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T-boneisGood":1hlemp36 said:WindthorstFan3":1hlemp36 said:Here is the conundrum for Munday: according to the TEA enrollment reports for the next 6 years they will have 6-man enrollment but in 2025 their current enrollment jumps up to 127 and in 2027 even higher to 136. After going 0-10 and either 2-8 or 1-9 this year, their program is trending down but it's difficult to maintain a program if you have to teach the kids a totally different game. Their 3-4 graders went 4-3 in a league against Archer City, Electra, Olney, Petrolia, Quanah, and Windthorst while the 5-6 graders went 3-4. Unless UIL sends them west or south those are possible district opponents in the future.
Disagree on only 1 point. I have coached both games, they are not totally different. A good friend of mine made the same observation after coaching both. It went something like, once I realized it (6-man) is still running, blocking and talking everything went smooth. Different? Yes. Totally different? No. Just an academic discussion and offering a different perspective.
On another note, the gentleman in the article that said it feels like giving up, I think he meant giving up on community growth, not necessarily that 6man is an inferior game. While I love sixman, I think he is right. If the community goal is to have a larger student population and community, then ride out these tough years in 11 man especially when there appears to be a time coming that the numbers for competitive 11 man will return. Just know its the kids in the middle that pay the price for that decision and seems like they are on board.
I have thought about this question quite a bit as someone who played and coached both sports. The fundamentals are virtually the same, although I would personally tolerate poor tackling more in sixman than 11-man because forcing turnovers is critical.
In my opinion, the "tight" game in sixman is virtually identical to 11-man while the sixman "spread game" is very different. Without going into a ton of detail, a player in sixman spread simply needs to "run out" for a pass in order to "block" someone. If a coach spaces his guys out correctly, he will force the defense to either A. defend his spread back 1 on 1 OR rush 2 at his spreadback, numerically leaving a receiver open. While it seems like tight is making a comeback in recent years, this is the classical sixman dilemma that makes the sport unique.
With that said, however, the offensive linemen in 11-man create more variables by virtue of the fact they cannot run out for a pass. If the QB tries to run, he has potentially 6 guys running after him (the 5 players "covering the offensive linemen" plus the guy "covering" the QB.) This allows 11-man defenses to compete because they can play zone, man, or any combination of the two. 11-man comes down to each lineman blocking the guy in front of him, each receiver beating their man OR finding a hole in the zone, and each back carrying/blocking/or catching the ball effectively. All the Leach, Briles, and Kelly, spread stuff would work much better in sixman minus taking into account for the fact the guy that takes the snap cannot run.
One could make a strong argument that sixman is about manipulating the fact that one guy should not be able to tackle the other teams premier player one on one on an 80 by 40 field. Then again, a sixman team can choose to play smashmouth, knock the other team off the ball in an 11-man fashion, and it can be tough to stop. I think the extreme variety in play styles makes the sport unique.
I probably shouldn't say this, and feel free to delete this comment Granger if you think it might inspire what I am about to say, but sixman would be much more like 11-man if the center was ineligible. *Using "Men in Black Device" on UIL people reading this post*