Coaching 101: Clock Management

[TheTurningPoint]

WHEN TO KNEEL OUT A GAME

Northwestern called timeout with 1:36 on the clock, or 96 seconds. At this point, Notre Dame had the ball on second down.

Kneeling the ball takes approximately 41-43 seconds off the clock each time you do it. 40 seconds for the play clock, plus the time of the play.

If ND kneels the ball twice, they would've run the clock down to 10-14 seconds. At this point, it would've been 4th down. A punt takes approximately 6-10 seconds off the clock, and running a normal pass play where the ball is aired out deep would take approximately 7 seconds. A stretch running play on 4th down would take 3-5 seconds.

So no matter what you do, if you just kneel the ball Northwestern would get it back with 0 to 11 seconds and no timeouts, needing to go 40+ yards to get into field goal range. Impossible. The game was over.

Instead... Kelly's ignorance, hubris, or (insert reason) led him to inexplicably put the game at risk. And McDaniel coughed it up.

This isn't even touching on the large number of other mistakes he made throughout the game, such as going for 2 when the math says "lol no" or kicking field goals when the math says "more debatable, but still bad idea"... these aren't subjective opinions on play calling, this is inarguable statistics. And this is like the 4th or 5th game where he's made a boneheaded decision going against the math, but the first one where his self-inflicted wounds cost the team a victory.

He's trending into Brady Hoke territory in terms of "what the f*ck is this guy doing..." and someone needs to educate him.

You run to get the first down. Plain and Simple.

 

[greyhammer90]

You run to get the first down. Plain and Simple.

Agreed. The 2 point conversion was stupid, but you run the ball to get the first down. Put the game completely away. The chance of McDaniel dropping the ball there is extremely unlikely. You run the ball so that 1) You get a first down and officially kill the game, 2) If you don't get the first down you still give them the ball with 7 seconds left.

 

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

When it's the end of the game and you have a lead, you aren't playing an opponent. You are playing the clock. 3 knees, or 3 knees and a dropback to waste time, have a success rate of nearly 100%, while I've seen multiple games this year with critical fumbles in the last couple of minutes.

 

[enrico514]

i'll repeat what others have said... you run to get the first down. you tie the knee when you are certain there is no way they get the ball back.