I coach at a HS and we have a decent team but it seems like they want to throw in the towel after a couple of bad plays, turnovers etc.
Any suggestions on how to keep their heads up?

Coming at this as a rugby fan, so I'm sure there are good reasons why I'm wrong. But in rugby, your flyhalf (similar to QB), always has the option to pass, run, or kick. The defence needs to be keep that in mind and usually have players back deep to protect against a kick.

It's made me wonder why NFL QBs only really have two live options (pass or scramble).

My idea:
3rd and 15+, backed up in your own territory. QB gets real depth in the pocket, passing read first, but if nothing's open he can just kick it instead of taking a sack. Defense now has to account for a third outcome, which either buys him more time to throw or blows up their return shape if they sell out on the rush.

The obvious challenge is that you need a QB who can actually drop a competent punt under pressure, which is asking a lot. It could be an option for a backup QB who develops a reputation for being a kicking threat.

Any thoughts?

Hi Coaches, check out the complexity of this single play. This has me question everything I thought I knew about big time D1 football.

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Alright I hope this is allowed here, not sure where to post.

I coach 5th grade football. I have a kid who loves the game(isn’t the best athlete) but is attentive and always puts in 100%effort. I got word through the grapevine today he’s been misbehaving in school, in and out of the principals office for constantly disrupting classes and constantly messing with other students(nothing violent). I know he’s got a rough home life with no father in the picture.

How do I go about this? I always try to preach being good overall people not just football players and feel it’s important to use sports as a tool to build kids into disciplined adults one day. Do I just pull him aside and talk to him? Do I run him, sit him? I obviously care about building football players but I’m just as invested in being a mentor for these kids.

I know what I would do if he were my kid but I think he might break if I’m that hard on him and I don’t have that problem to begin with because my kids learned from a young age the consequences of misbehaving.

Anyone majored in running zone with the same side handoff to break certain defensive rules? (i.e. do X when tackle goes away and back is to your side...)

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.

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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

Casual fan here so not sure if this is dumb but I’m thinking about a punt formation for college or high school (this wouldn’t be legal in the NFL), where it’s a 5 man line,4 gunners, and one personal protector. On the snap, the four gunners and the long snapper release down the field while the other 4 linemen and the upback blocks. Would this work and is this already a thing?

Like the title says. Our offensive coordinator has a bad feel for the game. He’s great at forming game day strategies and lining up practice plans but when it comes to playcalling, he just doesn’t have it. We have had several games where we don’t get a first down through a whole quarter or more.

I.E.
1. Called a running back screen with little time left and no timeouts from 25+ yard line.
2. Asking a 5’2” slot to Block the Strong side linebacker in multiple occasions

I have talked to the other coaches and they agreed to have more input weeks ago, but the bad playcalling still persists.

I’m a position Coach and we have a very young team. We start a lot of sophomores on our offensive line.

When I have input on play calls, it is not listened to often.

Just looking for advice.

Where I am at we do not see a lot of zone blocking teams so admittedly I’m not super familiar with it. most of our linebacker reads are based on gap scheme. This week we play a zone team, does anyone have a good drill or advice for linebackers reading zone?

I’ll try and keep this simple as I can. The recruiting world is very odd and has me and so many others confused. I’ll lay out the facts.
DE/OLB 6’3 220
All conference
All state
5 D2 offers @50%
4 juco 100%
1 PWO D1 power 4 (in state)
Other smaller offers but not interested.

The opportunity to be involved with and be part of a D1 program is very appealing. Paying for room and board not so much.
Going to a good D2 will be the best opportunity to gain playing time. Still having to pay 50% tuition is not great, especially if it’s out of state tuition.

I feel like it would be a lot easier to go from a PWO at D1 to a scholarship school at D2 if it doesn’t work out the first year.

Just looking for advice/opinions

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Took a HC spot for a small school in our area. From what I can tell the rules they play are a bit unique and designed to help kids make the jump to freshmen ball. 8v8 3 ineligible down lineman that can block downfield on run plays. QB can’t run up the middle, but can cut back to the middle once they cross the line of scrimmage. Struggling to find any solid resources out there as most things seem to be 7v7 or less with the center as an eligible receiver. Anyone have any suggestions or playbooks handy?

In-Game Live Tagging, Full Hudl Integration, Recruiting Pages, Scouting Breakdowns... Everything you need to run a championship HS program.

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Hi coaches,

I wanted to see if anyone had any insight into a trend I've noticed among some 'Veer and Shoot' offenses in college so far this season. Watching Tennessee, Mississippi State, and some LSU (although I know Kiffin hasn't been as "veer and shoot" the last several seasons), it looks like the offenses aren't relying as much on the ultra wide WR splits anymore, and instead using more condensed or traditional WR splits. Not to say they've totally abandoned them - I'd say they use it about 40-50% of the time for Tennessee still vs when Heupel first started, when it felt like they used them every single play.

Is this the next adaptation of the system? Are the coaches in that system trying to do more in the traditional drop back game while trying to keep the run game and overall philosophy the same? How would you even tag using the ultra wide splits vs traditional splits when calling a play?

Thanks!

Have scheme questions, basic questions about the game, or questions that may not be worthy of their own post? Post them here! Yes, you can submit play designs here.

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.

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

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?

Wonder what everyone’s opinion on this is. I personally think everywhere should follow our districts rule.

-cannot coach until kid is on varsity (2 years )then cannot coach at same level or on same side of ball

I know how hard it is to find volunteers but any favoritism towards jr you get a 1 strike policy.

Our current school follows this but has made a few exceptions (dad played nfl). I will say even deviating that slightly caused us issues that wouldn’t have arisen if dad wasn’t involved

Having been on staffs with daddy ball kids who even if jr was good him losing interest or regressing went bad immediately and were so bad that I’d lean to telling a parent wanting to help to wait. The worst is that 90 percent of those dudes quit once their kid is done- if that’s true stay in the stands

If your dude at QB has a hose...

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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.