What would you do if you were this Coach?

[Grimey]

Put yourself in this guy's headset. You go up by 72 points in the first quarter (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/highschool/news/story?id=3088759&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab5pos1). How do you finish out the game? Here's what he did.


Barta pulled his first-team offense midway through the first quarter and his first-team defense at the end of the first half. Though he went for a two-point conversion after every Smith Center touchdown, he told his players after a second-quarter score that no one else would be crossing into the end zone. If a player got close to the goal line, Barta said, he was to fall at the 5-yard line to set up a field-goal attempt. It happened twice. The team attempted one field goal on first-and-goal from the 1-yard line.

Was that the best way to handle it in your opinion? I mean, what else can you do?

[fadada1]

tough call. but it's not his fault the other team sucks. it was the playoffs.

[guzziguy]

Play everybody including the cheerleaders. Drive to the 15 and "fumble." That way I can run any play with any player that I want to watch and not keep running up the score.

[Ardmore_Sooner]

I try to have Freshman suited up and get all the young guys plenty of playing time for learning experience. Scoring a TD in the playoffs as a Freshman could really boost ones confidence.

[TUSooner]

[Belichek=] Just play [/Belichek}

[NYC Poke]

Put yourself in this guy's headset. You go up by 72 points in the first quarter (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/highschool/news/story?id=3088759&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab5pos1). How do you finish out the game? Here's what he did.

Was that the best way to handle it in your opinion? I mean, what else can you do?

You blow the lead in the second half and end up losing.

[Curly Bill]

Just play the game. Don't make a travesty of the situation by doing stupid stuff like stopping on the 5 yard line, fumbling on purpose, etc... Play all of your players, but if your lowest rung players are scoring, then too bad for the other team.

[NYC Poke]

Just play the game. Don't make a travesty of the situation by doing stupid stuff like stopping on the 5 yard line, fumbling on purpose, etc... Play all of your players, but if your lowest rung players are scoring, then too bad for the other team.


I agree with that. It's more of an insult to do those things than it is to go ahead and score. Difficult situation for the coach, though. I'm sure he didn't want the final score in triple digits.

[Curly Bill]

I worked for a head coach that would have blown a gasket if the other team started stopping at the 5 yard line, fumbling on purpse, etc. We would have had to restrain him from storming across the field...and he was a big guy.

I think doing things like those mentioned just serve to embarass the bad team more then just playing the game would, though like I said: if you're killing someone else it's a great chance to play peeps that ordinarily don't get to play much.

[KingBarry]

Just play the game. Don't make a travesty of the situation by doing stupid stuff like stopping on the 5 yard line, fumbling on purpose, etc... Play all of your players, but if your lowest rung players are scoring, then too bad for the other team.


I don't know. That's good advice for NCAA or NFL teams, but did you see that this Smith Center is riding a three-yr streak as State Champions and THAT THEY HAVE NOT BEEN SCORED ON THIS YEAR!

Yes, that's right, they shut out every opponent. If he let his scrubs score at will they could have put up 200pts.

That tells me somethings wrong with the administration in that state. That school should move up a level and face better competition.

Where's even the fun, for anyone involved, in shutting out the whole schedule?

[NYC Poke]

THAT THEY HAVE NOT BEEN SCORED ON THIS YEAR!


That is amazing, for any team at any level.

[Curly Bill]

It would be pretty fun to be on the good side of that deal. IMO

Not knowing where or what Smith Center is I can't comment on more then that.

[OklahomaTuba]

What would Billy Tubbs do??

[Tulsa_Fireman]

What would Billy Tubbs do??

The same thing Chuck Norris would do.

And that involves a plethora of asskickery.

[NYC Poke]

It would be pretty fun to be on the good side of that deal. IMO

Not knowing where or what Smith Center is I can't comment on more then that.


Found out on wiki that it's the birthplace of Fatty Arbuckle. Also Mark Simoneau and Nolan Cromwell.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_Center,_Kansas

[stoops the eternal pimp]

Ask Mike ******..he knows

[stoops the eternal pimp]

thats still a naughty word..thas cool

[Rock Hard Corn Frog]

I don't know. That's good advice for NCAA or NFL teams, but did you see that this Smith Center is riding a three-yr streak as State Champions and THAT THEY HAVE NOT BEEN SCORED ON THIS YEAR!

Yes, that's right, they shut out every opponent. If he let his scrubs score at will they could have put up 200pts.

That tells me somethings wrong with the administration in that state. That school should move up a level and face better competition.

Where's even the fun, for anyone involved, in shutting out the whole schedule?


Problem is that in Kansas, like most if not all states, the classification is based on enrollment. Smith Center is a public school that has had a dynamite senior class that has been good since they were Sophs. St Mary's Colgan, a school in Pittsburg,KS not far from where I live is a private school that is in the same class and beats up on a bunch of public schools, one of which was only able to suit up 16-17 players. So they run up big scores until they face Smith Center (again a public school) with less than 200 students and they get drilled.

Smith Center is usually very good but not this good. The problem is that if you move them up arbitrarily the next year they could be one of those schools mismatched against a bigger team in a couple years.

[TopDawg]

Just play the game. Don't make a travesty of the situation by doing stupid stuff like stopping on the 5 yard line, fumbling on purpose, etc... Play all of your players, but if your lowest rung players are scoring, then too bad for the other team.

Yeah. If you start asking people to play less intense, they are probably more likely to get injured. Just put in the 2nd teamers, 3rd teamers, whatever and run fullback dives the rest of the game. If you score, you score.

That's pretty much what we did against A&M that year. If I recall correctly, the ONLY time we've ever run a FB dive play under Stoops was against A&M and we ran it with Dan Townsend, a true-freshman (I think) walkon FB from Sulphur (and we still got a first down). That makes me think it wasn't even in the playbook. If you're up by 72 in the first quarter, you've gotta do what Stoops did and get creative with your lack of creativity.

[1890MilesToNorman]

Oh, my
Unbeaten Smith Center's regular-season totals
Aug. 31 Norton 60-0
Sept. 7 Hill City 67-0
Sept. 14 at Phillipsburg 66-0
Sept. 21 at Ellis 62-0
Sept. 28 Stockton 72-0
Oct. 5 at Plainville 72-0
Oct. 12 at Lincoln 78-0
Oct. 19 Osborne 72-0

This team needs to play in a different league! Here is an interesting story from before the amazing 1st quarter.

Story (http://www.kansas.com/266/story/213739.html)

"John Petrie has his football team ready for tonight. Or as ready as he can have it. The Plainville Cardinals will roll into Smith Center for their Class 2-1A playoff game against the Redmen sometime late this afternoon. The players will put on their pads and uniforms and get on the field to warm up around 6.

The football will be kicked off at 7 and by 9, or a little after, it will be over. The Cardinals will check to see if they have all of their body parts, then board the bus for the ride home."

[TheHumanAlphabet]

Interesting...

I don't know how the HS rule handle playing JV people and how many you can suit up. But everyone would have played, I would have run it up the gut every play and would have not allowed anyone on the team to score after the point I deemed it no longer a contest.

I find it interesting that the team can have such greater talent, I wonder if they are classified correctly or what.

[TheHumanAlphabet]

Yeah. If you start asking people to play less intense, they are probably more likely to get injured. Just put in the 2nd teamers, 3rd teamers, whatever and run fullback dives the rest of the game. If you score, you score.

That's pretty much what we did against A&M that year. If I recall correctly, the ONLY time we've ever run a FB dive play under Stoops was against A&M and we ran it with Dan Townsend, a true-freshman (I think) walkon FB from Sulphur (and we still got a first down). That makes me think it wasn't even in the playbook. If you're up by 72 in the first quarter, you've gotta do what Stoops did and get creative with your lack of creativity.

And ****** still was bitching about running up the score...I know he didn't watch the game and all, but he is a total asshat. I just wanted to put asshat into a reply...;)

[SoonerStormchaser]

I'm sure that, somewhere, Mike Lup1ca is warming his computer up to accuse him of intentionally running up the score just like Stoops did against Fran in 03.

[Grimey]

Yeah. If you start asking people to play less intense, they are probably more likely to get injured. Just put in the 2nd teamers, 3rd teamers, whatever and run fullback dives the rest of the game. If you score, you score.

That's pretty much what we did against A&M that year. If I recall correctly, the ONLY time we've ever run a FB dive play under Stoops was against A&M and we ran it with Dan Townsend, a true-freshman (I think) walkon FB from Sulphur (and we still got a first down). That makes me think it wasn't even in the playbook. If you're up by 72 in the first quarter, you've gotta do what Stoops did and get creative with your lack of creativity.

Stoops confirmed that they did not have a FB dive play in the playbook at his weekly press conference that week, IIRC

[Grimey]

Oh, my
Unbeaten Smith Center's regular-season totals
Aug. 31 Norton 60-0
Sept. 7 Hill City 67-0
Sept. 14 at Phillipsburg 66-0
Sept. 21 at Ellis 62-0
Sept. 28 Stockton 72-0
Oct. 5 at Plainville 72-0
Oct. 12 at Lincoln 78-0
Oct. 19 Osborne 72-0

This team needs to play in a different league! Here is an interesting story from before the amazing 1st quarter.

Story (http://www.kansas.com/266/story/213739.html)

"John Petrie has his football team ready for tonight. Or as ready as he can have it. The Plainville Cardinals will roll into Smith Center for their Class 2-1A playoff game against the Redmen sometime late this afternoon. The players will put on their pads and uniforms and get on the field to warm up around 6.

The football will be kicked off at 7 and by 9, or a little after, it will be over. The Cardinals will check to see if they have all of their body parts, then board the bus for the ride home."

somewhere in the original article it mentions that the Plainville coach said that they would probably get beat by 70 pts


So the final score against Plainville perhaps isn't all that shocking. In fact, Petrie told the Wichita Eagle before the game that "they might beat us by 70 points."

[Tulsa_Fireman]

OMG RECRUITING

[47Wins]

Play "not to lose", go to the prevent D, stop passing, lose 73-72 for your efforts

[mdklatt]

I find it interesting that the team can have such greater talent, I wonder if they are classified correctly or what.

At that level (2A) all it takes is one really good player, probably a RB or running QB. But when you read the story, you see that their defense was getting it done too. And this was a playoff game. Amazing.

Has nobody mentioned Mike ****** yet??

[bluedogok]

Not sure if this applies in this situation but many of those smaller schools have a very limited roster. When my cousin was head coach at Elgin he would be lucky to have 40-50 players on the team. One season they got down to 30 players by mid season because of injuries. One high school here in Austin forfeited the rest of their season after losing too many players. For every big school that has 90 kids out for football there are many, many more that can barely get enough players to come out.

[Sooner1979]

If I were a Head Coach at any school, I wouldn't give a damn what the score was, I would continue to run my Offense at 100% because that is football...I think Dan Hawkins would agree..."Its Division 1 football....Go and play Intramurals Brother"....

Seriously, there is no such thing as taking it easy on other teams...If the other team doesnt want to get embarrassed on the field, then get better...This isnt elementary my dear Watson....It is football....One more thing...F*** Mike ******....He and John Bible should tongue each others grundle....

[jkjsooner]

That tells me somethings wrong with the administration in that state. That school should move up a level and face better competition.



That's just not possible. The classification is by enrollment or avg attendance. You just can't move the team up because they're so good.

Now, I do wonder if the schools isn't doing some type of recruiting. In a lot of cases it's as simple as giving the parents of a kid a job teaching or as a janitor or whatever. Sometimes it's even a booster giving a job to the parents.

[Dan Thompson]

Did anyone say it was 8 man football. When I lived in Arizona there where quite a few 6 and 8 man football teams and the scores always seemed higher that 11 man football.

[gh55]

Switzer would have started throwing the ball more with leads like that to
give the other team a chance.

[setem]

This crap about not running up the score really does chap my ***!

You know Georgia Tech beat the snot out of Cumberland College 222-0 back in 1916 and not one person bitched about how they ran up the score!

I would have let the scrubs lay the wood to them kids! When I was coaching baseball at John Marshall, the old southeast coach would send his kids up to strike out. That made Coach Simon and more mad than if they had just run up the score! I have dished our some beatings in Legion ball and I have had them handed to me. Tod Bingham the Claremore Majors coach is a pretty good friend of mine and he will not hesitate to run it up my guys if he knows he can. He beat our *** 22-3 this summer. I am not going to be mad at him for holding back. They have one of the classiest programs in the state and he runs a tight ship. A lot of coaches wish they had a program like that. You cant blame a coach for doing his job. We run ruled a team from Kansas last year 27-0...I don't think the other coach was very happy with me though. I think they went on to win the whole stinking tournament. I do not like coaches who get caught in a bad loss. You go out and you do your best to win the game and if you get beat your move on, there are other games to be played.

[birddog]

i drove through smith center today.

i saw 14 houses and some tractors.

[Crucifax Autumn]

What was the final?

[goingoneight]

Is Gumby going to melt down again after surrendering 72 this time? :D

[WA. Sooner]

83-0

[PLaw]

Small HS playoff football can really rack up some big win margins. It's not unusual to see 60+ point wins, but after the first quarter?? Wow. I saw this article earlier this week in USA Today and thought about the OU / eATMe game a few years ago that we won 77-0. I thought Bob was spot on. Line it up with the scout team and run it between the tackles. If they can't stop that, then you have done all you can to keep the score down. You simply cannot require your team to do something that you coach them not to do the other six days of the week.

BOOMER
PLaw

[Suerreal]

Problem is that in Kansas, like most if not all states, the classification is based on enrollment. Smith Center is a public school that has had a dynamite senior class that has been good since they were Sophs. St Mary's Colgan, a school in Pittsburg,KS not far from where I live is a private school that is in the same class and beats up on a bunch of public schools, one of which was only able to suit up 16-17 players. So they run up big scores until they face Smith Center (again a public school) with less than 200 students and they get drilled.

Smith Center is usually very good but not this good. The problem is that if you move them up arbitrarily the next year they could be one of those schools mismatched against a bigger team in a couple years.

My high school, in Ardmore OK, had a few great years in the early 1990s including one year in which they won 7 different boys & girls state championships. It was 18 years after I graduated, when the status symbol for all the black girls was to be carrying one particularly good running back's baby.

Since then, Ardmore had a couple good years while they had a TE with a last name of Gresham, but haven't done much since.

These things go in cycles...