This is a great thread and brings up another point of discussion. In many blowout games, it seems the losing team continues to keep their starters in while their spectators and parents call for the JV to get in. It seems like a game of cat and mouse is being played between both coaches. Each team sets out to win but are there any unwritten rules as to when or who pulls their starter first

This is a great thread and brings up another point of discussion. In many blowout games, it seems the losing team continues to keep their starters in while their spectators and parents call for the JV to get in. It seems like a game of cat and mouse is being played between both coaches. Each team sets out to win but are there any unwritten rules as to when or who pulls their starter first

 

The answer is that it all depends on the coach, the number of players you have on the sideline and ask yourself: "which is worth more...playing my starters and treat it as a scrimmage at the point to get more experience (and risk injuries) or play my JV guys?" In most cases, if your varsity is getting blasted by the opponents Varsity and JV squads...honestly, what good is it going to do to put the JV guys in if nothing else to get them experience. When I was at Iroquois, we kept our starters in for the simple fact that we only had about 30 players on the team, and the ones on the sidelines were mostly freshmen. The coaches decided it wasnt fair to them to get manhandled. We did change some personnel on offense a bit and moved guys around to different positions, but didnt bring in our own Freshman squad (we didnt even have a JV unit). Is there an unwritten rule?? Only if you are winning. Unless your starting QB is getting drilled all game long, then yeah, you probably want to pull him and maybe the starting RB if he is getting lit up like a pinball game. But other than that , if I had the numbers and was getting rocked like that, I wouldnt replace the whole unit. I leave my starters in and hope that they will have some success against the JV squad of the opponent, since those stats go in the books. If not...then he gets pulled and let the JV/Fresh player have some reps. But that is me. Im sure others have their own formulas for "What To Do If Im Getting Spanked 91-0"