Slowing It Down: When is enough enough?
After watching and seeing the high school football ticker, I have noticed some very high
scores, 70-0, 66-0 and 71-20 for a high profiled high school football game.
Although, I know as a coach there is the argument, "Well do a better job of coaching
your team. It’s not our job to slow down."
Well lets look at this issue right now in HS Football. First, it’s a compliment to all of the HS teams that have adopted the spread
offense that is now creating these scores.
In years past, the Wishbone and Wing-T offenses were designed to eat the clock and also demoralize you by the physical nature of their schemes; which could lead to big score differentials. But more times then not the
ability to slow down the process of scoring could be done.
I coached at a local high school that plays in a not to hard of a league for them. We ran
the Veer offense, and thus we could dive right and left off the guards. We controlled our
offense, and allowed the other team to notice what we were doing. We did it though,
under the guise that if our RB ran through to the clear, he was coached to score.
Which brings us to today’s football teams. When you know you are clearly the better team
and can score at will what will be your philosophy? As a coach you can always be on
the other side of the score box and coaches don’t forget.
The problem with the spread offense is that it is not designed to slow down. It’s a run to
the ball, no huddle, and not allow the defense to react to formations and personnel.
But when your a Coach and your ahead by halftime by 5 touchdowns you and your staff need to think about
how to do this. The other coach and his team doesn’t need to be embarrassed or shown a
dummy down offense but one that looks to run between the tackles and thus not allow
these crazy scores.
Editors Note: Coach Laigo brings up some serious points for consideration. How many kids will drop out of the sport, especially at weak football schools, as a result of these shellings? The sport has changed in many ways and it will continue to do so. Food for thought no doubt.
