you win the toss and..........?

I'm a single winger so I want the ball so I can start eating clock( I know I know T.O.P. is not as important unless you finish the drive with a score, we usually did.) and grinding out that first drive and pounding the defense with my hammer (tailback).

it depends. on a very windy night we want the 2 and 4 quarters the wind to our back.

generally I want the defense on the field first. I believe in all out attacking defense, so I let them on the field just to get all the pentup hostility that they have raging inside them out.

I have this philosophy, defense is like the marine corps on Iwo Jima. they charged the benchhead screaming and attacking. defensive players tend or at least imo are the emotional kind.

one offense we like to be the air force. you know, drop those long range bombs using tactical knowhow.

it depends on my kicker, if i have one, i'll defer to the second half, if i don't have a kicker i'll take the ball

As a QB I always wanted the ball first, because I wanted to get hit. I couldn't really function mentaly until I got that first pop, so usualy I was running option or QB Bootleg at the start of the game. As a coach it just depends on the situation. Against our rivals or a big game, I want my defense to go out and ride that emotion and get a stop. Other than that it doesn't really matter. One thing that is definatly nice is putting together a good drive and scoring right before the half knowing that your getting the ball back in the 2nd. It's also nice to have the ball in the 2nd half to see if those half time adjustments are going to work and be able to set the tone for the 2nd half.

Aznando

Defer. There's usually at least one moron per season who will elect to kick at that point...

Always defer. Lets us get the jitters out on defense. I also like getting the ball coming out of the half, being able to apply half time adjustments right away on offense.

If there are no special circumstances I let my kids decide at the coin toss. The kids love it!

Defer for the same reasons as tedseay.

Unless the weather could be a determining factor, we like to defer until the second half. I like going into the locker room at half time, making a few adjustments, coming out and scoring on the first possession.

i tell you, we've always deferred, but after reading clock management books, its interesting to ponder. One of the books i read stated that the team who scored first won the game 82% of the time. That was enough to make me evaluate the deal.

He also talked about being an underdog or being the favorite. If you were favored, he encouraged to play at a fast pace because if you flipped coin 100 times, you'd win the majority of the time.

If you were an underdog, he mentioned slowing the pace of your offense, because you were the lesser opponent, you only wanted to flip the coin 40 times, increasing your odds as an underdog.

"One of the books i read stated that the team who scored first won the game 82% of the time."

I dunno...I wonder what the statistic is when you don't include blowouts and shutouts...cause a blowout and a shutout is going to happen whether you kick or receive.

And is it a Highschool statistic? Cause if you look at the scores of any given week, most games are lopsided in HS.

Ultimately, don't think there is a right or wrong way to go.

We will almost always defer, primarily to attempt to play the field position game early on and to try to set the tone with our Kickoff Team and Defense. However, wind conditions will sometimes cause us to reconsider, as will how we feel we match up with our opponent either offensively or defensively. Just wondering, does anyone ever routinely at least consider taking the wind at the start of the game (thereby kicking to start both halves)? We often discuss it, and have done so twice over 20 years. The first time allowed us to play the whole first half on a far superior team's half of the field and keep the game close to the end. the second time, with fairly evenly matched teams, we scored our third TD on the first play of the second quarter, effectively winning the game in the first 12 minutes.

We take the ball and pray that we score.

Because we ain't stoppin' them.