Freshmen Stud splitting time between Freshmen and Varsity?

Maybe it's not an Interscholastic rule and it's just common sense, but here if you're a freshmen and play 1 play of varsity then you are ineligible to play freshmen football. Here in RI there is a freshmen league with playoffs so that could be why RI has that rule.

Our staff will not play a freshmen on varsity unless he is hands down the best at his position and would be a unanimous starter with no debate. No need to rush a 14-15 year old kid and throw him in against 17-18's. In your case, if he ends up being your full time starter then there's no need to play freshmen ball even if he's allowed to.

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Last year we had a frosh kid who played some defense for varsity. He was one of our best players. We however wanted the freshmen to win. He played the entire freshman game then would also get a few plays as a varsity contributor. This year hes a varsity captain and plays no JV at all. It was well worth it to give him the varsity time.

I am at a very small private school now (300 kids, where I am used to schools that are 2000). Before this year I've never even had a frosh play Varsity ball, but I've come to see at smaller schools sometimes you do these things, so initially I would ask what your size is?

Now of these underclassmen who play varsity, no varsity starter plays JV. Some players will see significant varsity snaps (over 20) and then play all day jv- but once again its a matter of numbers. If we didnt do this we'd be left with maybe 14 jv players for some games, and have some positions empty.

If its a numbers game I think its okay to let a player who gets moderate varsity snaps play at a lower level, otherwise Id say NO

There are too many variables such as school size and state rules, for us to answer this specifically. For example, I don't know what you mean by "burn his freshman eligibility". 

In our state, players are allowed 40 quarters of HS football a season and 1 play=1 quarter. The only other restriction is that you can't play two games in one day. In the situation that you've described and under our state's rules here's how I think we'd handle it. If he's good enough to start on the varsity, he starts on the varsity. If there are quarters available we'd play him at QB in freshman games. 

What I mean by burning freshmen eligibility is if we commit to him playing varsity, then he can't go back down to the Freshmen team and play. As soon as he steps on the filed for a Varsity game, his freshmen season is over. 

There's no doubt he's the best safety we have in all levels of our HS program. I don't know what's more important: giving him reps at Q on the freshmen level or throwing him into the fire and playing safety at the varsity level.

And will it hurt our freshmen program because kids will see us treating one player "special". 

Note: The kid is a good kid, not like playing varsity will get to his head. 

My experience...13-14 or whatever is now...is if that kid is playing and practicing on varsity as freshman he is better than whoever is front of him unless you have talent found in some parts of ga and south fla and other inner city areas.

Does your need for him to play S overshadow your want for him to develop as a starting QB? That's what this boils down to. If you want him to be the QB next year and take all the snaps as a Freshman player then do that. If you think he can make up the experience lost quickly enough and the drop off from the current S to himself is that severe then do that. Not really something I think we can answer.

Move him up. Have him run your scout team and then he can practice his QB skills while contributing as a safety.

When I was in HS, this happened to a guy in my grade. He was about even (at 14) with the senior QB, but they needed help defensively, so they pulled him up the last few games of the season. It hurt our team and didn't really help the varsity in the short term, but it let him get his jitters out early. Then, next fall, he got to move to QB and did really well. He was always very calm from his long experience on Varsity.

As a player, I was part of a struggling football program as a freshman and sophomore (5 wins in 4 years with 3 of those against a team that was winless for 3 straight years).

Anyways, if the player is better than another varsity player he should start. My sophomore year I got pulled up mainly due to the fact that there were only 13 or so juniors and seniors (school size was around 300 students). During the entire pre-season all the 12 sophomores practiced with varsity. A day before the scrimmage 6 of us were told we were playing with varsity and the other 6 were sent to the 14 freshman to make a JV of 20.

We went on to struggle that season and many of us sophomores would have been 2 way guys on JV, but only 1 of us was a 2 way player at the varsity level. Regardless, I know it made all of us better going against older varsity players each day of practice and on friday nights. For the last game of the season 1 other sophomore and 2 more freshmen (including the future 3 year starter at QB) joined us and we played a great 1st half down only 18 to 21 against a play-off bound opponent.

Not sure how much of this was really planned as opposed to done out of necessity, but the season and especially the last game was a great spring board to a turn around 7-4 playoff season, 7-3 senior season and 10 more consecutive playoff appearances for the program. The thing that has stuck with me, is that if a freshman or sophomore is good enough to start on at least one side of the ball he should play up in about 99% of situations.

Does that 14 total games include playoffs?

I'm involved in a situation like that right now. Our freshman are monsters. I'm talking potentially five D1 players and 7 other D2, D3 players. They're not playing varsity for a number of reasons.

1. Let them all win together. Right now they're 5-0. We had a great class that just graduated and they were split up. Varsity had a losing record and freshman team was barely above .500.

2. Study hall and weight room. They spend more time in study hall and lifting than they do on the practice field.

3. Varsity is not good. Can't contend for playoffs even if they played.

I want those rules.