2 platooning coaches only

Although we keep our frosh with us, we platoon our coaches (a little less than 80 kids in the program, including 9th graders). We have 11 coaches (2 are volunteer) on our staff. We split our coaches into offensive and defensive staffs and then send the "old guys" to O on one day and the "young guys" to D. The next day is switched for the kids but the coaches stay. We don't platoon kids so on an old guy offense practice day for example, they spend 60 min on O and 25 min on D. We do specials at the beginning. We generally have 2 "work days" of practice in the middle of the week. The first day is film, scouting reports, and a short time on the field. The last day is a pregame practice. All practices are 2 hours except the pregame (about an hour and half).

What do I love: Kids are more involved in practice, a lot less standing around, younger kids get more individualized attention and reps (instead of just being the scout team), we have a lot of young coaches so only having to worry about one position allows them to accelerate their growth as a coach, gameplanning is a little easier and less time consuming since O and D can be worked on at the same time.

What do I hate: The scout team doesn't get technique coaching often b/c when we are in team O the defensive coaches are on the other end of the field with the other group of kids, some/most days when you have the young guys , there has to be an intentional effort made to connect the young players with the old guys to build relationships and pass on tradition since they don't practice together, also have to be intentional about building relationships on the staff since O and D can become fragmented, you have to be cognizant of the amount of contact you do in practice as oftentimes you have some starters playing scout team for the 2nd team reps (but also a benefit b/c less kids standing around).

There may be more but this is off the top of my head. We just started doing this a couple of years as our program grew and this change (along with a couple of others) has really changed our program for the better. It's possible that we will see a decrease in numbers in a couple of years so we may not be able to sustain the split practices but we will definitely try.

We have 3 levels of football:
1) Varsity
2) Junior Varsity
3) Sophomore (9th & 10th)

Advantage here in UT is that you can play the lower levels on Thu and also play the varsity level on Fri night. Our best 9th and 10th graders can play the entire game with their peers on Thu, then be the #2 or #3 guy on Varsity the next night, or be a key special teams contributor. Same with JV. Sometimes with injuries, you get the same kid starting varsity and JV at the same position as he has to fill in for the original varsity starter. Allows us to reward kids who play very well on Thu with more playing time on Fri as well.


I Had 12 assistant coaches. I was Varsity HC as well as the Sophomore OC and QB coach. Love having the ability to coach the young kids in the program on Thursdays so I am not just dealing with the older kids. Gives me a 1st hand view of how they play in games and lets them get the varsity HC coaching them which most programs never have their lowest level guys interact with the varsity HC. With that, I tended to put the "#2's" with me on sophomore level allowing my more experienced guys to be with the JV on their own.

6 Offensive Coaches
.....OL #1 - JV HC
.....OL #2 - Soph
.....RB - JV OC
.....QB - JV
.....WR #1 - Soph HC (my dad... put us together)
.....WR #2 - JV

6 Defensive Coaches
.....DL #1 - JV
.....DL #2 - Soph
.....LB #1 - JV DC
.....LB #2 - Soph
.....DB #1 - Soph DC
.....DB #2 - JV (brother of JV DL guy... put them together)


We practiced everyone in the entire program together. About 60 kids on offense and about 60 kids on defense. Breakdown this season was:
5 QB's - 3 Jr (including starter), 1 Sr, 1 Fr
8 RB's - 2 Sr, 2 Jr, 2 So, 2 Fr
16 WR's - 3 Sr, 5 Jr, 4 So, 4 Fr
30 OL - 6 Sr, 12 Jr, 6 So, 6 Fr
20 DL - 5 Sr, 4 Jr, 5 So, 5 Fr
12 LB - 3 Sr, 4 Jr, 3 So, 2 Fr
24 DB - 4 Sr, 7 Jr, 5 So, 8 Fr
4 Kickers - 2 Sr, 1 Jr, 1 So


Weekly Practices
Monday = Short Yardage and Goaline (Full Pads)
Tuesday = Medium Yardage and 1st & 10 (Uppers Only)
Wednesday = Long Yardage (Helmets Only)
Thursday = Most players play game... varsity does chains & helps lower levels)
Friday = All 120 players dress varsity.

We did something a little different as well since we were full platoon, we kept the kids on defense playing the 3 defensive special teams (PR, Kickoff, and PAT Block) with offensive players playing the 3 offensive special teams (Punt, Kick Return, and PAT/FG). Allowed us to cover 2 special teams a day, but only schedule one group of timing within practice. Here is the practice schedule each day:

5 minute periods
P01 - ST Meeting (Mon = Punt & PR, Tue = PAT/FG & Block, Wed = Kickoff and KOR)
P02 - ST Meeting
P03 - Off & Def Meeting
P04 - O&D Meeting
P05 - O&D Meeting
P06 - O&D Meeting
P07 - Dress & Static Stretch (on own)
P08 - D&SS
P09 - D&SS
P10 - Team Warmup (Dynamic Stretch) BEGINNING OF ON-FIELD PRACTICE
P11 - Team Warmup
P12 - Position Warmup (EDD's)
P13 - Position Warmup (EDD's)
P14 - ST Indy
P15 - ST Indy
P16 - ST Team vs. opposite
P17 - ST Team vs. opposite
P18 - ST Team vs. opposite
P19 - WIN (Team Competition... off vs. def)
P20 - Loser runs
P21 - Run Indy
P22 - Run Indy
P23 - Run Indy
P24 - Group Run
P25 - Group Run
P26 - Pass Indy
P27 - Pass Indy
P28 - Pass Indy
P29 - Group Pass (7on7 vs. opposite)
P30 - Group Pass (7on7 vs. opposite)
P31 - Team Off vs. Scout Def (Def plays scout)
P32 - Team Off vs. Scout Def
P33 - Team Off vs. Scout Def
P34 - Team Def vs. Scout Off (Off plays scout)
P35 - Team Def vs. Scout Off
P36 - Team Def vs. Scout Off
P37 - Situational Football (Mon = Goaline, Tue = 4 Minute Drill, Wed = 2 Minute Drill)
P38 - Situational Football (#1's get 1 series vs. #1's, #2's get one series vs. #2's, #3's vs #3's)
P39 - Situational Football
P40 - END OF PRACTICE

Blank Practice Plan Template

Doing it this way gets our scout teams as our best defensive players and our best offensive players. Coaches put cards together and will label the scout cards what we would call them in our offense or defense so that the kids are still learning our system even if they are doing scout work.

During the group periods and the team periods, the Freshman and Sophomores are with the sophomore staff (other than me) and doing their own group/team period. That way the younger kids are getting reps and the varsity team (starters and JV) are getting their own reps to prepare for the varsity game.



Sorry for the very long post, but there is a lot of work that goes into making the switch to/from platoon system. Feel free to ask any other questions you have and I'll see if I can answer them with what we have done.

Anybody do 2 Indy Periods? 10 minutes each. Your primary position is first 10, your secondary position is 2nd period. If you are a borderline starter/special teamer you spend both periods with your primary position so in theory your average players become experts for their position. Gradually you start slimming down the amount of guys who need to get reps on both sides.
I feel like this is a good first step to becoming a 2-platoon squad.

Well I'm working on that, I think you could split every period as long as you were scripting everything and be vigilant about coaching on the run. Some would depend on who needed the reps, how many were actually 2 way guys etc.

That is why we decided to split during the group periods and allow those younger kids get those reps... It does pull some of your coaches from observing their position group with varsity, but between the 3 coaches on either side of the ball, still got coverage and coached up all the positions.

The way we've done it depends on the coaches we have. Presently, we have an offensive staff and a defensive staff, with no crossover. So while the offensive guys are doing varsity, the defensive guys have JV, and then vice versa. I have had staffs in the past where we had someone who coaches varsity WR and DB and a younger coaches who coached JV WR and DB. I've done the same at times with varsity OL-varsity DL coach with a JV offensive line coach and a separate JV defensive line coach. The JV offensive line coach worked with the varsity line and JV defensive line coach worked with the varsity defensive line to help the varsity coaches. I think you just have to figure out the strengths of your staff and utilize them the best you can. Next year, I may go back to having at least one coach who works varsity on both sides of the ball.

Coach, when you had your staff do both sides of the ball with JV assistants with same positions, how much time did the JV team separate from the Varsity? or did you not practice at all together?