When to Blame Players?

Depension how it is said. I don't think you say "we lost cause you stink." But if you show them on film the DT didn't squeeze, 5 fumbles, poor technique.

Touchy subject, bit it has been our experience (more often than not) that if the players don't "get it", you probably didn't go over it enough!

Can I throw this in there?

What if you are over matched completely? Would you blame the players because they are less talented than the players they go up against? What if your players just suck? You have to understand their suckyness (made up word) and do your best to have a dog in the fight. If you do that then that's all you can do.

I think it's a cop out to blame the players because whatever their deficiency could/should have been addressed by you...the coach...the adult. If you feel like you've addressed all of this...and you lose. Accept it. Move on. Get better.

"We are our own worst enemy"
If you are saying it is the players fault because of mistakes, errors, loafs, etc, you're probably right.

"You lost this game, not me"
If you're saying the players lost because it couldn't have been you, well, pull your head out of your a$$.

But isnt it also your job to teach them HOW to make the plays? 

If a kid uses poor technique, then you didnt coach him well enough on how to use techniques, if the DT didnt squeeze, you didn't coach him well enough to squeeze.

Whatever they do, you either coach it or you allow it.

One of the coaches here openly calls the players, regardless of sport he's coaching, stupid and dumb and unable to comprehend basic concepts. Been here along time and blames everything on how stupid the players are. Not pleasant to be on a staff with him. Was in the box with him and Johnny fumbles. Papers get tossed, heavy sigh, head in the hands, and the "See, he's just too stupid to hang onto the ball." He's pretty much given up on athletics here because the athletes just can't understand what needs to be done. Over the years, according to him, he's tried every trick, skill, drill, presentation method, being nice, being an a$$hole, playbooks, no playbooks, everything, and nothing has worked. So it must be the athletes.

What's that quote - if it was something good they did it, if it's something bad it's my fault...

How do you combat the coach that, privately, says that the players aren't smart/good enough to do this play, but then has no issues with adding more to the playlist? I take stuff out if they can't get it and then work on the smaller set until they do. A lot of coaches seem to think that we can't execute this play because Johnny (just like his older brother, and his father...) can't understand the simplest of concepts, so we'll add yet another concept that builds on the concept/technique/skill he is too dumb to understand.

To an extent, YES. But I think we are confusing the words Fault with Responsibility. 

Everything does come back to us, save for those things that I previously mentioned where players are grossly overmatched, however those things were not mentioned. If a player fails to execute a technique or perform an assignment then yes the coach did not prepare him well enough. As a coach (especially the HC) you are RESPONSIBLE for all the actions your players perform on the field.

Now, as I feel is being implied, that does not mean we do not hold players accountable- we ALWAYS hold players accountable. What it does mean though, is that we also hold ourselves accountable, we do not pass the buck because how a player performs is our RESPONSIBILITY.  

Yes and no. I'm a believer in "what you allow, you encourage" but I also believe that "you can take a horse to water, you but you can't make them drink it". Coachability is a real thing whether you want to admit it or not and that's what it boils down to sometimes. When you have two formations, right and left, and it's the 5th game of the year and a kid still can't line up correctly in his one position he's been asked to learn, I find it hard to believe that's a coaching problem.

There are times when people need to realize that it's our job to teach the game and get the kids motivated to play. But, it's the players' job to actually go out and perform. I have never openly blamed a group of kids for a loss but that doesn't mean that it doesn't fall square on their shoulders at times.

Our girls basketball team is struggling in a big way this year and the HC is a buddy of mine. We chat about the losses each week and the reality is simple: the girls fall apart when game time rolls around. I do their strength and conditioning so I'm at their practices all week long. I watch him and his staff run a tight practice schedule that emphasizes fundamentals and simple schemes. They put the girls in competitive/worst case scenarios that forces them out of their comfort zone. He and the staff are very patient with the girls, correct their mistakes and try to develop as much intrinsic motivation with the players as possible.

But, come game time, all of that goes out the window. They turn the ball over, they don't box out or rebound, they can't a shot to save their life (from the field or the foul line), their ball handling skills are crap and they miss lay-ups constantly. Again, the staff stays very calm, patient and positive with them even when it's flat-out embarrassing to be on the sideline.. Now, here's the kicker: they play their best games against non-conference teams or against teams they're sure they can't beat. They play their worst games against the teams in the conference that they match-up well against and "should beat". It's a straight sport psychology issue with them: they cannot find a reason to play the game outside of the scoreboard. This has been emphasized with them REPEATEDLY. We all tell them to go out, play hard, and enjoy the game. It just doesn't happen.

So, do they openly blame the kids for the loss? Absolutely not. The coaches talk about what they can fix and what they'll work on at practice and that's it. However, there isn't much you can do with a group of kids that refuse to handle the pressure of competition. You keep hammering away at practice and hope it sticks. That's all you can do.

I'm playing devil's advocate here a little bit.. But anytime anyone brings up a scheme question, or an offensive/defensive system, or all these talks about speakers at clinics.. there's a WHOLE lot of complaining about Jimmies and Joes... We can't do that because we don't have the guys...

I'm in the boat that coaches should accept responsibility for losses, and especially shouldn't openly blame players to anyone.. but in your staff room, be honest with yourself.. I bet 95% of the guys on here have at least once, said "If johnny hadn't thrown that pick" or "if Billy hadn't missed that tackle" we'd have won the game.

As coaches, it's our jobs to get them them ready to execute and perform, but in all reality, at some point, players win and lose games. As previously stated but watered down, if you give Belichek an average team in any league(HS ball), with average players, they still aren't going to be dominant. At some point, as coaches, it's ok to be honest that sometimes.. it comes down to players executing. Your QB might have made that throw 100 times, and 5 times that game, but the one time, he doesn't.

Do not ever publicly blame HS players for a loss.

Always take responsibility - you're going to get it anyway.

Give credit to the victors instead.

Next week go back to teaching-coaching-correcting those things that caused the result to be other than you wanted.

The fact is sometimes we cannot determine whether we win or lose, just how.

And some years we have to coach our azzes off just to keep from getting killed.

As far as what groundchuck (OP) posted - I have to wonder what principal's motivation was for calling him in-asking him that.

Unless chuck is the AD responsible for evaluating the Basketball coach - personally I would not have got involved.

Obviously, you never blame the players publicly. In the locker room it depends how it's said. Angrily berating the team after a loss is a bad idea. In fact, the less said immediately after a bad loss the better, especially if you're angry. The next time that you meet as a team, whether that's Saturday morning or on Monday, I don't see anything wrong with pointing out that we'd lost the game because we made too many mistakes. I'm talking about avoidable mistakes-bad penalties, turnovers-and poor effort, not losing because they had better players. Ranting and getting personal aren't helpful but there's nothing wrong with telling them that you can't win that way.

I'm also curious how the b-ball coach had talked to the team, how it came to the principal's attention, and why he told the football coach.

I would never say anything negative outside the locker room/meeting room or team huddle. But I have told good teams with older players that "these things" got us beat, and those things are entirely in their control. I told them we have drilled those things and emphasized those things but until they execute those fundamentals they way they are taught the end result will be the same.

I could do this because I had a relationship with them, they knew I cared. I could do this because they were older and more mature. If you have freshmen that's tough. If you do it in such a way that it is surgical not a rant I think nit sinks in more. It's not that the coach is pissed (even though he might be). It's the coach is trying to show us this one is our fault because we didn't take practice seriously on Thursday, and we missed assignments and acted like we didn't care.

TO an earlier post who said it is the coaches fault.......believe me I rip myself harder than anyone. I rarely turn the finger on anyone other than myself. But there does get a be a point when the players are responsible.

I am that way in the classroom too. If a lot of kids fail a test I ask myself what did I do wrong? How can I reteach this so we do better? But if a kid who never does his homework and only answered half the questions failed and this is a routine thing for him I don't eat myself up over it.