Louisiana Tech's Jack Bicknell and Alabama's Mike Shula faced essentially the same coaching decision during blowout games last week.

Trailing Miami 34-0 at halftime, Bicknell opted not to play star running back Ryan Moats in the second half to protect him from possible injury. Moats, the nation's leading rusher, will be back on the field Saturday to face Tennessee.

Contrast that with what happened at Alabama.

After the Tide led Western Carolina 31-0 at the half, Shula decided to play quarterback Brodie Croyle in the first series of the third quarter. Croyle suffered a season-ending knee injury, a torn anterior cruciate ligament, as he was scrambling on third down. The Tide's coach has been criticized for sending Croyle back into a one-sided contest.

The decisions by Bicknell and Shula underscore a dilemma football coaches often face. What is a safe lead, or an insurmountable deficit?

At what point in a blowout should a coach take out his star players to guard against injury? If a coach on the losing end of a blowout takes out his starters early, fans accuse him of giving up. If he leaves the starters in, an injury can jeopardize the rest of the season.

Tennessee offensive coordinator Randy Sanders said there have been numerous times since he has been with the Vols that he has changed plays or substituted to protect key players.

"Against UNLV we had a few more quarterback runs designed going into the game," Sanders said Tuesday. "One of the other coaches mentioned, 'Why don't we run such and such?' I was like, 'No way we're going to run that at this point.'

"In the Vanderbilt game in 2002, it was 24-0 at halftime. There were several throws to the tight end that were available but I didn't want to get Jason Witten hurt. And there were several times in that same season we just handed it off, or threw it fast, so Casey (Clausen) wouldn't get hit."

In 1990, Tennessee star running back Chuck Webb suffered a torn ACL on a carry in a 55-7 romp over Pacific. Webb's injury occurred less than two minutes into the game with the score 7-0. As a result, Johnny Majors faced no second-guessing why he still had Webb in the game. Still, Sanders remembers the coaching staff talking about when to take out the starters during the Pacific game.

"In the same game we almost lost (receiver) Carl Pickens when he was running a crossing route and a guy hit him right in the knee,'' Sanders said.

"After that happened we basically pulled most of our starters."

Bicknell indicated he probably would have played Moats in the second half if Miami hadn't scored against Louisiana Tech on its opening third-quarter drive.

"Down 41-0 against Miami, you don't like to give up but that's not a good situation," Bicknell said this week.

"I would have been so upset if I had kept him in there and he ended up getting hurt. We put in some young running backs so we could take a look at them. If you know you aren't going to win the game, take a look at some other people and make sure he (Moats) stays healthy for games down the road that you can win.

"There have been instances where you say, 'OK, we're going to put in the No. 2 unit whether we are up or down, and then sure enough you get a guy hurt before that.' I can remember that happening to one of our offensive linemen at New Hampshire."

At Alabama, Croyle's injury could be devastating to the Tide. It isn't the first time Shula has heard criticism that he unnecessarily risked injury to Croyle. Last year, Croyle was sent back into a game when the Tide was being drubbed by Georgia 30-3.

Shula explained his decision not remove his starting quarterback from the Western Carolina game despite the 31-0 lead.

"It's a tough call to make," he said. "We talked at halftime about going one more drive with them (starters). That was going to be the point where we were going to draw the line. Unfortunately, third down was where he got hurt."

Gary Lundy may be reached at 865-342-6274.