climbing up on soapbox
I agree 100% with this. There were games going on where the clock was never used. It is part of the rules and is part of the Dixie League game. This needs to be enforced and the coaches can play a major role in helping enforce this.
I think some guys did not want to make a big deal of it if their opponent was not starting their clock because they did not want to offend anyone or create tension. You know, if you keep saying something or start enforcing incompletions when the clock runs out, then you are said to be a jerk or ***hole.
What is most frustrating is when the clock beeping like crazy because time has run out and the offense is still passing or has not picked the stick up and incomplete is called and they argue that they had the stick up 5 seconds after the clock starting beeping. I saw it happen more than once.
Then you can say, "well if both coaches agree not to enforce the clock it is no big deal. It doesn't impact or hurt anyone else." I disagree. Those games without the clock drag on forever. Some of those games were approaching 3 hours or longer in length. If you play the clock and it is enforced, you can get a game in in less than 2 hours, easy. What happens is you may have one coach waiting on another game to end before you can start your next game and you have coaches sitting around waiting and waiting. It slows down the whole process and the whole day.
I will say that this was the first time that we used the clock to this extent in the Dixie League and there were a lot of coaches who were uncomfortable with it, although we used a 40 second passing clock in years past. Maybe we should give those guys some slack for that. But, the clock should be used and enforced during the playoffs and championships.
climbing off soapbox
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