[EKUAlum05]

I haven't seen anyone mention anything about that aside from noting when the points was scored by Magoffin... but since you brought it up:

McCoy has done a great job in adjusting his program, but he made a common mistake that most young coaches in his situation makes Friday night. If you truly want to improve your program, then why at the end of the game do you not give ALL of your kids a chance to play? What possible benefit is it to have Senior starters playing against freshman?

Confidence? I think not, if anything it would negatively affect a teams confidence if they were to also get stopped by freshman players.

Repitions for practice? Maybe, but haven't they ran the same plays all game already? True the Freshman they are playign against may very well be better than the scout team they'd be facing in practice, but this just bring me back to how are you improving against a team who is not challenging you.

Menahwile, negatives:
1. Injuries- Imagine if #34 for Magoffin tore his ACL and was lost for the season on a menaingless drive. Also, the injury risk of the opposing teams freshman who are not physically mature yet matching up against Seniors.

2. Morale- Odds are Magoffin won't be bloowing many teams out to where they can put in their reserves, and just by looking at the sidelines I wouldn't expect magoffin to field a Freshman or JV team due to lack of numbers... thus you have numerous players who are seeing no PT this year in a game situation. In order to turnaround a program, one of the biggest keys is having your numebrs up. You can't expect to have 40+ players if only 15 of them will ever see the field. Additionally, until Magoffin can field 40+ players they won't be able to establish the before mentioned Freshman/JV teams.

3. Next year- You said that Magoffin was having to play freshman as it was, well just imagine how difficult it will be next year when the graduating seniors are gone and you are forced to either play a freshman or a Soph who is the equivolent of a Fresh because he hasn't played in varsity action. This creates a vicous cycle that becomes very hard to overturn.

I don't mean to sound condescending, but it was soemthing that was on my mind. I think magoffin is heading on the right track, and I would even expect them to defeat ER and earn a playoff birth. But, I honestly think that not giving your younger players any PT will hinder the Magoffin program froma dvancing as fast as it can.