Can being to good hurt you?

**Eagle_77** · April 16th, 2005, 07:01 AM

I know that sounds funny but I have a theory here. Can teams that are extremely good suffer from just that? I believe that in some ways it hurt GSU last year.

Because of GSU's high scoring offense the first team played very little in the second half of its game. That really concerned me throughout the season. I remember going to the Citadel and us jumping out to a big lead. Sewak pulled the first team pretty early. The Citadel then started moving the ball on our D pretty well and put a few points on the board and our second team O really couldn’t move the ball on the Citadel. My father then made the comment to me that he thought Sewak pulled the first team two early.

A fan behind us took offense to this and started telling us that we would be happy next year when these guys are the starters and they have lots of game time experience. While I am happy that our second and third strings were able to get a lot of experience, I still to this day stand by thoughts that Sewak pulled the team to early and it hurt us in the end.

Our first string didn’t play in a close game against a good team all year until Furman. We know the outcome of that game and I blame it on our first stringers not knowing how to finish a game. They hadn’t had to do it all year and when we came across a truly good team that we needed to finish the boys were a little lost.

The same thing happened against New Hampshire. We jumped out to a lead and if we would have performed the second half the way we did in the first then that game would not have been close. But we didn’t perform the same and I believe it’s because of the lack of second half experience our first team had.

Now I do not believe that a team should leave in its first team just to run up the score and I do believe that you need to get your second and even third teams game experience when capable. But I do not believe that you should do this at the cost of the current season like I believe happened last year. If your team has a good shot at the playoffs and a good shot at contending for a championship then you need to think in the now, not the next year.

Do you guys know of other teams you feel that have suffered from this?

**UAalum72** · April 16th, 2005, 08:54 AM

I seem to remember a New Year's Day bowl when Oklahoma, which had been pulverizing people all year, just sagged in the second half. A starting lineman said he hadn't played in the fourth quarter all year.

I think probably the key is to schedule at least two games (in conference or not) that will stretch your starters to the limit. You don't need to do it every game, though.

**Eagle_77** · April 16th, 2005, 09:14 AM

I think we had the two games covered going into the year. We had preseaon Top 10 UGA which the first team finished that game. Then we also had national quarter final Wofford as well as yearly foes in App St and Furman. I do not believe that many expected our 3rd string to finish the games against Wofford and App St. After the first game our starters did not finish a game until the Furman game and were not asked to do it again until the New Hampshire game.

**eaglefan452** · April 16th, 2005, 03:26 PM

It is kind of a catch 22 when you talk about leaving your 1st stringers in or not. On one hand, I don't know of a single coach that would not want to be way ahead by halftime and have the opportunity to let his backups play. On the other hand, those starters do get used to playing only one half of football and that probably hurt GSU last year late in the season. If you leave your starters in to keep them sharp, you are accused of running up the score, if you take them out, you are criticized when your team is finally in a tight game and loses, people think your team doesn't know how to play in close games.

My opinion is that there is no need to keep the starters in after the 3rd quarter when you are ahead by 30. You risk injury, not only through natural occurances from playing, but the opposition gets very frustrated and might start playing dirty. I am all for letting the bench players get some time. The reason that GSU has had the success that they have had is that they have been graced with the talent to be up big in some games and have let their younger players get some time, and when it comes time for those players to start, they already have some valuable game experience, something you can't teach in practice.

**Tribe4SF** · April 16th, 2005, 03:50 PM

When you play a pattycake schedule, not only do your players lack 4th qtr. experience, you really don't know how good you are. The SoCon usually provides a few tests each year. I think last year was an exception. This problem doesn't crop up in the A-10. Even the 2003 Delaware team had a loss and several real tests in the conference before blitzing the playoff field. They were a supremely confident and prepared team.

**eaglesrthe1** · April 16th, 2005, 05:14 PM

GSU has gone undefeated in conference play only once since joining the SoCon. The problem last year was that on two particular days they ran across quality teams that were better prepared. Fourth qtr play is not where you build endurance, it's where you demonstrate it. Endurance is built on the practice field.

**Eagle_77** · April 18th, 2005, 08:40 AM

When you play a patty cake schedule, not only do your players lack 4th qtr. experience, you really don't know how good you are.

I find this quote quite interesting. Going into last season there were 4 preseason Top 25's on our schedule one being in the Top 10 in I-A. Not sure how this is a patty cake schedule but us guys from the SoCon just don’t know anything.

Also in every thread I have ever read about GSU's success in the playoffs A-10 fans say the reason for our success is because of our "patty cake schedule". We aren’t so beat up, we are fresher, blah, blah, blah. Now it’s the exact opposite in that our schedule hurts us? Which is it?

Now moving on to other things. I agree that you can’t leave in your first string the whole game when it was out of hand at half time. But our guys usually didn’t play but 2 series into the second half. At that time they come out knowing that they are out for good. My question is, is that too early? I would think you let them play most of the third at least unless of course you have 65-70 points by then. In most cases we were not in that situation.

Fourth qtr play is not where you build endurance, it's where you demonstrate it. Endurance is built on the practice field.

While I agree with this 100% this is not what I am saying. These guys are in GREAT shape that I personally can vouch for. But no amount of practice can teach you how to finish a game. Finishing has nothing to do with what kind of condition you are in. It’s a mental thing. There is a big difference in the 4th quarter with 2:00 mins to go and you are down by 4 and you have to make a drive and 2:00 mins in the 4th quarter and you haven’t played since nearly half time and have been joking with your teammates for the second half. The latter is what our team did most and when we were put into the first scenario we didn’t seem to know how to handle it.