CMS Eagles shift to eight-man football
Cutter Morning Star head football coach Matt Kinsinger announced Wednesday that the Eagles will be making the switch from
11-man football to eight-man for the 2021 season.
“After much thought, delibration and prayer, I am excited to announce that we will be playing eight-man football this fall,” the announcment on the school’s website said. “With fluctuating roster sizes year to year, it is difficult to consistently field competitive
11-man team. It will be a tremendous opportunity for the players to compete against other schools with similar roster sizes and to build a winning tradition at CMS.”
Kinsinger said that with just 25 players on the roster this past season, the team struggled, finishing with a winless 0-10 record.
“There were games where I had 13 or 14 that were able to play,” he said. “There was discipline issues or injuries. There were some games where I felt I was putting my kids in a situation that wasn’t safe. … If the kid is extremely fatigued, and he’s played every snap — which I have several kids do that for me. I’m so thankful they had the heart to do that. That is extremely difficult to do.
“To play at a high level on every snap, on offense, on defense, on kickoff, on kickoff return, on punt, on punt return, never leave the field. That can become a big challenge. Not just trying to survive the game, but playing at a high performance trying to win games, trying to push for playoffs and be healthy. It takes a lot of different things like that to be competitive week in and week out.”
While Kinsinger was familiar with the idea of eight-man football, like many coaches who consider the switch from eight-man, his pride got in the way.
“My mind was set on making it work, and I was pretty convicted a couple weeks ago about my thought process, and I felt like it was a very selfish one,” he said. “As I thought more about our struggles at school and trying to build a program with a winning culture, I thought the eight-man option was going to give us a really good chance to do that.
“Once I submitted to that and realized
that is a viable option, it became more and more clear that it was the best option. I just started to explore and really think about it and call a lot of folks and talk through it, just seek wise counsel — it became more and more clear that it’s the best thing for the kids and the best thing for the program.”
The change to eight-man football will be for the two-year cycle and at that point, the school will have to decide whether or not they will continue with eight-man or go back to 11-man for 2023-2024.
“I’m not looking to exercise that option right away,” said Kinsinger. “I’m looking to help us build something sustainable in the years to come. The more I look at it — it does have a negative connotation of why you’re going to eight-man, but I’m thinking to myself that there’s a lot of positives to this.”
Kinsinger said that while eight-man football is still in its infancy in Arkansas, he believes it is going to be good for the Eagles.
“I think it’s a good thing,” he said. “Football right now is challenging because of participation. I just think it’s kind of a general thing right now. I don’t know why. I can’t tell you why. Just from and ran wide when a distant second in the Martha Washington. Sun Path, a Munnings homebred for Juddmonte Farms, has an 83 Beyer, tops in the field, from her last start at 2, a double-digit allowance romp at Fair Grounds.
Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer hast two meet wins with former McPeek runner West Side Girl, keeping Francisco Arrieta in the saddle. Pauline’s Pearl, a Tapit filly bred and owned by Curlin’s people talking to people — not just in Arkansas, not just in small schools, but big schools. I’ve got guys that I know that I’ve played ball with that are in California, Georgia. The participation numbers are decreasing and bigger programs can absorb some of that. They lose 10 kids and that’s 10 or 12% of their overall participation numbers. If I lose five or six kids, that’s a pretty high percentage. That becomes a big deal.”
Some of the differences in eight-man football are more noticeable than others. There will be only five players on the line of scrimmage versus seven, and the field is 40 feet narrower.
“If you can envision a regular field right now, the bottom of the numbers will be the out of bounds,” he said. “The length of the field will still be 100 yards (and) the goalposts will still be the same. Everything is just kind of moved in a little bit. I think the biggest disadvantage is on the defense when you switch over to eight-man. You lose a defensive lineman, a linebacker and a defensive back. Trying to keep yourself pretty sound defensively — from all the people I’ve spoken to, defense is one of the biggest challenges. … I think there’s a (Stonestreet Stable), finished three quarters back of Will’s Secret in the Honeybee after a congested trip and splitting horses. Her dam, Hot Dixie Chick, is a Grade 1-winning half-sister to 2017 Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming.
Still, Take Charge Lorin has as much room to grow as any Fantasy starter. Her dam is a full sister to multiple Grade 1 winner Omaha Beach, the 2019 Arkansas Derby and Rebel winner at Oaklawn, chance for it to be a bit more higher scoring, faster-paced, and it may end up being more exciting to come watch. A different type of game maybe, in that sense.”
Kinsinger noted the overall response towards the change has been positive.
“The kids are excited about it,” he said. “That’s another good thing. So they really accepted it really well. I wasn’t really sure how it was going to be accepted. I think there are a few folks out there that are old school — changing is not something that would be an option for them but I feel that some others folks understand that if things won’t change, you have to make the change. … Sometimes you’ve got to think outside the box.”
Overall, Kinsinger thinks that the change is a positive one for the program.
“I think it’s gonna be advantageous for our program to be able to grow,” he said. “Heck, if I ever have 30 kids on a squad playing eight-man football, I’d feel like I’m at Lake Hamilton with 80 kids. I’ll be on a two-platoon. I’ll have an offensive group, defensive group, special teams. It’ll be something. It’ll be really unique if that’s the way it plays out. I think that it’s a great opportunity.” and a half-sister to Take Charge Brandi. The latter filly won the Martha Washington in early 2015 but was knocked off the Oaks trail with a bone chip while working for an anticipated start against males in the Rebel.
“We’ve got a good shot,” said Horton, not the first horse owner who wanted to be two places on the same day. He has hopes of seeing both in action April 30 under the twin spires at Churchill Downs.