end. You find out how classy some coaches are when they find ways to keep the score down. And then, you run into coaches just as you described you would be.

 

I've been fortunate enough in my life to play for a very established program and to be part of a coaching staff at a school in their 2nd year of football. We didn't win a game and scored our first point in game 8. I learned more about coaching from my 3 years at the program than I did everywhere else. It was painful, no doubt, but well worth it.

 

Oh, and the programs that are struggling are always looking for good coaches.

 

I'm confident that your stance might soften after being on the receiving end.

 

You clearly didn't read the OP, because as a player I was on the receiving end of blowouts way more often than I was on the giving end. My team didn't have the Jimmy's and Joe's. We worked hard every day in practice, and still got blown out by teams who were simply better. That's sports. We didn't cry about it, we worked to get better and finally in our senior year we were able to have a much better season than the previous three.

 

As @bruin66 said just above your post, it's not MY job to keep MY score down. That's YOUR job. I'm not pulling my starters just to keep the kids on the other team from getting their feelings hurt. It's the responsibility of the opposing coach to put his kids in a position to win. If my team simply has better players, well, that's life. There is always going to be someone better than you, and you have to deal with that on occasion. When whatever my objective for that particular game is gets accomplished, then I'll start thinking about pulling people out.

Duece, if you get the opportunity to coach, I would suggest that you find the most struggling team you can to bring your coaching talents to. It's not until you're on the receiving end of blowouts with a team that just doesn't have the Jim's and Joe's that you truly find out how you would treat other teams if you were on the giving end. You find out how classy some coaches are when they find ways to keep the score down. And then, you run into coaches just as you described you would be.

 

I've been fortunate enough in my life to play for a very established program and to be part of a coaching staff at a school in their 2nd year of football. We didn't win a game and scored our first point in game 8. I learned more about coaching from my 3 years at the program than I did everywhere else. It was painful, no doubt, but well worth it.

 

Oh, and the programs that are struggling are always looking for good coaches.

 

I'm confident that your stance might soften after being on the receiving end.

I have coached for teams that went 1-9 and have coached for teams that have won state championships. (By the way, the team that went 1-9 in the regular season beat an undefeated #1 seed in the first round of the playoffs that year.) I have played for a team that went 3-7 (my junior year) and have played for a team that went 13-1 (my senior year). Having said that, I think I have a unique perspective of this post. I have been in on both ends of the debate. It took many years of perspective to get to the opinion in my above post. In my younger years, I would have been fuming about a team "running up a score." But after careful reflection, and after realizing that my teams, both players and coaches, are responsible for our fate and games, I came upon my stance about the fact that any energy spent by me or my team on what another coaching staff does or does not do with their team is futile. My energy is better spent on my team and making it better rather than making excuses or complaining about what another team does when they have a substantial lead. I would rather focus on what I could do to help my team not let our opponent build a substantial lead.