Youth Football Coaching Guide: Developing Middle Linebackers

1. Role of the Middle Linebacker (MLB)

The middle linebacker (often called the “quarterback of the defense”) is the leader of the defense. They are responsible for:

-Calling plays and adjustments on the field.

-Reading the offense (formation, backfield, linemen).

-Stopping the run by filling gaps and tackling.

-Dropping into coverage (zones, hooks, man-to-man on RB/TE).

-Keeping teammates aligned with correct positioning.

At the youth level, MLBs must be:

-Tough and physical. Your best defender!

-Smart, with good football instincts.

-Vocal leaders who communicate clearly.

-Consistent tacklers.

2. Stance & Alignment

Stance:

-Feet shoulder-width apart, toes pointed slightly inward.

-Knees bent, weight balanced on balls of feet.

-Chest slightly forward, back straight.

-Hands loose in front of thighs, ready to strike or move.

Alignment:

-3–5 yards off the line of scrimmage (closer in goal line situations).

-Directly over the center or shaded depending on defensive call.

-Head up, eyes scanning the backfield and offensive line.

3. Pre-Snap Keys & Reads

A middle linebacker must “read, react, and attack.”

Pre-Snap Checklist:

Identify offensive formation (balanced, unbalanced, trips, tight).

-Find the backs—who’s deep, who’s offset.

-Watch the guards—linemen usually tell the story.

Primary Reads:

Run reads: Watch the near guard’s first step.

-Down block → run to that side.

-Pull → follow puller (trap, counter, sweep).

-High hat (pass set) → drop into coverage.

Backfield keys:

-Fullback → first threat to hole.

-Tailback alignment → likely run direction.

QB drop → pass alert.

4. Responsibilities

Run Defense:

-Fill assigned gap quickly and with force.

-Take on blockers with proper technique (inside shoulder, leverage).

-Wrap up and finish tackles—never overrun.

Pass Defense:

-Drop to hook/curl zone (5–10 yards deep).

-Cover RB or TE if in man assignments.

-Keep eyes on QB but don’t drift out of zone.

Leadership:

-Call strength (strong side of formation).

-Adjust defense (shift line, backers, DBs).

-Keep defense calm and focused.

5. Drills for Middle Linebacker Development

A. Stance & Start

-Linebackers set in stance.

-On coach’s movement (ball snap), practice explosive first step toward read key.

B. Read & React Drill

-Coach lines up with a guard/center dummy.

-Guards simulate down block, pull, or pass set.

-MLB reads and reacts correctly.

C. Angle Tackle Drill

-Set ball carrier at 45° angle.

-MLB takes proper angle, breaks down, and wraps up.

D. Gap Fill Drill

-Cones mark gaps.

-Coach or RB runs through random gap.

-MLB fills quickly, squares up, and tackles.

E. Pass Drop Drill

-MLB starts in stance, on ball snap drops 7–10 yards.

-QB/coach passes—MLB reads QB eyes, breaks on ball.

F. Block Shedding Drill

-Offensive lineman (pad or shield) engages MLB.

-MLB uses hands and hips to shed, then makes tackle.

G. Pursuit Drill

-Entire defense runs pursuit angles to ball.

-MLB leads with correct angle, showing hustle and leadership.

6. Coaching Tips for Youth MLBs

Keep reads simple: “Read the guards. Flow to the ball.”

Teach patience: Don’t overrun plays—shuffle, then attack.

Emphasize tackling form: Head up, wrap, drive.

Promote communication: MLB should be loud and clear pre-snap.

Encourage leadership: Give them responsibility for defensive calls.

Build instincts: Film study, walk-throughs, and repetition create smarter linebackers.

7. Common Mistakes to Correct

Over-pursuit: Teach breakdown steps before contact.

Guessing plays: Stick to reads, don’t freelance.

Poor tackling: No arm tackling—always wrap and drive.

Quiet MLBs: Must communicate strength calls and adjustments.

Standing flat-footed: Keep weight on balls of feet, always ready.

8. Daily MLB Development Routine

1. Warm-up: Agility ladders, quick feet.

2. Stance/start reps: 10 reps.

3. Read & react: 10 reps each (down block, pull, pass).

4. Tackling circuit: Open-field, angle, gap.

5. Coverage reps: Hook/curl drops.

6. Film or whiteboard session: Review plays & alignments.

By mastering stance, reads, tackling, and leadership, your middle linebacker will truly become the “quarterback of your defense.”

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1) Too Many Plays / No System 

The biggest mistake that I see youth football coaches make is that they have too many plays installed. They have a bunch of plays but their kids haven’t mastered any of them. What you need to do is to have a couple core plays and get really good at those. Once your team has mastered you core plays you then can add tags, adjustments, and formations. When selecting core plays be sure to have plays that attack all areas of the field. For example- have an edge plays, have an off-tackle plays, have an interior play, have a counter play, and have two play-action passes off of your best run plays.

Keep in mind that it is always easier to add formations than it is to add plays. Get really good at your core plays, then add formations! You should run all of your core plays out of three formations- a balanced formation, an unbalanced formation, and a spread formation. This will allow you to be multiple, while keeping thing simple for your kids. When you have too many plays kids tend to get overwhelmed, which will lead to mistakes and slow / indecisive execution.

Why it fails:

-Kids get overwhelmed trying to memorize too many plays, formations, or shifts.

-Confusion leads to mental errors, busted plays, slow execution, and pre-snap penalties (false starts, illegal formations).

-Time in practice is spread too thin trying to install too much, leaving no time to master the basics.

Solution:

-Simplify the playbook. Stick to a handful of core plays that can be run from a couple formations.

-Rep those plays repeatedly in practice to build timing, confidence, and consistency.

-Select a system that you and your coaches can teach confidently and fluently.

4 Sections of the Explosive Offense Clinic (Clinic Curriculum)

The Explosive Offense Mastery Clinic gives you a proven 4-step blueprint to ignite your offense, create game-changing big plays, and turn every drive into a scoring opportunity.

1. Section 1: Running a System of Plays

2. Section 2: Using Formations to Create Alignment Conflict for the Defense

3. Section 3: Utilizing Motion to gain Leverage and Numbers Advantage over the Defense

4. Section 4: 3- Pillar Play Calling Strategy / No Huddle

Download / Learn More (YFO Website): Explosive Offense Mastery Clinic 

Download / Learn More (Social Media / Stan Store): Explosive Offense Mastery Clinic

2) Poor Offensive Line Play 

We have a saying- if you control the line of scrimmage, you will control the game. We all know that if you want to be successful all players have to be able to block. A lot of poor offensive line play stems from poor coaching. Many offensive linemen aren’t taught the proper technique for blocking. Offensive linemen don’t have any run schemes / blocking rules- they are told to block the defender in front of them. Many times kids don’t know who to block (no installed blocking rules / run schemes) so they become indecisive and play much slower. Pass blocking on the youth football level is typically really bad.

Why it fails:

-Linemen don’t know who to block or how to use proper technique.

-Offenses don’t have a structured attack / system, just a bunch of random plays.

-Teams struggle against even basic defensive fronts- because no blocking rules are given and repped.

-The line collapses under pressure, causing plays to break down before they start- pass protection.

Solution:

-Prioritize offensive line development in practice with dedicated position time.

-Focus on base blocking technique- starts with stance all the way to the finish.

-Implement down blocking it is an equalizer!

-Teach effort and physicality — even basic blocking can go a long way with proper intensity.

-Join our Winning Edge Coaches Community! It has a huge offensive line resource section.

-Download our Offensive Line Coaching Manual.

Join the Winning Edge Coaches Community

Join Today: Winning Edge Coaches Community 

3) Poor Utilization of Personnel 

In youth football, talent isn’t evenly distributed. You usually have a few standout athletes — and the key is to make sure they’re consistently involved in the offense. You have to understand the personnel you have and adjust your formations  and schemes accordingly. Coaches typically don’t do a good job utilizing formations to stress the defense. Coaches typically don’t move their stud player around to different positions which will stress the defense. Many coaches will try to put a square peg, through a round hole.

Why it fails:

-Coaches may use generic offensive systems without tailoring them to their team’s unique strengths.

-Some athletes are placed in the wrong positions.

-Coaches don’t utilize different formations create alignment conflict- too simple from a formation standpoint.

Solution:

-Identify your top 2–3 athletes and find creative ways to get them involved — handoffs, screens, jet sweeps, wildcat snaps.

-Adjust positions to maximize impact. If your fastest kid is playing guard, you’re missing an opportunity.

-Build your offense around your players, not the other way around.

-We created a resource that will help you pick the right offense for your team. Article: Selecting the Right Offense for Youth Football Team. 

4) Overly Complex Playbook

Many youth football coaches try to implement offensive systems that are too complicated for young athletes. This often stems from good intentions — wanting to emulate high school or college-level offenses — but it backfires.

Why it fails:

-Kids get overwhelmed trying to memorize too many plays, formations, or shifts.

-Confusion leads to mental errors, busted plays, and pre-snap penalties (false starts, illegal formations).

-Time in practice is spread too thin trying to install too much, leaving no time to master the basics.

Solution:

-Simplify the playbook. Stick to a handful of core plays that can be run from a couple formations. This will allow you to be multiple while keeping things simple for your kids.

-Rep those plays repeatedly in practice to build timing, confidence, and consistency.

-Get a playbook from our Playbook library! Our playbooks will provide you with a system of plays that all complement each other. We have playbooks for all age and team skill sets. Visit: YFO Playbook Library .

5) Inefficient Play Calling

Many youth football offensive coordinators will call plays just to call plays- they won’t have a structured play calling strategy. Another common mistake is that they won’t have a system of plays install that have answers for what the defense is doing. It’s important to understand that it takes a village to call an offense. The OC needs to have coaches watching the defense. Have a coach watch what the defensive ends are doing. Have a coach watch how the linebackers are aligning and have a coach look for when the defense puts in minim play players.

Watch our FREE Offensive Play Calling Strategy Clinic.

Why It fails:

-Installing too much too soon. Players will get overwhelmed and confused. Practice time is spread too thin across too many concepts. Execution suffers because of lack of execution.

-Forcing a system that doesn’t fit your players.

-Build the offense around the strengths of your team — not the other way around. Put your best athletes in position to make plays.

-Ignoring down-and-distance, red zone, or clock management during practice and games.

Solution 

-Install a small, core set of plays and build confidence through repetition. Add wrinkles later in the season once the foundation is solid.

-Utilize coaches! Have coaches watch what the defense is doing- then they can communicate that to the OC.

-Utilize coaches! Make sure your position coaches are watching their positions during the game- so they can see if mistakes are being made and correct them.

-Practice situational football! Particularly, two minute offense.

These are the 5 reasons why offenses fail in youth football. These are common mistakes that many youth football coaches make. If you avoid doing these 5 things you’ll be much better offensively. Be sure to check out the other resources we provided- they will help you score more points and win more games.

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3 Non-Negotiables to Building a Championship Defense

Strong Body Language and Posture 

We want our defenders to always stand tall. We want our kids to maintain good posture and always have good body language. This will actually help keep the kids feeling confident and locked in. Body language screams! It screams and everyone can see it! Body language is constantly sending messages to yourself, your teammates, your opponent, and the people in the crowd. No matter the game or practice situation, we always want to have good body language.

Why Body Language is Important

• Locks your players in mentally and rubs off on teammates.
• Always stand tall- look ready to go.
• Good football stances, always ready to go.
• Always be ready (aligned and in a good football stance) so you don’t have to get ready! We are always ready before the offense.

We grade our kids on body language every single week. ALL coaches need to hold these kids to this standard. ALL coaches need to be that standard themselves!

Body Language Never Whispers- It Screams!!! 

Run to the Football- Swarm the Ball Carrier

If our players aren’t able or willing to run to the ball carrier on every run and pass play, they won’t be playing very much defense for us. It’s that simple. When we turn on the game film we want to see all our defenders around the football once the whistle is blown. We want to be that defense that is known for their relentless pursuit and swarming of the ball carrier. Running to the football is one of the best things that you can do from a defensive standpoint. It’s just as important as technique and scheme. When your defenders run to the football good things happen for your defense.

Why Swarming the Ball Carrier is Important  

• When your defenders consistently run to the ball carrier you give up less big plays- you have numbers around the ball carrier.
• You will naturally generate more turnovers- you will have the numbers around the ball carrier when he fumbles (more likely to recover the fumble).
• It demoralizes the offense. It demoralizes the opposing coaches.
• Even if you lack talent / skill on defense- relentless pursuit to the ball carrier will help be an equalizer.
• Do the pursuit drill every single practice- that’s were this swarm mentality is really instilled.

When we watch game film we count how many defenders are near the ball carrier when the whistle blows. We tell our kids that you been be in the video frame by the end of the play. This is a standard that needs to be practice. Kids need to be held accountable to this standard by ALL coaches.

See Also: Utilizing the Pursuit Drill in Youth Football

A player’s commitment to his team’s defense is judge by how fair he is from the ball carrier once the whistle is blown.  

Play Defense with Enthusiasm

Playing defense is fun! We want our players to be excited when we’re on defense. We want our kids to have good body language, we want them running to the ball carrier, and we want them to be excited! If a player makes a big play, let’s get excited about it! If our teammate makes a big play, let’s get excited about. If one of our players makes a big play, our sidelines and coaches need to be excited about. We will also grade our players on enthusiasm. We want our players to be excited to be there and excited to play defense.

Why Enthusiasm is Important 

• Enthusiasm boosts motivation and effort.
• Enthusiasm rubs off on teammates, coaches, and parents!
• Builds a fun and positive environment.
• Improves focus, engagement, and coachability- all of which will lead to you playing better defense.

Enthusiasm is contagious! Players need to be excited to play defense and coaches need to be excited to coach defense. 

These 3 Non-Negotiables to Building a Championship Defense apply not only to players, but to coaches as well. We all have control of these 3 things- let’s do them well.

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Essential Offseason Tips for Youth Football Coaches

Reflect and Analyze

Start by reviewing the past season in detail. Analyze game footage, team performance, and individual player progress. Ask yourself:

• What plays worked well?
• What plays didn’t work well?
• What defense gave us the most trouble?
• What offense gave us the most trouble?
• Where did the team struggle?
• Were our practice as optimized and productive as they could be?

Gather feedback from assistant coaches, players, and even parents to gain a well-rounded perspective. This reflection will provide insights to help you improve. Use game film, stats, and notes to identify areas of growth for your players and coaching staff. It’s also time to trim the playbook fat! Self scout and see what plays you wasted time practicing and didn’t use in the game. Out of all the essential offseason tips for youth football coaches reflection is probably the most important tip!

Practice Optimization

You need to analyze and reflect on your practices. Were they as optimized as they could have been? Are kids getting reps in drills? How can you make more practices upbeat and fluent? How was the energy and emphasis of players and COACHES? What areas of your football team needs the most improvement? All these questions need to be answered before you work on creating practice plans. After evaluations / reflect be sure to create a clear and focused practice plan that ensures every minute of practiced is utilized. It’s not just about running drills; it’s about teaching skills, building confidence, and creating a team that works together like a well-oiled machine.

Practice Tips:

• Script practices, have a plan. Make sure all coaches know the plan and execute.
• Give coaches responsibilities and a position to coach. Let them take ownership of those responsivities, but also hold them accountable.
• Get every player reps. For example, set the same drill up in 2 or 3 areas so the kids all get 2x / 3x the reps. No kid should be standing around.
• All coaches need to look like they want to be there. All coaches need to enthusiastic. Coaches energy and body language is contagious.

See Also: Eliminate These 10 Youth Football Practice Time Wasters

Update Your Playbook

Offseason is the perfect time to refresh your playbook. Consider:

Offense:

• Simplify and remove plays from your playbook that didn’t work or you didn’t call consistently.
• Adding new plays that match your team’s strengths.
• Studying trends in youth football or learning from other successful coaches.
• Add formations not plays! Take the plays you did well and run them out of multiple formations.
• Get really good at a few plays, then run them out of multiple formations. This will allow you to multiple while keeping thing simple for your kids.
• Check out our Youth Football Playbook Library .

Defense

• Self scout! See what alignments, stunts / blitzes worked and which ones didn’t.
• What run plays hurt your defense. How was your overall run defense?
• Look back at what you struggled to defend. Once you know you can work on improving your ability to coach the areas your defense struggled with.
• See what areas of pass coverage that needs improvement. What pass routes / concepts gave you the most trouble?
• Playing defense isn’t so much about blitzes, stunts, and coverage- it’s more so about alignment, assignment, and attack!

See Also: The 3 A’s of Defense

Player Development Programs

Encourage players to stay active and improve their skills during the offseason. Share resources like:

• Drills to improve speed, agility, and endurance.
• Push them to play other sports!
• Videos or guides for practicing fundamentals like throwing, catching, and tackling.
• Weightlifting and conditioning programs appropriate for their age and development.
• Host optional offseason training sessions or skills clinics can also keep players engaged and improving.

Coach Development

Great coaches are always learning. Use the offseason to grow by:

• Attending coaching clinics- there are several in-person and virtual clinic resources online.
• Download one of our Virtual football Coaching Clinics. They’re cheap and won’t disappoint!
• Reading books or watching videos about coaching strategies, team management, or leadership.
• Networking with other coaches to exchange ideas and experiences.
• The more you invest in yourself, the better equipped you’ll be to lead your team.
• Visit YFO’s YouTube channel. There’s videos covering every single aspect of youth football.

Visit: Youth Football Online YouTube

Plan and Organize

Success starts with preparation. Spend the offseason:

• Recruiting new players to fill any gaps in your roster. Push your players to recruit. Many times they’ll be your best recruiters.
• Finalizing your coaching staff and their roles.
• Outlining goals for the upcoming season.
• Create pre-season practice schedules. It’s never too early to improve and create practice plans.
• A well-organized coach sets the tone for a smooth and productive season.

Foster Team Connection

Maintaining relationships with your players and their families during the offseason is key to building team culture. Consider:

• Hosting team events like pizza nights, bowling, or other fun activities. Realistically, I know this is challenging to do during the offseason. However, we will always try to get together as a team once or twice over the winter. We’ll push to do more team events during the spring. This stuff really does help with team building.
• Sending periodic updates about upcoming plans, camps, or training opportunities.
• Have team workouts. Many gyms / training facilities will give you good team / groups rates.
• Sharing motivational messages or highlights from the previous season to keep excitement high.

The offseason is an opportunity to shape the future of your team. By reflecting on the past, planning for the future, improving as a coach, and staying connected with your players, you can create a winning formula that ensures success both on and off the field. I hope you found these essential offseason tips for youth football coaches helpful. Remember coaches, get better in all aspects of coaching.

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The Best Situational Football Plays to Win More Games

Situation Football Plays for Shortage

Our go-to football play for shortage is our Beast Formation Power. This is a simple play that will allow you to outnumber the defense at the point of attack (backfield is unbalanced), while giving your beast player a direct snap. Snapping it right to your back will give you an extra blocker at the point of attack.  We run Power out of two different beast formations. The first formation is Beast Right / Left. The second formation is our Diesel Heavy Right / Left formation.

Beast Formation Power 

The Power play (this can also be considered duo- which is power without a puller) we unbalanced the backfield which will allow you to outnumber the defense to the play-side. We also love coming out of the huddle fast, getting set and running this play. This doesn’t give the defense time to shift. The best part about this play is that the ball carrier gets the ball snapped right to him and he’s able to get downhill very quickly.

Diesel Heavy Formation- Power 

I love going tackle-over and running power with two receivers to the play-side. This does two things- it gives us a 3-man blocking surface, with a H back and a T lead blocking. This gives us 5 blockers at the point of attack, while the tow receivers will put a defender out of the box. If the defense doesn’t respect the two receivers we have an option to throw a now screen out there. Honestly, even if they don’t match, you can still run it down their throat. This is a nasty formation that most defense don’t align properly against. Below are a few clips of our Diesel Formation Power / Duo. We don’t pull the backside guard because we already have extra players aligned at the point of attack.

Download: Beast Formation Playbook

Situation Football Plays for Long Down and Distances

We have several different plays that we like for long down and distances / in situations when we have to pass. Our two go-to concepts are our Slot-fade Passing Concept and our Flood Passing Concept. These passing plays are both what we consider ‘any coverage betters’. This means they are great against man to man or zone coverage. What’s great about these concepts is it puts the concept side safety in conflict- which is great for when teams go two safeties on us.

Slot-Fade Concept 

The Slot-fade is a great concept against single safety or two safeties. It floods the concept side of the field with two vertical threats. So the safety or the safety on that side (against a two safety look) is put in conflict and can’t cover both. The fade is very difficult to defend on the youth football level so that’s never a bad throwing option. If the middle of the field is open, the seam is the QB’s first read. If the middle of the field is closed (one middle safety) then the first read for the QB is fade. This is a great play because you have 3 receiving options, while still having a 7 man pass protection.

Here’s a look at our Slot-fade.

Flood Concept 

The Flood Concept is a very good concept. It’s great against any coverage, but it’s particularly great against zone. This concept floods one side of the field with a high, mid, and lower route. One of the 3 routes will be open. However, the deep out by the inside receiver (4) will almost always be open. If you’re able to complete that, it’ll be a nice gain of yardage for you. You also have the option to keep the TE in to block. If you are going to slide protect, like shown here, you then could probably have the TE run an over (as drawn) or even send him vertical.

Situation Football Play of ‘when you need to score quickly’ or have to throw

The Slip Screen is one of the nastiest plays in football. It’s great against blitzes and it’s great for when the defense is playing heavy pass coverage. This play does take some practice, but it’s well worth the investment. We do run the Slip Screen two ways- one to our Running Back and one out of a spread formation to our TE (as showed). I like spreading the field and going empty because it really gives the defense a look that a deep pass is coming. This will force them to back off and it will give your TE room to slip out. Below is our TE Slip Screen as drawn up.

Our Running Back Slip Screen video below gives great insight into how to install and execute the Slip Screen. The video features a whiteboard breakdown along with actual game film. Definitely check the video out.

It’s important to have situational football plays, but it’s also important to practice executing those plays so that when you get into that situation in a game your kids can execute. So many football games come down to who can execute the best in situational football. Below are some different situational football things you need to practice- outside of having the plays.

Situational Football Coaching Tip

• Practice your two-minute/ hurry up offense. Make sure your kids and coaches can execute it properly.
• Practice how to punt properly- in regard to snap execution, blocking, punt direction, and coverage.
• Practice an onside kick, get really good at it- you’ll probably need it at some point.

These are the best situational football plays to win more games. You will need plays for these different situations. Make time in practice to rep your situational football execution.

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Here are some tips on how to deal with youth football parents:

Establish Clear Communication Channels: Set up clear lines of communication with parents from the start of the season. Share your contact information and preferred communication methods, such as email, phone, or team communication apps. Provide information about practice schedules, game days, and any updates promptly. Also provide all parents with team rules, so there is no confusion and the all can be help accountable if a rule is broken.

Be Approachable and Open-Minded: I know. I know. This one is sometimes difficult… Be open to hearing parents’ concerns, questions, and feedback. Approach interactions with a positive and approachable attitude, which will encourage parents to share their thoughts without hesitation. Always try and keep your cool. Implement the 24 hour rule (no communication regarding an issue or concern for 24 hours)! 24 hours after a practice or the Monday / Tuesday after a game (first practice of the new game week). It’s important that you give yourself time to calm down, especially if you lost a game.

Set Expectations: Clearly outline your expectations for parents regarding their involvement during games and practices. Emphasize the importance of positive support for players and respect for coaches, referees, and other parents. Again, provide all parents with team rules and expectations.

Focus on Player Development: Emphasize that the primary focus of youth football is the development and enjoyment of the players. Encourage parents to prioritize their child’s growth, skill-building, and overall experience rather than just the outcome of each game.

Emphasize Sportsmanship: Encourage parents to model good sportsmanship and respect for others. Remind them that their behavior and attitudes have a significant impact on the players and the overall team atmosphere. If they don’t have anything positive to say, then they shouldn’t say anything at all.

Avoid Comparisons & Favoritism : Every player develops at their own pace. Avoid comparing players or focusing solely on the most talented individuals. Instead, celebrate the progress and achievements of all players. Coaches need to spend time and work with all their players, regardless of skill level. Parents will notice that and respect that. A big mistake coaches make is that they play favorites or they don’t work with the players that need it the most. Even if the kid just doesn’t get it, or just doesn’t get aggressive, you have to keep working with him. Parents will respect that. Sometimes parent complaints are justified.

See Also: How to Deal with Overbearing Parents 

Encourage Involvement: Invite parents to get involved in a positive and constructive way. This could include volunteering to assist with team events, organizing fundraisers, or providing snacks for games. Believe it or not, this has helped me a lot the past couple seasons. Getting parents involved with that kind of stuff helps. We don’t get parents involved in the coaching aspect, but the extra curricular stuff, we want them involved.

Educate on Age-Appropriate Development: Help parents understand the age-appropriate development of youth players. Explain the benefits of long-term development and how different age groups have varying needs and priorities. encourage you parents to work with their child outside of football- in regard to athlete development and nutrition, not football fundamentals and techniques. However, you can instruction them how to do it and the parents can do the extra work with their players at home. A good example of that is shotgun snapping and long snapping at home before and even after practice.

Address Unreasonable Behavior: In cases of inappropriate or disruptive behavior from parents, address the issue calmly and professionally. Remind them of the importance of maintaining a positive and respectful environment for everyone involved.

Remember, youth football parents play an essential role in supporting their children’s development as athletes and individuals. By fostering a positive and collaborative relationship with parents, coaches can create a supportive and enjoyable experience for all involved in the youth football community. Having a good relationship with your parents will make life much easier for you. We hope you enjoyed this article on how to deal with football parents.

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Offensively 

Our Jet Wing T System lead our league in scoring in 2021 and then again in 2022 as 8th graders. We also ran the Beast Formation Offense which really allowed us to just gut the defense for 5-8 yards a clip. We were very good offensively- a lot of which had to do with our no huddle system. Our play calling this past season was the best it’s ever been. Going no huddle allowed us to call the right plays against the defense we were seeing. It allowed us to control the pace of the game, while also making substitutions difficult for the opposing defenses. After this past season and the success we had with our no huddle, it’s safe to say we’ll probably never huddle again.

How we Lead our League in Scoring 

• No huddle system- efficient play calling.
• Scored 8 out of 9 times in short time (before half or to end the game).
• Won situational football in every game.
• Explosive Jet Wing T / Beast Formation System.
• Same plays, multiple formations.
• Athletes in space!
• Gap blocking schemes.
• Very good with minim play player rotation.
• Kids were physical and tough- we were the hammer, the defenses were the nails.

Defensively 

If you have been following our website, you know we’re a 3-5 Stack Defense. It’s a defense that is great for youth football because it can easily adjust to any formation, allows you to be multiple and sound in any coverage, and it throws a lot of stunts and blitzes at the offense. We had the best defense in our league in 2021 & 2022 and it was a big reason why we won our championship this year. We were very sound defensively- we played our cover 3 80% of the time. Cover 3 is a great coverage because it keeps 3 defenders deep which helps eliminate big plays. We did a very good job of not giving up big plays. We did a great job stopping the run and not getting beat deep in the passing game. Against some of the more physical team we bent but didn’t break.

Keys to Success Defensively 

• We did the pursuit drill every single day- pursuit paths and gap responsibility was fantastic.
• We did the 3 A’s- Alignment-Assignment-Attack.
• Did not give up big plays- runs or passes- very few (15 yards or more).
• Downtown and Uptown gap/ blitzing system was unblockable.
• We won situational football.
• We blocked most extra points- which was the difference in the playoffs for us- have an extra point block play!
• Kids were physical and tough- very resilient.

The Struggles

As I said above, this was one of the most challenging seasons I’ve ever had. Who would of thought an undefeated season would be so stressful! First off, I’ll say that our team did not practice well on a consistent basis. Some of that had to do with not mixing up practices enough, but in general the team as whole struggle to maintain focus no matter what we did. I guess it’s kids being kids. This year I need to figure out ways to make practices more fun and upbeat. We just didn’t do a good enough job of mixing up practices and changing things up.

Wed lead our league in scoring, we lead our league in total defense, but we also where probably towards the top of our league in penalties and we were good for at least one fumble every game. To be honest, of the 10 games we won 4 of them were close games- when honestly they shouldn’t of been. We would constantly make things harder for ourselves and many times scouting and excellent play calling made the difference. We just couldn’t play a completely clean game- it was probably because of our poor practices.

We struggled early on with fumbles / RB ball security. I will say that it got much better as the season went on and the kids eventually developed that muscle memory and learned the hard way that fumbling will not be tolerated. Also, many of our skilled guys played in 7on7 spring leagues which you know doesn’t help at all with ball security. In regards to protecting the ball, flag leagues create a lot of bad habits that we had to break early on once real football started. Every 7on7 game I’ve ever watched all I see are the kids swinging the ball around- it make me cringe.

The other major struggle was having 37 kids that all had to get 4 plays each. When you have 37 players you’ll get a lot of great and good players, but you’ll also get a lot of bad and really bad players. So it was challenging for us to get all these kids their required plays- so that did slow us down a little bit. Early on in the season it was challenging but as the season progressed we became much more efficient with getting these kids their plays in situations where they wouldn’t hurt us.

Minim Play Kid Strategy 

• We’d put all the minimum play players (MPP) on one side of the line and do a direct snap to our best player and run him behind our best linemen we put opposite. After a few plays defenses would catch on, but we’d still be able to pound the ball in our Beast for 5-8 yards. We’d get at least 4 plays for 5 players doing that.
• When we run inside or away from our SE we would put a MPP at our SE spot.
• If we were running right, we’d put a MPP at LT or LG- sometimes both.
• We would also put one or two of our MPP (who aren’t that bad) at safety on run down and distances.

At the end of the day this was one of the best coaching job’s I’ve done in my 15-years of coaching football. These kids made a lot of mistakes and were not disciplined at times, but they played hard on gameday and competed. They faced adversity in big situations and came out on top each time. We did a fantastic job of coaching and the kids did a fantastic job of winning situational football. These kids were physical, tough, fast, and are definitely battle tested. I look forward to watching them do work when they play high school football! If they keep working hard and stay together they should make a nice run on the HS football level. Here’s the first of 3 highlight videos that are coming.

What to Take From This Article 

• Practice situational football- short time offense and defense (hurry offense / hurry up defense).
• Have an extra point block- cannot allow teams to kick it and get 2 extra points. Many times this makes the difference.
• Have a scheme (offense & defense) that you understand and can teach to your players. Have a system of plays!
• If you truly want to be a good play caller and eliminate the guessing aspect of calling plays- go no huddle. It’s our job as coaches to put our kids in the best situation for success- this includes calling the proper play vs. the defense you are seeing.
• Make your extra points! Practice kicking the field goal (2-extra points) until you can’t miss. At some point you may need it. In addition, most teams don’t have an actual extra point block play so if you’re good at kicking, it will be huge to get 8 each time you score.
• Do the pursuit drill every single practice- it is the best drill in football (defense).

The post Recap of our 2022 Football Season | 10-0 League Super Bowl Champions appeared first on Youth Football Online.

1. Not Practicing Situational Football
2. Not Having an Extra Point Block
3. Not Doing the Pursuit Drill
4. Install Plays, Not a System
5. Defensive Alignment

Biggest Mistakes Youth Football Coaches Make & How to Avoid Them

Mistake 1: Not Practicing Situational Football- Short Time Offense / Defense (Two Minute Offense) 

Throughout my years of coaching I’ve noticed so many teams struggled to execute efficiently in short time. This is an area that is vastly overlooked by the majority of coaches. Be honest- how often do you practice your short time offense? Not very much or at all I bet. About 5 years ago we lost a game because of our execution in short time. After that game I made it a point to commit at least a little bit of time to our short time / under two minute offense every practice. It’s little things like teaching the kids how to get aligned quickly and spiking the ball. It’s little things like coaches getting kids two plays if they are out of timeouts. Kids have to understand that there needs to be a sense of urgency when getting to the line but avoid making mistakes as well. Mistakes- like illegal formations, illegal shifts, and false starts are common.  It’s important for the kids to understand that they need to be fast, but also be focused and controlled. Your players and COACHES need to practice this during the week.

This past year we focused a lot on being really good offensively in short time. We scored 8 of 9 times that we had the ball with 2-minutes or less on the clock. When we would get the ball and score right before halftime it was huge for us. In the first round of the playoffs we were down by a touchdown with less than 2 minutes left. We drove down and scored with 30 second left and ended up winning the game. The difference in that game was that we practiced our short-time offense and short-time defense and they didn’t. Because of that we played in the championship and won, they ended up going home.

So many teams don’t practice their two-minute defense.  If you are good with your play calling and play execution in short time it’s an area that your team will probably have an advantage in every week. I recommend going no huddle and having plays on wrist coaches. I’ll also suggest having one word play calls. Hurry up/short time offense doesn’t take a lot of time to practice- work on it a little bit every practice. Coaches, don’t be the reason your team loses- practice hurry up offense!

Mistake 2: Not Having an Extra Point Block Play

How many games have you won or lost by a point or two? If you were to look at scores across a league many games will be within a point or two. Extra points are so big in youth football. If you score three times and they score three times but they converted more extra points then they’ll win. In youth football most leagues will award you two extra points if you kick and make it. In my experience many teams practice kicking the extra point, but most don’t practice an extra point block. They’ll just tell the kids to line up and block it. They won’t have any actual extra point play installed. We will work at least 2 times a week on our extra point block. We will execute an overload blitz on one side and a twist stunt on the other.

We invested a lot of time in our block play and it paid off. Let’s go back to the first round of our playoff game again- we ended up winning the game 28-26. We both scored 4 times but the difference was they were only able to make 1 extra point kick, we blocked the other 3. We made more of our extra point (s) kicks and that ended up being the difference. We were evenly matched talent wise, but because we were better in situational football and had a really good extra point block we went to the championship and they went home. Going forward, I bet those coaches will work more on blocking extra points. Installing an extra point block play isn’t expensive in regards to practice time, so do it!
See Also: Field Goal / Extra Point Block Play

Mistake 3: Install Plays, Not a System

So many youth football coaches, especially at the younger age levels just run plays, they don’t run a structured system. It’s important to have plays that all complement each other. Youth football is all about deception- make all the plays look the same. Another mistake many coaches make that I’ve noticed is that they don’t have a play-action pass off of their best run play. If you are a Power heavy team, you should have at least 1 play-action pass off of that Power run play. When you have a system of plays it will allow you to be truly balanced and allow you to attack all areas of the field. If the defense comes out and wants to stop a particular play, you’ll hit them with a complement off of the play they are committed to stopping.

I’ll use my Jet Wing T Series as an example of a system. All our plays in our Jet system are off of Jet Sweep:
Motion Side Outside Play (edge): Jet Sweep
Motion Side Off-tackle Play: Jet Power
Interior Play: Jet Wedge & Trap
Opposite of Motion Off-tackle: Buck
Opposite of Motion Outside (edge): Reverse Buck
Play-action Pass off of Jet Sweep: Post-Wheel
Play-action off of Buck: TE -Over
Buck and Jet are our best run plays so we have play-action passes off of them.
You can see how there is a play that attacks each area of the field and they all look like Jet Sweep. This will force the defense to have to defend the entire width of the field. The link to my playbook is below.

Download: Shotgun Wing T Playbook

Mistake 4: Don’t do the Pursuit Drill Everyday

In my opinion, the Pursuit Drill is one of the best drills you can do for defense. It is a drill we consider an “everyday” drill. We’ll do the pursuit drill every single practice from the first one to the last practice of the season. We’ll even do it to end our pre-game warmup. The pursuit drill is worth the investment because it works multiple defensive aspects at one time. The pursuit drill practices alignment, assignment / gap responsibilities, conditioning, pursuit angles / paths, and develops the mentality of getting to the football. In addition, if you run zone coverage you can do zone drops in the pursuit drill as well. The pursuit drill is great because it works the 3 A’s of defense- Alignment, Assignment, Attack. During the season we will line up our opposing offense’s formation so on top of everything else we are practicing our alignment against the team we are playing. I’ll say that the pursuit drill is probably the overall best drill in football. It’s a fantastic drill for conditioning and if you make it fun and keep it upbeat, the kids will actually like doing it. We’ll time how long it takes our players to get to the ball and if they don’t beat the time they run more. Pursuit drill  also works accountability, effort, and makes the kids compete.

Mistake 5: Defensive Alignment / Handling Motion

We score so many points each season because we use formations to create misalignment. So many teams don’t align to our formation properly which gives us leverage and/or numbers advantage to a side. The number 1 priority of your defense should be to make sure that your kids are aligned properly to the formation they are seeing. You have to match numbers- you can never allow the offense to outnumber or out-leverage you to any side. Practice alignment against all personnel groupings- work in alignment against double TE, spread, 3-man surfaces, and unbalanced formations. It’s important to make sure your defense is aligned / adjusted to unbalanced formations, without over-shifting to them.

Motion is a very underrated and under-utilized tactic on the youth football level. With that said, most teams don’t practice how they adjust / react to motion. Most defenses we see play man to man coverage- so when we motion a player across they either don’t run with their guy, or they don’t keep up. This will give the offense an extra blocker at the point of attack and/or that motion player will be wide open on a pass route. Defensively, make sure your players understand that if they play man coverage they have to run with their guy or pass him over to someone on that side. If you play zone, you have to roll or bump a player out to match the numbers. Plays like Jet Sweep are becoming even more popular and you will need to make sure your kids understand how to adjust to the full speed motion. Proper defensive alignment is much easier when you scout your opponent and have an idea of what is coming. Practice how you handle motion!

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Scouting Opponent’s Defense-What to Look For – 4 Elements

First Element 

The first element of looking at a future opponent is to evaluate their players. In the end football is a game played by players. As an Offensive Coordinator your goal is to put your players in the best possible situation for success. Sometimes this might mean identifying ways you can get your best player on their worst player and exploit the matchup. Other times it might be determining how you can minimize the weaknesses of your own players. In the end, you want to put your players in a position that they can have success.

Second Element 

Once we have evaluated the personnel we move on to how the defense is going to line up to our base formations. We have a variety of different formations that serve to form the base of our offense. Whether your are a Spread team, a Flexbone team, or any other type of offense, you will have at least three or four formations that serve as your base. When evaluating future opponents you want to see how are they going to align to these formations. If you have enough tape, it’s also nice to see what their different answers are. As a general rule the defense will have two to three ways to line up to each different formation. If you know their base, their answers, and why they go to these answers it gives you a chance to stay one step ahead of the defensive coordinator.

Third Element 

The third thing we evaluate are the defensive coordinators tendencies. When does he like to blitz. Some coaches prefer to blitz early in the downs while others save it for 3rd or 4th down. There are other coaches who base their tendencies based on where you are at on the field. Sometimes when you cross the 20 they will automatically start to send pressure. The other thing we like to do is pick the top three to four blitzes that the defense will run. There’s no way we can prepare our Offensive Line for all of the potential blitzes that the defense can run in a game. Instead, we want to focus on the three or four blitzes that the defensive coordinator relies on because in crunch time, these are the blitzes that they are going to go back to.

Fourth Element

The final thing we look at when evaluating a defense are motions and exotic formations. These can mean different things to different offenses but as a whole these tend to be where we will add some unique formations or motions for each game. We go through and look at their motion tape. This is a collection of all of the plays they have defended where the offense has gone in motion. Occasionally we will find a motion that gives us an advantage and use it to generate a big play. The other thing we will do is look at exotic formations. For us, this means we want to look at how the defense aligns to Formation Into the Boundary, Empty, Tight Sets, and Unbalanced Formations. Most of the time defenses have a base look that they will use against these exotic formations and looks. As a game planner, this gives you a static target to aim at and a chance to build an explosive play.

See Also: Preparing for a Dominate Opponent 

Scouting an opponent is much more of an art than a science. Because different offenses have different thought processes and methods for attacking a defense, it’s impossible to come up with one uniform way of scouting a defense. With that said, you can start with these four categories to evaluate your future opponent in order to put your players in the best possible position to have success.

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Using the Bucket System to Develop a Game Plan for Youth Football

Ryan Day gave a great talk at the Ohio State Coaches Clinic where he talked about his system for game planning. They develop a series of different Buckets that define the purpose of each play. These will vary from team to team, but essentially there are Inside Runs, Outside Runs, Counters, Play Actions, Horizontal Stretch, Vertical Stretch, and Isolation Routes.

Throughout the offseason they work to take all of their concepts and assign them into a different Bucket. By doing this they now have a huge list of the different ways they can accomplish their goals within their offensive system.

They then go through their Offensive Plays and Formations and rate the effectiveness of each play or concept against the major types of defenses and coverages they expect to see. He showed a picture of this spreadsheet and it is pretty massive, but he said it actually didn’t’ take as long as you would think to create because they already knew a lot of the answers.

Once they have spent the Offseason creating these tools it allows them to really cut down their prep time in season. When they are preparing for a team they know that they want to carry 2-5 concepts for each bucket into the game. Their game planning then becomes just a matter of selecting from the limited list of concepts that are good for each bucket based on the defense they are going to face.

See Also: Practice Planning for Youth Football

While this can seem like an overwhelming amount of work up front, it can be tailored to fit any different offense. The first thing you need to do is think about what different buckets you would like to have. Once you have established your goals for each play, it just a matter of selecting which concepts accomplish these goals. By limiting these down you now have 2-5 plays to accomplish the main goals of your offense.

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Youth and High School Integration

These are questions that are quite common when a school hires a new Head Coach and/or a Youth Program brings in a new program director or coaches. I have been on a few interviews for Head Coaching vacancies and the questions of working with the local youth program is always on the list. I have worked on high school staffs where we were quite involved in the local youth program and other times where there was no relationship between any of the programs. How is this supposed to work? How can both help each other? Why is it the youth program is winning but the high school team isn’t good with the same kids? These are all great questions and having both the local youth organization and High School program on the same page will only help everyone involved but most importantly the kids.

It all boils down to meaningful relationships and building those from the ground up. The Head Coach of the High School must facilitate these relationships and being willing to reach out and work out with the local youth organizations. Here are some ideas that have helped with creating that positive relationships and creating a one family atmosphere.

I am going to outline the responsibilities of both the Youth and High School programs that will only benefit your players.

Youth Program

1. Main Goal: Keep kids playing football! We need to grow our game and kids quitting football at a young age has become a big problem.
2. Teach Fundamentals – blocking & tackling safely.
3. Teach Competitiveness – teach them how to compete.
4. Teach Football – stances, techniques, basics of the game
5. Stress academics – too many players come up to high school not ready that grades matter
6. Stress showing up = playing time. Too many times in my career, coaches at the youth level are worried about winning and play kids on game day regardless if they came to practice or not during the week.
7. Winning should not be the first priority – however if you take care of 1 – 6, you will win a lot of football games.

See Also: Youth Football is the key to Success for High School

High School Program

1. Pick up the phone and talk to the people involved in the youth program.
2. Do NOT dictate scheme – let the coaches’ coach. Advise them if they ask but do not demand anything. If the players come up with football fundamentals, a love of the game, and a good work ethic – they will be fine in your schemes.
3. Attend youth practices and games. Observe talk to kids, parents, and coaches. Just be there.
4. Hold a FREE Youth Camp – let your older kids and coaches instruct the youth players. Give away free stuff – like old jerseys.
5. Hold a Youth Football Night at one of your home games. Announced the youth teams at halftime.
6. Have youth players be ball boys at your games.
7. Meet with Youth coaches during the off-season and just talk football. Order some pizza as food never hurts.
8. Hold a joint fundraiser.

A successful Youth and High School program equals a positive feeling around town and brings good fortune to the local schools and overall vibe of the community. It is easy to allow egos to get in the way or to pound our chests because we feel that we could do a better job. Remember it’s about the kids and a unified front on all levels with only help those who need it the most and build a football community.

Mike Wilson

Head Coach

A.P. Schalick High School, New Jersey

Twitter: @wilson2882

Email: wilson2882@yahoo.com

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Here is our 3 Pillar Offensive Play Calling Strategy for Youth Football (1 bonus)

1. Run where you have numbers advantage.
2. Run where you have leverage advantage.
3. Run where you have the player advantage.
4. (Bonus) Get athletes in space as much as possible.

Number Advantage Play Calling

• If you outnumber the defense to a side or area, run there. Play calling in football is a numbers game.
• Utilize unbalanced formations. This will create defensive misalignment. Most of the time the defense will over shift or they won’t shift to the unbalanced at all.
• Utilize shifts and trades. This will also create defensive misalignment.
• Be multiple while keeping things simple for your players. Being multiple will create alignment issues for the defense. Run the same plays out of different formations.

Leverage Advantage Play Calling

• Attack where your blockers have the leverage advantage. It’s much easier to down block or kick out on a defender. Use their leverage against them.
• Having a system of plays helps gain that leverage advantage.
• Formation shifts and trades help gain leverage advantages.
• Leverage just doesn’t just mean pre-snap. Is the defense slanting or shooting gaps post snap? It’s important that you have a coach watch the first level defenders and what they are doing post-snap. That is why we run Gun T Jet System, it forces the defenses hand.

Player Advantage Play Calling

• Scout. Scout. Scout. Know when and where they get their weaker players their plays.
• Have coaches watching for when they sub in their weaker players.
• Getting your best players in space- good athletes almost always have the advantage in space. So find ways to get them there!
• Attack where you are better. Switch linemen to play-side. Make the defense recognize and adjust. You’d be surprised how many coaches won’t even notice- it’s crazy.

See also: Gun T Formation Playbook for Youth Football 

Efficient play calling is critical, especially when you don’t have great athletes to bail you out. Base your play calling on numbers, leverage, and player advantage. Be sure to scout your opponents. Know who their weaker players are and when they put them in the game. For us, whenever we see a minimum play player we run right at them. The only time we won’t is when the defense overcompensates for that player and we have numbers or leverage advantage away from the minimum play player.

The post Offensive Play Calling Strategy for Youth Football | Art of Play Calling appeared first on Youth Football Online.

Practice Optimization: Time vs. Retention

By Coach Charles Wallace

Muscle memory—reps, reps and more reps. Every rep is an opportunity to get better. Dividing players by lines, hustling to and from drills, planning out EDDs, and having players get to practice early, reduces the time players stand around.

Verbally reinforce what you are teaching. Walk-throughs, alignment assignment sessions, and EDDs are perfect opportunities for verbal teaching. Verbally reinforcing information with mental retention as the goal. Going on one or two when running sprints. Using consistent language as a coaching staff, and repeating that language—right foot, right shoulder—as an example.

Repeat what they have learned, while teaching others. Have your players teach what they’ve learned to someone else. Once they have a basic understanding of the drill, technique and application being taught, have them lead the drill, rotating players into the “teaching position” as they learn.

Use relational learning. Relate new information to things already known. A great example of this I learned from a friend who is a head coach for a local high school program. Use the cell phone keypad to number the area of the field for kickoff. So, from left to right, 1, 2, 3, are onside kicks, 4, 5, 6, are middle, and 7, 8, 9, are deep.

Visually teach schemes and alignment and assignments by using play cards, white boards or even tablets. I like to bring a white board with me to practice. Easy to setup, and given the time saved by using a racehorse practice we spend 15 minutes teaching the Offensive and Defensive plays we are practicing that day. Visually defining space on the field is very important—especially since we teach Offense attacks “space” and defense defends “space”.

Related Content: Youth Football Practice Time Wasters

Write what they learned. Create simple tests/homework for them to complete throughout the week. Have them write position names and draw blocking/rushing lines on O/D alignment templates. Draw O/D alignment on play path templates; by the end of preseason, they should be able to draw up complete O/D plays.

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How to Score More Points in Youth Football – 5 Underrated & Underutilized Tactics

1. Utilize Gap Schemes

What are gap schemes? To put it simply, gap schemes have the offensive linemen on the play-side block down or away from the gap where the runner is going. There will usually be a kick-out block on the edge defender. Gap schemes will allow your offensive linemen to use leverage, which will give your offensive linemen great blocking angles on the defenders. Keep this in mind- defensive linemen are taught to have their heads turned in and their eyes watching the football- so they will not see these down blocks coming. Gaps schemes will give your offense the best chance of actually getting defensive linemen moved. If you teach your offensive linemen the proper techniques for down blocking you will get most of these defensive linemen washed down.

In youth football so many defensive linemen are taught to penetrate and/or to shoot gaps. Gap schemes will allow you to cut off that penetration and use their momentum to block them down and right out of the play. Gap schemes provide your players with simple blocking rules that will allow them to pick up any post-snap movements from the defensive line (stunts / slants).  Most coaches just tell their players to ‘block the kid in front of them” (base block). In my opinion, it’s very difficult to base block a defender and get him moved.

Benefits

• Provides your o-linemen with favorable blocking angles.
• Simple rules- your are responsible for your inside gap (Gap-Down-Linebacker).
• The down blocks with the kick-out will create huge running lanes even if you are undersized!

Gap Schemes

Power

Power utilizes down blocks at the point of attack. The end man on the line of scrimmage is going to be kicked out. Double teams can also be utilized on the play-side DT. Down blocking is a much better technique against bigger, more powerful defensive linemen.

Counter Belly 

The Counter play is a great gap scheme play because it utilizes down blocks and a kick-out at the point of attack. So many youth defenders get caught looking at backfield action which will allow your offensive linemen to just block down and get them washed.

See Also: Gap vs. Zone Blocking Schemes

2. Utilize Unbalanced Formations

In my opinion, unbalanced formations are the most underrated and under-utilized tactics in youth football. Going with an unbalanced formation you will create an extra gap the defense has to account for. Most of the time the defense won’t recognize the unbalanced and you will have an open gap you can attack. We utilize a lot of unbalanced formations and I will say that typically defenses will either not adjust to the unbalance or they will over-shift to the unbalanced. Unbalanced formations not only create extra gaps and alignment conflict for the defense, they also provide you with an extra blocker to the unbalanced side.

For me, there are two types of unbalanced formations-  unbalanced lines (players on the line of scrimmage) and unbalanced backfields (backfield players loaded up to one side). Unbalanced backfields create more of an issue for the defense because it not only creates an extra gap that the defense has to account for, it also makes the defense have to account for an extra pass threat. Personally, I like going with a 3-man surface (G, T, TE) with a WB to that side as well- so really it’s a 4-man surface.

Coaching Tip: When you go unbalanced get the ball snapped on a fast snap count so that you don’t give the defense time to recognize and adjust to your unbalanced formation.  

ISO- Unbalanced Line 

Here’s a look at our unbalanced (tackle-over) I-Formation ISO play. “Tackle-Over Right” will tell our left tackle that he is lining up to the right. You can see the extra gap this creates for the defense. When you run ISO you want to run it at the gaps in the defense- here we run the ISO at the gap between the DT and DE (gap created because of unbalanced line).

Beast Formation (unbalanced backfield)

Benefits

• Outnumber the defense at the point of attack.
• Outflank the defense.
• Create an extra gap for the defense to account for.

See Also: Outnumber and Outflank the Defense with the Tank Formation 

3. Create a Series Based Attack

The biggest mistake youth football coaches make is that they just run a bunch of plays, rather than a system/ series based attack. A series based attack is a group of plays that all complement each other. For example, our Jet Sweep Series is a series of plays that all work off of Jet Sweep. The series is built around the Jet Sweep play and all the companion plays work off of the jet motion action. Creating a series based attack will allow you to set up other plays and it will allow you to attack all areas of the field. In a true series based scheme the defense can commit to stopping one play, but they will leave themselves vulnerable to a counter or complement play. For example, when teams sell out to defend our Jet Sweep we will then run Jet Power, Counter, or Post-wheel and completely gut them.

Benefits

• Series based systems give you a structured attack. All plays complement each other.
• Allows you to be efficient with your play calling- you’ll have answers for whatever the defense wants to do.
• Gives your team an identity and a true system to build around.

See Also: Free Youth Football Systems (series based)

Download: Youth Football Playbooks 

4. No Huddle

Going No Huddle is something many youth football teams will refuse to do- which I just don’t get. As coaches, it’s our job to call a play that gives our players the best chance for success. Going with the no huddle will allow you to do just that. Think about it, say you call a sweep play to the right. The kids break the huddle and then you see the defense is aligned to completely stop the play- then what? You run the play into a wall of defenders, wasting a down!?!? If you have the ability to change the play at anytime you will be a much more efficient play caller. For us, no huddle isn’t so much about playing fast, it’s about getting our players a play that gives them the best chance for success. Below is a video that dives deep into my no huddle play calling system (free clinic). It’s well worth the watch- I promise.

&
Benefits

• Efficient play calling vs. the defense you facing.
• Stresses the defense- forces them to play at your pace.
• Ability to change the play at any time.

Be Great at What You Do

It doesn’t matter what you run on the youth football level. There are a lot of great offenses /schemes that work on the youth level. What is important is that you are good at what you do decide to run. You’ll score more points when you have a small number of plays that you can execute perfectly, rather than a bunch of plays you don’t execute well. There’s an old saying- quality over quantity and that applies here! You need to be running a system that all your coaches believe in and can teach. When it comes to installing an offense it’s important that all your coaches understand the scheme and they are able to coach it up. Also, keep in mind that running the same plays out of multiple formations allows you to be multiple while keeping things simple for your players. You can always make your system better and more diverse by adding tags (adjustments) to the plays you already have installed.

Benefits

• Quality over quantity!
• You will be able to better communicate / teach the offense to your players when you are comfortable with it.
• Gives your team an identity and allows you to be multiple while keeping things simple.

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