Strength of Pre-District Schedule

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What kind of schedule would you make?

Poll ended at Thu Sep 17, 2020 10:33 am

Cupcakes
0
No votes
Mostly cupcakes no Very Strong
1
7%
All middle of the road teams
1
7%
2 or 3 Very Strong Opponents no cupcakes
6
43%
Very Strong Opponents
6
43%
 
Total votes: 14

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Razorback
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Strength of Pre-District Schedule

Post by Razorback »

I have always been on the fence when it comes to strength of schedule in pre-district. On one hand you pick a really tough one and you have a chance of hitting district beat up or even worse with injuries. On the other hand if you go with cupcakes you have a good record and your team is more confident, but they run into a buzzsaw either in district play or the playoffs. Most of the time it is in district, but some districts there are not really any strong teams. Rotan went the cupcake route one year that the district was down overall and our first game in the playoffs Albany destroyed them 71-0. I have seen a team that should have went to state get decimated in pre-district and ended up not even make the playoffs.

So what I want to know is your opinion? Also take a look at teams in your area and let us know what you think about their schedule. I know this year is not normal due to Covid-19. One that popped out to me is West Texas. Their first two games are Canadian and Stratford. For a north panhandle area 2a team you are not going to find a much tougher test starting out the season unless you jump up 2 or more classes. Canadian Game was not pretty, but hopefully the Stratford game looks better. I hope they do not get any injuries.
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Comanchealumni06
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Re: Strength of Pre-District Schedule

Post by Comanchealumni06 »

Shiner has never strayed away from tough competition in predistrict. Always playing bigger schools. Look at this season, 3AD1 #8 Hallettsville, 3AD1 Blanco, 4AD2 Smithville and 3AD2 #6 East Bernard. Before the reschedule they had 3AD2 Poth and 3AD1 #5 Wall on the schedule.

Even in my day we always played a classification up. And at the time Yoakum was 2 classes up and was an annual scrimmage for us.
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tbpanther
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Re: Strength of Pre-District Schedule

Post by tbpanther »

Iron sharpens iron.
Summer conditioning can minimize some injury issues.
I'd rather go 0-5 through preseason with a deep playoff run than 5-0 and one-and-done.
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Eagle 1
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Re: Strength of Pre-District Schedule

Post by Eagle 1 »

Strength of schedule is important, and San Saba is proof of that the last two years. If you notice they stepped it up this year.
I always like to start off with the weakest team in the first week and then work your way up. But most coaches don’t have that option.
dripdrop
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Re: Strength of Pre-District Schedule

Post by dripdrop »

tbpanther wrote: Fri Sep 04, 2020 10:12 am Iron sharpens iron.
Summer conditioning can minimize some injury issues.
I'd rather go 0-5 through preseason with a deep playoff run than 5-0 and one-and-done.
2 years ago Albany went 0-5 then won 9 in a row losing in the state semi final
Windthorstfan
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Re: Strength of Pre-District Schedule

Post by Windthorstfan »

I think the most important thing is to know your team. Don’t want to get crushed every week but at the same time all cupcakes do you no good either.
PurplePunch
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Re: Strength of Pre-District Schedule

Post by PurplePunch »

If you are a legit challenger, you want a challenging schedule; if you are building you want a mix; if you ARE a cupcake you want other cupcakes. You can’t build a program until you can compete, and getting your brains beat out weekly doesn’t build a program. Conversely, when you build and become competitive you have to give up cupcakes. :)
Windthorstfan
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Re: Strength of Pre-District Schedule

Post by Windthorstfan »

PurplePunch wrote: Sun Sep 06, 2020 11:10 am If you are a legit challenger, you want a challenging schedule; if you are building you want a mix; if you ARE a cupcake you want other cupcakes. You can’t build a program until you can compete, and getting your brains beat out weekly doesn’t build a program. Conversely, when you build and become competitive you have to give up cupcakes. :)
EXACTLY!
Albanyfan0678
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Re: Strength of Pre-District Schedule

Post by Albanyfan0678 »

depends on your district I think. if it's not very good then I think you should have one cupcake as your opener. Then a mix match of one team you don't know if you can beat and the rest all playoff quality teams regardless of classification or division. Some districts can't prepare your team for the playoffs so some tough non district games games will help provide the lessons your team needs for the playoffs and then you will have district to practice and apply those lessons. On the flip side if your district is a slaughter house then I say have a game you don't know you can win in week one followed by a string of cup cakes with 1 playoff quality team from your classification before the bye week. Perfect seasons feel great but are pretty risky going week by week not knowing where your limits are I think.
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