How important are scrimmages?

By Jason Kersey
jkersey@oklahoman.com

I was talking with Tuttle coach Phil Koons this evening, asking him how practices were going and how his team’s first scrimmage against Watonga went last Thursday, and he gave some interesting answers.

There has been a lot of talk in the national media about whether the NFL should have preseason games. Lots of times, all they really do that impacts a team’s season is produce major injuries, like what happened to New York Giants last Saturday night when Pro Bowl defensive end Osi Umenyiora went down with a season-ending knee injury.

In 2003, the Atlanta Falcons’ season was ruined when Michael Vick went down with an injury in a preseason contest and missed 11 games.

Koons said he approaches scrimmages with a pro-style mentality.

“Play sound defense to where you’re not gonna get embarrassed and try things out on offense,” Koons said. “We know what our tailback (Paco Moore) can do; he rushed for 1,900 yards last year. We don’t have to prove what he can do to anybody.

“I approach it like the pros do. We may look at our ones a little bit, but we want to keep them healthy and look at kids that need to be evaluated.”

I’m sure he isn’t alone in that approach. I would bet that is how most coaches feel.