Late season non-conference game= Resting Players

In my opinion - which is worth what you're paying for it... if I have no depth and there is literally no consequence to the game I'm going to have a short leash on my starters. It's senior night so I play the seniors but it's also a chance to give some mop up time to guys that have been working all year, especially if the other team is sitting their best guys.

Let the kids play. Your starters have won the right to start because they're athletes who want to play. And...it's THEIR team, not yours!

That said, certainly play your youngsters if the opportunity presents itself. It gives the upcoming players experience and perhaps an interest in playing next year.

Kids aren’t robots......they can’t turn it off and on

If you all are rolling right now, I would keep it rolling.

Plus, if they are resting their studs, then I would think heading into playoffs with a big win would be positive.

Play your kids, play to win. If they really sit their studs on offense and defense then you should get up big quick and be able to pull your kids.

In the meantime, we're over here playing one of the best teams in the state and fighting for home field advantage in the playoffs ourselves.

Along those lines - what if it's game 9 of the season and you're rolling. Your week 9 opponent is awful, all the projections say you're going to murder them (even the opponent's AD calls you and says his kids are terrified). Do you still roll with all your starters? For the whole game or do you pull them early?

That's what we're facing this week. HC is pulling up a bunch of jv kids to play and is sitting the varsity starters. I disagree with it but it's his program.

. The idea of playing a game just to play a game seems lost.

I think that started to go out the window when public schools were hiring and firing like they were in the GD SEC. When a bad stretch happens at the wrong time, those games suddenly impact your job and family.

I fully admit it's still a game, but, it's also a job.

This is exactly what it is.  It makes sense in the NFL when you have multi-million dollar professionals possibly risking their careers in "meaningless" games no one will remember, but now it's even trickled down to HS and colleges with top players sitting out "meaningless" bowl games to prepare for the draft.

It's like we as a culture have reached the point where we really do feel that "second place is just first among the losers" and the only thing that matters is being #1, defined by being champions.  I feel like this is a terrible place to be in, especially since we increasingly also apply it to life in other areas that don't even have playoffs, but that's a rant for another time.

One of the cool things about football was that there used to be that every single game mattered, if not for postseason position than for pride itself since games were so scarce.  You only get 10 regular season games a year of HS football and you only get those for 4 years. If you're lucky, you get some playoff games in there, too.  Starters declaring that they aren't even going to travel so they can rest for the playoffs and coaches accepting that is just absurd for me.

Unfortunately, if a kid does get an injury here, then parents will be pointing fingers and asking why he was even out there in a "meaningless game."  Personally, I'd play the normal starters and try to put this game away early if at all possible, all while keeping a quick hook.  I wouldn't "rest" anyone exactly, but I'd start pulling kids if there was a 21 point differential in the score or if they suffer even a very minor injury (twisted ankle, sprained finger, etc.).

www.post-gazette.com/sports/high-school-football/2018/10/15/north-allegheny-football-wpial-playoffs-2018-west-allegheny/stories/201810150154


Just saw this today.

Game was scheduled by district due to an odd amount of teams in their classes.