Schools of thought on blowouts?

After watching several games late this season with my beloved Cougs and seeing players stay in the game for seemingly too long or seeing 2nd & 3rd stringers come in and have the playbook effectively closed brings me to this question:



What do all my CC friends think about blowouts as to when you pull your players or when you keep playing full speed ahead?



I coach soccer and have been on both sides of blowouts (usually the winning side for the record ;-) but either way it is uncomfortable as a coach to tell your players to 'play nice' and not run up the score. Ultimately I tell them to use the game as practice to improve certain skills in a game situation that they may not ordinarily get in a tight game (ie. score on headers only or shoot only with their weak foot or no unassisted goals) Generally speaking though, I don't buy the 'let's not score' notion that some do. I like being able to cheer for the first goal and the 9th or 10th goal. And when I'm on the losing end I coach my boys to play harder and not give the other team the chance to cheer that many goals but if they do, so be it. It's our bad.



So where do ya'll stand on this issue as it pertains to BYU sports or whereever else in your life?



Go Cougs!!!

J. Child

Ammon, ID

Put in the reserves and let them play their hearts out. Third or 4th string if necessary, but let them play. It will help you next year and beyond due to player development.



Blowouts suck. Players lose opportunities to break records due to being pulled early. But let the kids use it to learn and grow.



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Cougarbib2 wrote:
Put in the reserves and let them play their hearts out. Third or 4th string if necessary, but let them play. It will help you next year and beyond due to player development.



Blowouts suck. Players lose opportunities to break records due to being pulled early. But let the kids use it to learn and grow.



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I like this idea. Let Lark Throw when he is in there, run the offense. If their defense can't stop you, if you are Bronco, tell the opposing coach that you were trying to get live reps for your backups. I think that Bronco held his starters in for too long in all our blow outs. He usually put up 1 more score then I would have before emptying the bench on offense.

I don't think a team needs to stop playing, but being overly aggressive is bad too.



Does the starting QB need to be in the game throwing 60 yard touchdown bombs when they're up by 4 touchdowns? No. But should the 2nd or 3rd string QB be able to come in and play the entire offense? Yes.



I think a lot of time the team winning a blow out eases up not necessarily due to sportsmanship, but to keep their own guys safe. A defender getting blown out is going to take that late hit penalty to put that QB on his rear.

If you're up 25 in the middle of the third, bring in your backups and let them run the whole offense. Late in the fourth, you can just limit it to your running plays, but the backups shouldn't just come in to hand the ball off to run behind the center.



The defense should run the whole defense as well. Not taking full advantage of live, game reps is an error many coaches make for their backups - in a gesture of "sportsmanship."

hawkwing wrote:
Does the starting QB need to be in the game throwing 60 yard touchdown bombs when they're up by 4 touchdowns? No. But should the 2nd or 3rd string QB be able to come in and play the entire offense? Yes.

I liked seeing Charlie Peterson do that against SDSU in 2001. :D

What does it matter. if they are "executing" in practice they don't have to go full out in games to develop. ;-)

The concept of taking your foot off the pedal probably has some positives for kids from high school on down but I think It becomes problematic for college and pro level institutions. I am not talking about crazy go for broke plays that are simply designed to run up the score but simply playing the game as it was meant to be played. To have one team let up and not play 100% because they are ahead can lead to injury. I would prefer second and third team players get time running an offense at 100%. It is more fair to the players and to the paying fans. As long as athletes are competing there is a reason to stay and watch. If they are not competing they are devaluing their product and overcharging clients. If opposing coaches don't like the idea then maybe they should institute the towel rule so that when a team is physically and mentally burried they can have the option to call the game. I also think it is just poor judgement to allow players to ever walk on a field and not give 100%. Of course none of this should be taken as an excuse for poor sportsmanship. A winning team always has the greatest responsibility to be classy.