Winning coach in 91-0 rout catching heat from both sides

I really wish they would have done this for a basketball game I covered a few years back. Both the girls and the boys at this school were ranked No. 1 in the state and the school I was covering....was good in their own right, but not like THAT. It was basically like watching a D-1 team take on a community college. Neither one of the teams I was covering got into double-digits in scoring until the second half. The final of both was something like, 80-15. (Afterwards, I got completely blasted in the town's weekly "newspaper" for coming to cover that game, but NOT covering a game later in the season that was actually competitive. Seeing as how my father AND my grandfather BOTH graduated from that high school and my dad graduated with the guy who had known the writer of this dear editorial, the whole thing was cleared up later, when my dad called him and told him that I was a stringing college student and couldn't exactly get to every game.)

 

Oh, I know they did.

But those Redmon has chilled when it comes to running up the score.

 

I can't believe Starman hasn't weighed in on a running-up-the-score thread.

 

By popular demand:

High school is where I draw the line on whether RUTS a) exists, or b) is horrible, reprehensible, etc etc.

At least some times in high school, teams are playing each other that are not evenly matched, are not close to being evenly matched, could never possibly hope to be evenly matched.

When that happens, running-clock rules are the way to go. Several others have mentioned Michigan's football mercy rule (running clock in the second half when the lead goes over 40); in basketball, they go to running clock at any time if the lead goes over 40, the running clock is off if it falls under 30.

Once you get past high school, play time is over. If you are utterly and hopelessly outmatched by the opponent, you shouldn't be playing them. In college, especially Div. I, and even more especially in the pros, there is no such thing as running up the score. If you don't like losing by a huge score, play better.

In any case in any league at any level, it isn't the winning coach's problem to order his team to play poorly in order to match how poorly the opponent is playing.

The coach, of course, owes it to the players on his own team to clear the bench and put subs in the game if he has an insurmountable lead, but he doesn't owe jack shit to the other team.

Especially aggravating/pathetic is the demand that the winning team, when it has a big lead, should not only clear the bench, but quit trying to score (run up the gut or kneel on the ball in football, burn clock in basketball, etc.). So you have kids who are second- or third-stringers, they spend all season coming to practice, watching the starters get all the action during games, finally they get a chance to get in the game, and they're supposed to kneel on the ball or stall out the clock, to avoid hurting the feelings of the other team? Bullshit.

 

Star's right. I was confusing the BKB rule with the FB rule in Michigan; but in either case there is a safety net in play...

 

No wonder you don't like the south

My state has about 440 schools and I'd bet 300 of them have kids play both games.

 

In Texas, the rule is you must go five days between games. You go in for one play in Thursday's JV game, you can't play in Friday's varsity game. Of course, I cover a team that carries about 65 players on the varsity roster, so there are plenty of scrubs to put in should events warrant.

 

When I worked in Arkansas, the "JV" games were on Monday nights. I use quotes because they weren't really JV games; they were basically the varsity minus seniors ... in other words, next year's team. Interesting to watch if you were a school's fan (esp. if your underclassmen were good), but we didn't cover these games.

Also, freshmen on varsity were rare because junior-high football was still held in high regard there and the rule was (is?) that freshmen who play on varsity become ineligible for junior-high ball.

As far as running up the score ... Coaches are a fraternity and for the most part will go out of their way not to show up the other coach in a final score, no matter what level.

You get A-hole exceptions, sure, but a lot of times that 71-0 score was 49-0 at the half and all the starters have been pulled, and the other team continues to snap punts out of the end zone and fumble on its own goal line. That happens. But most games of that type end up 49-7 or 56-7 with a lot of deep reserves.

 

Speaking of parents, one of our teams which has won seven games in the last seven years won 33-7 last Friday. They threw three passes, completing one. Within 10 minutes of game's end, the parents of at least one player on the winning team were giving the coach grief for not throwing the ball more.