Leaving starters in against reserves......

To me, a win is a win. We had the same situation a couple weeks ago where a coach left his starters in to the very end. We had emptied our bench and had d-linemen playing linebacker and even one out at corner. We were in the mode of just getting the kids in the game. The 2s are the hardest working and most beat on kids, so we get them on the field as much as possible.

Now, in the paper it looks like the opposing team was in it, but who cares. We know, and more importantly, our kids know the effort we put into the game. Most importantly we got all our kids on the field.

Freshmen Defensive coach perspective:

It is my belief that you get the reserves into the game the minute the game is no longer in doubt. In fact if we are in control of a game, but it is still in doubt, I will get some reserves in who had a great week of practice in for a few plays while the two way guys get a break.
The only way these kids learn is by being in game situations and while a lot of them will not do a good job, some of them end up proving they can be relied upon. Plus at the lower levels it helps keep kids out. Undoubtedly a handful of the second and thrid teamers as Freshmen will grow and be able to contribute as varisty players. If I had wanted to, my defense could of had three shutouts this year, instead we only had one. All that really matters is the record.

Another plus is the chirping of "why aren't we playing?" has quieted substantially. One game we were up 30-0 in the 4th when I put the second team in, the other team left their first team in and ran right through them three times, only to have the clock run out on the third drive. We won the game 36-14 and the second team guys got to see what it was like to play against better players in game. THere was also film now of the things these kids were doing wrong.

Someone sounds angry.

When we're whipping up an opponent pretty good, we'll pull our offense off, and put in the JV kids, but leave the defense in and slowly replace guys on defense. We won't wholesale change on defense. Our DC definitely loves to keep shutouts heh.

Sweet post dc ;D

First, I am going to sub for my varsity defense AFTER you put in your JV offense, I garuntee it.
2nd, my first wave of subs will be for the seniors, the underclassmen starters will remain on the field for a while and I am going to play what I think will be my defense next year together.

I am going to call the game just like I would if it was 0-0, we are not coming out of any auto-blitzes we may have installed..and I am going to coach my players both praise and rip just like the score is 0-0.

I will do the same thing except we will play the base and have the kids work reads, drops etc. I ripped a senior when a receiver got behind him i cover 4. we were up by 30+

One of the things that might change when you sub and who you sub is how many kids you have on the team.....

This year we have 27 kids on the team and do not play a JV schedule....Therefore as soon as we feel the game is in good hands we will start to sub. For us, some starters are going to play the whole game out of neccessity. We are not going to put a 280 pound freshmen in there at QB just so he can get some playing time.

So, for some of our kids they may only see a few quarters of actual game time during the whole year. We sub less out of letting up on the opposition and more on rewarding the kids who are tacjling dummies all year and stand on the sidelines during the game.

Now, if we had a JV and Freshmen team, I would be more along the line of thought as DC. Once you start to bring you starters out I will start building my defense for next year. However, you have a game plan and I want to see if every kid can execute it. It also gives you a good indicator of which kids are really into the game, practice, and football itself. The 2nd and 3rd stringers who go out there and perform the game plan like the starters are ones I can count on if a kid goes down or next year. However, if a kid goes out there and screws everything up and has no clue what it is going we find his butt on the pine.

My philosophy is I'll coach my team and you coach yours. You need not get angry over the fact that you want to control another guys substitution patterns.

we've actually put staters back in to preserve shutouts. We wholesale on offense and also slowly replace starters on defense.