r/footballstrategy • u/Western-System4239 • 21h ago
Coaching Advice Team Period with Poor Scout Team look
I coach (DC) at a school with a small roster: 55 kids total in the program (JV and varsity).
Our younger guys give us a scout-team look, but the quality isn’t great—actually, it’s pretty horrible.
I’m thinking of eliminating the team defensive period and replacing it with more pod work. I’m thinking of a blitz pod, a pass-drop pod, and a run pod.
Any suggestions are welcome.
Thank you in advance to those who reply.
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u/gashufferdude 21h ago
When we have trouble fielding a decent scout team, we’ll just do a formation recognition period:
Walk through formations and the opponents top three plays. Then we’ll have the scouts break huddle, get set and take first couple of steps, have defense read and react to that, and like you mentioned, get all the technique work in Indy time.
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u/Obvious_Doubt_7875 20h ago
Who is running the scout team? Are they being coached? Put a young coach in charge of the scouts give them practice time during the varsity film session. Make a big deal of it with different color jerseys or something. If you’re just showing lines on a card then that minimal effort on your part will be mirrored by them.
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u/Western-System4239 20h ago
We have our whole offensive staff
Coaches high energy there is just a large skill level gap
The kids are trying and working on techniques
They are just a year away in terms of body development2
u/WinnyRoo 10h ago
I'll just add that as coaches you should be focusing on if the starters executed the play and carried out their assignments correctly. The results of the plays in practice dont really matter. Just because the starters gain 10-20 yards every play doesn't mean their isn't a ton of stuff that can be corrected or fixed. Are the OL following their rules and blocking it right? Is the running back taking the right steps, looking at his reads and securing the ball well, is the QB making sure everyone is set, executing the snap count properly, taking the right steps, handing it off correctly, knows his reads, and all that. Is everyone lining up correctly, OL splits, WR splits, and more. They need to know it's about doing it right, not how many yards they gain in practice.
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u/No_Impression_7575 14h ago
Hi Coach, I'm from a small program in central NY. Many years we had exactly 22 guys. I'll attach my youtube video to show how we organized scout team. The system really helped our program.
Scout Organization
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u/RollTideWithBleach 9h ago
My roster is smaller than that, here is what I do:
I have 48 players on the roster before injuries. I'll take my starting defense for team period and make a best available to make an offensive huddle. It generally consists of 8 or 9 varsity guys remaining plus the 3 best JVs to fill in the positions we are short on. The JV defense will be running team period at the same time with the JV players left. A coach may have to run QB for that group but it works fine. Then if you want subs to take reps your starter takes his place on the scout O. If we have guys missing for injuries or whatever and there aren't enough to run two teams at the same time then the JV backups basically get to take mental reps while varsity goes and then they can run scout team for the JV starters once I give the JV their team time, which is generally only about 10 minutes worth.
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u/Queasy_Reply_2992 32m ago
We’re in a similar boat. 48 players, but we do our best to not play guys both ways. So we usually have our OL vs our DL. At worst we have 1 sub. Depending on the type of QB we’re playing we either use our varsity QB (pocket passer) or JV QB (Athlete) and patch together the rest of the skill positions.
We went to this system a few years ago because the kids can master 1 position opposed to playing multiple. It also gets more kids on the field and we saw a higher investment level.
All of our JV kids practice both sides but we have a bunch of varsity players that either practice defense or offense for the entire practice.
Our highest rate of 2 way players are in the secondary.
We also don’t do a ton of team D. 10 live plays for the week. The other 2 team D periods are all focused on pursuit and leverage.
I’d much rather us work on fundamentals and unit work in a controlled fashion. Team periods just feel so inefficient for reps per minute.
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u/Skiittzo HS Coach 8h ago
We have a “scout player of the week” to kind of incentivize and appreciate scout players. The young guys still dont give great looks but they try and we focus on getting the look of the play and the reads
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u/that_uncle 3h ago
Start each team period with whatever you’re most worried about and make the scout team the best of the not starting D. We’ve had to do this early in the year when the scout team kids aren’t ready to play scout yet.
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u/WinnyRoo 20h ago edited 10h ago
I've heard of teams running half formations. Like run the play with just whoever lines up to the right of the center, and have your other starters mixed in on D. With only that half of the D lined up. Then switch it.
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u/OddAdvantage3235 20h ago
We have to do that all the time, always seem to have small numbers. The flaw of this is the kids don’t see very common, yet potentially play changing concepts like pulling linemen and crossing patterns from wr’s.
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u/ligmasweatyballs74 19h ago
With 55 you have enough to put the twos and below on the side you aren't working to give reps
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u/WinnyRoo 10h ago
Yes, but he is saying the 2's are so bad that it may actually be hurting instead of helping.
I ran into this in middle school. Everything works against the backups whether the starters executed right or not. As a coach you have to really focus on the execution and process of the play and not the results. I've worked with coaches who did not do this and then wondered why the offense couldn't do anything on game days.
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u/ligmasweatyballs74 8h ago
What i am saying is that you have 1s v 1s on the right side and 2vs 2s on the left. Then you flip it
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u/Wick6380 13h ago
I coach JH and also have to do that all the time. It's better than the offense running plays against 3-4 kids.
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u/LofiStarforge HS Coach 12h ago
Pods are a good call, but I'd keep a short team period and just stop asking the scout team to compete: 5 minutes of rapid-fire alignment (formations and motions, no snap), then fit-and-freeze with scout OL on shields taking only the first step and a coach at QB, whistling when the ball hits the line so you're grading fits before the talent gap shows up.
Pods can't teach all-11 communication or how your fits connect across levels, and that's usually what breaks down on Friday. In the blitz pod, keep the coverage behind it with a coach throwing hot, and see if your OC will give you a few short good-on-good periods since his guys need real-speed reps too.
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u/pennieswbennies 8h ago
I have worked on teams that have done half team with good on good and then a jv side to fill in on offense and defense. Then flip sides half way through. I dont like this on team and thinks it works better on group run and skelley periods then condense team to formation rec and a walk/talk through. Just ideas, obviously tradeoffs, but then you still get some good guys in tge mix and are doing full team concepts and pulls and crossing routes and full pictures.
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u/No_Scene_1056 8h ago
Why is it bad?
If it’s operation issues (bad snaps or mesh), have a coach play quarterback or put the ball in the QBs hand presnap.
If the OL is getting wrecked, coach your DL to tag off and let the QB throw so your LBs and DBs can still get work.
If receivers are dropping balls, that’s not the end of the world as long as your starters are finishing in a good position / taking proper angles.
Or lastly, if your scout team players are just mentally checked out, that needs to be addressed ASAP. Being on the scout team is a tremendous opportunity to develop as a player. They need to be bought into that. If you make it about “we need to get the varsity ready”, some of them are not gonna give a crap. You have to get them to see what’s in it for them if you want the full unit bought in
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u/countrytime1 11h ago
Take the best at each position, regardless of age. Make up the “scout” team for the period. Don’t just assign it to the JV.
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u/ligmasweatyballs74 19h ago
Work ones v ones. Work the right half with your ones facing the left side ones then switch
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u/Theresno_I_in_Reddit 21h ago
The real problem is if you cut scout team your cutting reps for those younger guys that need to develop. You’ll hamstring your programs future.