Positional Coaching Breakdowns:

Coach,

It's an interesting question. I've never been a part of a program that HAS been 2-platoon, so for me coaching multiple positions has just been a way of life.

These are the positions we need filled on O and D. It's pretty universal, but some of it would vary based on the system you run:

OFFENSE:
Coordinator (doubles as a position coach)
Running Backs
Quarterbacks
Wide Receivers
Tight Ends
Offensive Line

DEFENSE:
Coordinator (doubles as a position coach)
Defensive Line
Inside Linebackers
Outside Linebackers
Cornerbacks
Safeties

So, we have 5 positions that need to be coached on both sides of the ball...which works out nice in terms of balancing things out. Each coach specializes and serves as the primary position coach for one offensive position and one defensive position.

On offense, we try to approach it like this:

The "skill position" guys should all be capable of coaching another guy's position. So, for example, I'm the OC and the RB coach, but I can coach QB's and WR's if the need arises. I'd expect our QB coach to be able to do RB's or WR's if necessary. And so on and so on. The TE and OL guys should also be interchangable. I'd expect our TE guy to be able to coach OL and vise-versa.

On Defense, it's a little tougher because DL kind of stands alone. Our LB's coaches are then interchangable and our secondary coaches are interchangable. That being said, I coach the safeties on defense, but I could coach (and HAVE coached) either the CB's or the OLB's just as effectively. Our ILB guy could easily do OLB, DL or even CB's (as he did 2 years ago). Our OLB guy could do ILB's or either of the DB's. So...I think it's important to have guys that can do lots of different things.

The key is that it depends on the skills and experience of the staff and the requirements of the systems you run.

Most people can coach 2 positions WELL. I can coach RB, CB, and Safeties WELL (so, if you combine CB and S into "DB"...that means I can do two positions well). I'm capable of doing just about anything else...but I'm not nearly as good at it as I am with my areas of comfort and experience...so I may be able to do it, but I wouldn't confidently judge my ability to do it well.

If you are a coordinator you should be able to expertly coach every position on that side of the ball.

We have seldom been in a position where we had more than three coaches (and sometimes only two) per team.

So our usual breakdown was Backs-LBers, OL-DL, WR-DB.

Years we had an extra coach we would use him in area of his expertise or where we had biggest numbers.

Selfishly would like extra guy to coach RBs so I could focus-spend moire individual time on QBs.

Well, if you coach OL you should know enough about DL to coach it acceptably in highschool. Same for WR and DB's. I have never ever been involved with LB's so I can't really say if they match to RB's well but I do know that rb-lb is a common pairing. If you have 6 coaches to me it usually ends up with the dl coach assisting the ol coach on offense and vice versa. I always thought it would be better to platoon the coaches (if you have 6) but really this is a good way to learn about the other side of the ball.

If you were using a 2 platoon situation before I am assuming that you have a pretty good sized staff. One of the suggestions that I would make is have them pair up with someone from the other side of the ball. If they coached LB's go with the RB's coach so that they will be able to learn how to do it correctly. They should already have a pretty good idea how to do it but still lets them be the primary coach on their perticular side of the ball and an assistant on the other.

Isn't it kind of late in the game for making a change like this? Most of our staff coaches an O and D position and most had no background in one of his positions. I, for example, coach OL and DBs but never played DBs.

BUT

We made that decision in January. We all had a full offseason to learn our new positions. The OP was posted on July 20. That makes for a short time frame to become an expert at your position.

I'd put this off until next year.

Defense
2 dl
2 lb
1 c
1 s

offense
2 oline
1 qb
1 rb
1 hb/te
1 wr

OK. Here's the way we do it:

1. HC/DE
2. OC/QB/OLB
3. DC/OL/DB
4. TE/DT
5. RB/ILB
6. ST/WR

Currently for us:

HC: RB/QB/WR and LB/DB
AC: OL/DL

Luckily we've got a guy lined up to start helping next week, he'll take the WRs and DBs.


To answer your questions:



I would say at least one on each side. All of the teams I've played on or coached had a defensive period and an offensive period. Every coach worked with a positional group during that time, so they/we had to know at least one position on each side.



The coordinators should be able to do this, and any one who ever intends on being a coordinator had better be working toward the same.



Any one who knows the WHOLE scheme, really has to have an understanding of all the positions.



Become a sponge and ask questions. Spend time with the coaches who work with the positions you are unsure about. Most coaches figure out the X's and O's, but are clueless about the "Hows" and the "Whys". That's were the real knowledge lies.