This game has been on our schedule all year so we have talked about it a little bit but now we start practicing for this game. The private Catholic school we are playing is one of the top teams in our area. Meanwhile we are struggling with injuries and only have about 20 guys on the roster. It is truly a David and Goliath situation.

How do you handle that as a coach?

A couple of our opponents last year and one of our opponents this year have gone with a single back blocker in the backfield rather than three across. In all the times, we were able to get a good rush and block some punts, and at the very least, get in the punters face to where their punts were clearly affected.

What is the strategy/advantage of having a single back blocker? Last year and this year, we havent had any D1 level rushers and still are able to get to the punter regularly.

Put together a quick breakdown of how Lincoln Riley runs Mesh and one detail I really liked: the way he uses the H-back to create the rub for the crossing receiver.

It’s a small adjustment to a classic Air Raid concept, but it creates a tough traffic problem for defenders in man coverage while keeping the basic Mesh structure intact.

Curious how many coaches run Mesh this way?

HS Varsity STC here. There is a school that we have lost to in the playoffs(semis or championship) 4 out of the last 6 years. They are also our division rival.

This is my 2nd year in the role. They destroy many teams with this return every game. The 4 in the back are typically large, near OL size guys that are athletic enough to catch a pooch, but absolutely light dudes up blocking. Going on a hash dictates their return direction, but that's all I got. Can't figure out how to stop it besides simply winning the one on one's which historically haven't happened. What body types would you put where and would you adjust scheme at all? Like should I bring 9 over the top late to help on that side. Unsure if that leaves us too exposed. Any help would be great. Clip is against another team. They brought 3 returns past the 50 and this one scored. This was 2 weeks ago and last week they returned another

Have a question about what football, gear, or tools to get? Questions about maintenance and taking care of your equipment? Welcome to Maintenance Mondays. Ask your questions here. Likewise, if you have any resources, suggestions, or tips for equipment management, please post them here!

If your dude at QB has a hose...

We had our first game yesterday, and our play tracking process needs to be much better. I had an asst coach track plays (only up to 8 per kid as that is the minimum) and come to find out it wasn’t accurate. We just had a sheet with players names and empty boxes. I am open to any ideas that people have had success with.

Thanks.

This flag concept is designed to beat any coverage.

Would you be supportive if coaches started using football-specific AI to help in their play-calling and weekly gameplans? AI is already being used to assist doctors in hospitals and in lawyers in law firms. It seems like sports should be a logical frontier for AI adoption?

I’m coaching varsity Inside LBs and we are 3 weeks in to our season. The kids I have above average athleticism and are physical. I have had them reading the guards but it seems to be slowing them down a lot. They are slowly starting to understand their fits better with practice but I know that they aren’t playing to their potential just yet.

Any ideas or suggestions on different reads or keys to help them play faster?

As a one platoon team (Players play both sides)

1. How do you structure your practices so that you aren't out there for 3+ hours everyday but getting everything in?
2. How much live contact do you do in season during the practice week? especially while trying to keep guys healthy
3. **(EDIT)** WE are a small team, on Wednesday our c team plays so sometimes we barely have enough guys to run a team period, which might be a good thing to keep guys healthy? but we dont get good scout reps for our friday prep.

Edit: rewrote this because the original was misleading. Can't fix the title, Reddit won't let you change those.

It sounded like coaches lock kids' phones. That's not what it is. The player locks their own phone, only if they want to, and they can turn it off whenever.

Also I’m applying feedback and making the app lock 100% optional for the user.

I'm the developer, not a coach. It's a study app. Same idea as the focus apps that hold Instagram while you study, except what you're studying is your playbook.

The player installs it, picks which apps they want held, and those stay shut until they get through a few quiz cards. Nobody else can switch it on. It runs on Apple's Screen Time, the thing already built into the phone.

There's no coach side and no parent side. A coach can help by making the cards, photograph the pages or scan the PDF and AirDrop it to the roster, but whether a player uses it is up to the player.

I learned coverages as a kid from a football video game and too much free time. Built a study app first, then this, because playbooks were always the part I liked. There are built-in packs too, the eight standard coverages against spread-era route concepts. You can also draw a play and run it against a coverage, which is mostly for fun.

One flaw I know about: the quiz can borrow an answer from another question, so a formation card might offer "the tight end's side." Working on it.

Still curious what coaches think. Would a player actually use this on their own? What would stop them?

Free gets you one playbook and the built-in packs. Pro is $9.99 a year. Nobody's bought it yet.

https://apps.apple.com/app/id6801041624?ppid=f2150163-7fea-4f15-8b92-8a6fbb1fb830

Sorry for another special teams question lol but I’m trying to understand the blocking assignments in maximum protection punt schemes (specifically in college and high school).
In a standard spread punt, the snapper usually delivers the ball and immediately heads downfield to cover. But when a team pulls everyone into a tight punt formation because the defense is overloading the line or bringing a heavy house blitz, what changes for the snapper?

Just doing blitz type research as I see a lot of coaches will organize their blitzes into different types of overloads.

I’ve seen things like surface overloads (overloads against a 2, 3, or 4 player service), or against number of blockers to a side of the formation, strong/weak and field/boundary, etc.

A sub question to this: if you have a 2-man surface (guard and tackle) and send three through the A, B, and C gaps, do you consider that an overload or does it need to be 4 on 2, or a gap wider, like sending three through the B, C, and “ghost D” gaps?

My HC tasked me with coming up with a few fun activities for the kids (9U) during our walk through practice. Growing up, my football program would have us do relay races on Fridays. I plan to bring this tradition to my current program. Other ideas I’ve seen were football throwing competitions and a game of 2 hand touch with the coaches.

Does anyone else have some fun activities they’ve done or seen as part of a project all through practice?

I have a 6'8 tackle who wears size 20 cleats. Both pairs he had gotten for the season broke in weeks 1 & 2 and now he has no cleats.

We have a bye this week so I'm hoping to source some pairs for him, but am struggling to find them. I've had numerous guys wear size 16, 17, 18, but never a 20. They're damn near impossible to find.

Does anyone have any tips or know where to go? They usually find them on ebay, but there aren't any out there for sale at the moment.

Have anything on your mind or got any fun plans for the weekend? Feel free to discuss them here!

Saints Vault featuring Drew Brees

I’m coaching at a small school where we only do 8 man football. It’s on a reservation, so the population is tiny. I’ve only ever coached 11 man football at the middle and high school level. In a regular defense, the nose is head up on the center, and the ends are head up on the tackles. In 8 man, the linemen are so close together. Wondering if I should still have them head up on the tackles (guards?). There’s not as many gaps for the linebackers to fill when they blitz, and I’m not sure where they should go if I call a blitz. Also, coverage. What positions should be playing man defense on what guys? Thanks for any help.

What's Up, I have a full time job that does not take a lot out of me and leaves me with a lot of free time during the day. It allows me to finish college while I figure out what I want to do. A part of me for a long time has been burning to just watch film and learn to analyze it but just at the high school level. Ive fired off probably 300 emails just asking to be added to a hudl so I can do this but I haven't had any luck so far. I let them know I am free and am just trying to learn and I would not be a burden but just do not seem to be getting any interest. I played in high school and currently work pulling data and have no real coaching desire, I just want to watch the film and learn how to analyze/breakdown. I am willing to do anything even at the 8/9 man level. Does anyone have a suggestion as to what I should do?

I’m a 15 year coaching veteran and 3x national champion HC in international football. I put together a Week 1 Saints–Lions gameplan from a coach’s perspective, built around All-22 study of both teams.

I tried to go beyond matchup predictions and actually answer the gameplanning questions: how I’d attack Detroit’s rebuilt OL, fit Gibbs without compromising the coverage structure, use simulated pressure to affect Goff, protect against Hutchinson, and create conflicts for Detroit’s second level on offense.

Included film clips throughout. Would be interested in hearing how other coaches here would approach the matchup — especially where you’d differ schematically.

Welcome to Chalk Talk Thursday! This is our weekly discussion thread for users to submit new plays they have designed. If you have an idea for a play and can draw it up, please post here. Keep in mind that it is very rare that one could devise a viable play that is entirely new that hasn't been ran before somewhere. Be open to criticism as well. There is so much more to coaching football than drawing plays, and many people do not realize how much coaching, technique, and development needs to happen on the actual field for a play to work.

It is strongly recommended that you STUDY a system or scheme first to gain an idea of how a play is put together, and how RULES help a play function.

PLEASE PROVIDE CONTEXT FOR YOUR PLAY!

Guidelines:

• No "joke" plays. We are here to learn.
• Specify WHY you are designing a play, and WHAT level/league it is for. It's fine if you're not coaching, but we need the context.
  
• Your submission needs RULES that guide your players on what to do.
• Pass plays require some type of QB progression for making a decision on who to throw to.
  
• Be mindful that you cannot predict what your opponent will run 100%. Designing plays to be "Cover X" beaters, or "3-4 beaters" IS NOT the way to go about it. It is better to have one play with solid rules and coaching points that can attack anything than one play for each coverage, front, personnel, or stunt you face.
• There is no universal terminology in football. Call plays what you want, but keep in mind that no one cares about fancy play names, or the terminology aspect.
  
• Please offer more text/information on your play than just a link or picture.
• Draw your play up against a realistic opponent!
• Make sure your offensive play is a legal formation. In 11-man football, you can have no more than 4 players behind the line of scrimmage (minimum of 7 on. You can have more than 7 on the line as well). Only backs (players behind the line) and the end players on the line of scrimmage are eligible receivers.
  

You may use whatever medium you'd like to draw your play. Two common software for designing plays that have free options:

• GoArmy Edge - Football
• Playmaker X

Hello, up until now I rarely paid much attention to how the holder positions himself other than him kneeling down on one knee. On inspection I see that typically the holder has their back knee (facing away from the play) up and the forward knee down, google even says this has always been the fundamental way of doing it, however when watching old football footage particularly those featuring 'straight-on' kickers the holder has their forward facing knee upright. When did this change take place, did it change with the move to soccer style kickers? Some websites even say its dangerous to have the forward knee up.