As scrimmages conclude, and the season looms, how much significance should we apportion any scrimmage outcome? (Featured Photograph: Emily Ball/Bluefield Daily Telegraph)

Photo-Emily Ball: Bluefield Daily Telegraph
William Long, Breathitt County HS

For most of Kentucky high school football, the season is opening August 23, 2019. Reports of outcomes and purported “winners” and “losers” from various scrimmages are traveling the entire breadth of Kentucky’s counties on chatrooms, blogs, and in local periodicals.

What does it mean? Is there any significance to tie to the outcome of these many scrimmages? We would suppose the answer would differ according to the perspective of the one answering visa vie where their team registered on the old “Won-Lost column.”

I knew a guy who hosted a show on the radio. Radio ratings were, at least from where he broadcasted, reported on something called an Arbitron Report. The results were posted quarterly.

My friend’s show booked the top-rated slot on Saturday night, 7-10:00 p.m. This seemed to him to be significant because he was on opposite “The Grand Old Opry” for several of those hours. While he never beat “The Opry,” he did tie it in two quarters.

So, anyway, the guy told me that when his numbers were good, they were meaningless in the eyes of the station. After all, they didn’t want him attempting to hold them up for more money every time he booked one of the top ratings for his show’s night and time-slot.

However, when his numbers weren’t so good, that is practically all the station wanted to discuss. After all, maybe they shouldn’t be paying him so well if he couldn’t produce higher ratings. Never mind they were now giving deference to the same report they had before completely discounted when the show’s ratings were good.

Scrimmage results are very similar. When the team wins a scrimmage, that is all anyone wants to discuss. When a team loses a scrimmage; well, it’s just a scrimmage, we weren’t trying to show anything.

So as the season approaches what do these scrimmage results mean. Should we give the results any weight, an if so, then how much? Here is our take on it. As we cheer for all of you, we believe our opinion to be impartial. After all, we have no dog in the fight.

The 10 play/10 play scrimmages are fairly meaningless regarding outcome. Reason being, never being able to get off the field as a defense, or earn a fresh set of downs as an offense, changes completely how coaches either call offensive plays or call both defensive fronts and coverages.

For instance, a scrimmage we recently attended saw the center-QB exchange fumbled first play. In a normal game situation, that is a momentum shifting, change of possession, opportunity. In a 10-play/10-play scrimmage, it is play number one with nine to follow. Huge difference!

Also, most teams don’t have live kick-offs or punts in the 10-play variety of scrimmage. Special teams is a full one-third of real football and where the breaks are made. Ask Frank Beamer, former coach of Virginia Tech. For that matter, ask any coach.

I guess the best way to conclude this little tutorial is to say the following. I knew a coach, whose identity, for our purposes, is unimportant; but who insisted that, when coaching in two preseason scrimmages, he would just as soon “win one and lose one.”

His reasoning was, win one so the kids feel good about what you are teaching and instructing; then lose one so the players don’t get “the big head.” After all, this coach was bent on his players continuing to listen to what he was both teaching and instructing.

If your team comes out of your preseason scrimmages healthy, knowing they have a long way to go and the season is a marathon, not a sprint, but also knowing they are on “the right track” to get to where they are capable of going, then you have done mighty well this preseason. There is our take…

This is Coach HB Lyon, reporting for KPGFootball, and we’re JUST CALLING IT LIKE WE SEE IT!

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About Henry Lyon 1210 Articles
Have coached at the high school and middle school level. Have worked in athletic administration. Conceal my identity to enable my candor on articles published by this magazine. Only members of the editorial board are aware of my true identity.

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