Head Sets- Who gets them?

It depends on how many headsets there are; that being written, I don't think headsets need to be limited to those who are involved in the "playcalling chain". Having a headset on the sideline can benefit position coaches who may not be able to see everything from field level.

Even if I don't have a say in what play we call next I would like to know if one of my position players is in need of some specific technique adjustment or anything of that nature. Being able to hear that may allow me to be a better coach for my position.

Maybe they should just keep their mouthpieces turned off if they don't need to be contributing to the playcalling discussion (put them on mute), but give them a headset.

We have a 7 man set, got them before we were hired would have gotten hme 5 man not the crap-a-phone but I digress, small school small staff so everyone has them. 2 up and 5 down all same channel since we play both ways and coach both ways. Lucky that our guys know their role and who talks and who doesn't. The guys who don't need to talk usually leave their mics up until myself, hc, or other guy in box needs something from them.

Gets crazy every now and then but a good shut the phuk up!!!! Usually clams it dow. Again we are fortunate that our HC wants input and asks for it but also that guys know when to talk and not to talk.
Nice to have guys on the headsets too who we can give adjustments to and also everyone is in the loop and can contribute right away if something is needed, don't have to hunt guys down and all that.

At the last school I was at, the OC, WR coach, and OL coach had headsets and communicated.

Defensively, I had one as DC and the DB coach. In the past four seasons though, I ended up not wearing one about halfway through the season because I liked it better not having one. I could always think better when I didn't have people talking; we'd communicate in between series. That's just what I prefer though.

i think it depends on team composition for me: 

if your HC is a coordinator as well. 3 headsets is more then enough chatter: 
HC, Coordinator, DB coach

if your HC is just an HC then 4: 
HC, OC, DC, DB Coach

The staff I am on now has only five coaches so we all wear one. Our hc flips back and forth. I am a rambler so I like when he’s not on my side. He’s a pretty good play caller and sometimes he will ask what he should call. I coach the offensive line so I say power every time. The problem is sometimes he listens. The other problem is sometimes it’s 3rd and 14.

On some staffs headsets are like cameras or microphones, people change when they’re on. I would prefer not to wear a head set if I am on the field. In the box it’s a necessary evil.

Did you pick it up?

Mid-Triple & Counter are solid 3rd & 14 play calls for us if the game is 1 score or less difference. Probably just as good as chance of converting as any pass play we have & slightly safer.

We only have 6 guys on staff so we all wear one.

I'd rather it be 3. Me (DC) HC/OC, a defensive guy on the sideline I can talk to because I am in the box.

We have 10 coaches, 8 have headsets. Offense and Defense on different lines, four each. OC/QB and RB coaches in box with OL and WR on the field signaling plays and personnel changes and communicating adjustments to players between series. Defense has the DB coach and OLB coach in the box with DL and HC/DC/ILBs on field. HC switches to offensive channel occasionally to tell us we're in four down territory or something.

I can't speak for the defensive staff but as an offense we talk quite a bit about potential adjustments when the team is on defense. We have Hudl Sideline so show any players not on the field anything that needs to be changed and talk about potential changes. I catch myself talking too much sometimes and try to limit it, but it's a bit of a roundtable discussion most of the time.

You make good points.  I say you can have as many on headsets as you want as long as they allow for it.  We all know guys who talk a bit more than they should on game night.  As long as you can keep people talking when they are needed, instead of just eating up air time, then you can have  a lot of guys on radio.  Also, guys have to learn how to either take their set off or at very least turn the mic up if they are just talking to one other person about something that not everybody needs to hear.  Seems like there's a fight every year when someone is telling an OL kid how to make a block and nobody else can communicate during this teaching session, haha.  But this is just a problem with our set because you don't have to push a button to talk.  But I think I'd go back to pushing a button, or get better with different channels, etc. the next time we buy headsets.  

This year:

SL:...OL--ST/QB..LB
........\____|____/
PB:........RB

Which would have been ok actually except neither playcaller was on the headset so calls had to be made, signalled by the playcaller, those signals then read and interpreted and relayed back to RB trying to frantically track what was going on. Then the fifth headset was working we also used

SL:...OL---LB---ST/QB
.......|__/..\__|
PB:...RB....... DB

Which was a mess because our QB coach had defensive chatter all game and the DB coach was a poor spotter.

Best setup we ever had was:

SL:.....OL2...QB---HC---DB2....RB
............|.......|__/....\___|.....|
PB:.....OL1...OC.........DC......DB1

The only complaint here was often needing to scream at the HC to get off your channel because he was yelling at the refs. Having the spare channels allowed you to have an aside with a player.

Miscellaneous valuable lessons learned:

1 ear in the booth, 2 on the sideline. I have no idea why this is so hard for many coaches to comprehend. You should be able to talk to people in the booth and you should have external noise blocked on the sidelines.\

2. Don't put screamers on the headset. If you're yelling at the ref you're clogging the channel.

3. Read the instructions for maintaining the headsets and follow them religiously.

4. Make a clear plan before he season of who has what headsets where during games. You can make changes if needed but have some kind of plan.

5. Have someone designated as Lord and Master of the headsets, entirely responsible for their maintenance, charging, transportation, setup, distribution, acollection, and storage. Nobody does jack to those headsets without his approval.

6. Don't change the configuration game to game without some compelling reason.

7. Test and practice them. You can even go so far as to set up a mock game: put a game on TV in two different rooms and split up the pressbox and sideline people. You'll get a feel for how to communicate effectively.

8. Anything more than three people talking on a single channel is pure madness.