21 Players, 3 Coaches - How Do I Practice?

1. First thing: KISS and cross-train the heck out of everyone. You’re going to have kids playing multiple positions on each side of the ball, often within the same game. Whatever offense and defense you’re running, simplify it down to the most basic level you can get in order to make this doable. That could mean MS-level scheme and teaching if you’re at HS, simply because you will need to rely on your least athletic or slowest learning player at some point this year. Make sure all the coaches know the basics of the other positions because you might be down a coach or two at one point, too.

2. On special teams, practice Punt Return or Punt Block as a defensive call, work a single PR and KOR once a week, and do a FG block once a week, and work a single punt and KO (probably a squib). Just go for 2 instead of kicking PATs and FGs unless you’ve got a good kicker.

3. Set up a 3-4 deep depth chart for EVERYTHING and keep it in practice and on the sideline so you can rotate players in when someone is missing or hurt. Try to give each guy on the ST depth charts at least 1 rep each week in his spot,

4. Keep practices short. 21 players will get tired quickly. Do like 2 hours, max, with plenty of water breaks, and 90 minutes is better if possible. With such low numbers, you can bang out plenty of reps.

5. Do a specialized offensive emphasis day and a defensive emphasis day. You can still work some basic skills on the other side of the ball, like a tackling/pursuit drill and 7 on 7/sled work on the opposite days, but focus an hour or more on one side to really drill down.

6. If you lift at practice and are short on coaches, consider doing it in shifts. Linemen can lift while backs come out for non-padded Indy work with a coach or two, then they lift while the backs come out for their stuff, or you can have one group lift at the beginning while the other lifts at the end with this staggered format to allow more 1 on 1 work.

7. Half line the crap out of everything whenever possible. Use a coach as scout QB and just simulate snaps with your scout C so you’re not just falling on loose balls all day.

8. Inanimate objects are your friend. Sleds, dummies, bags, and even big trash cans can be lined up for formation recognition and basic fundamental work. This allows you to use fewer players on “scout.”

9. With the KISS scheme-wise, try to keep scout periods and practice structures simple, too. Focus on like the 3-5 big plays a scout offense uses and have very simple adjustment rules for a defense that make it easy. The simpler you are, the more your game plan will carry over from week to week, which is important as players need to get shuffled around. Remember, your least athletic or least smart players will be counted on, so build around what they can and cannot handle. Studs will always be studs.

10. If it ain’t working, throw it out. This includes practice periods, plays, “special packages” (which you probably want to avoid with just 21 players) etc. Cut the fat so you can hang your hat on the stuff that works. Being complete on paper isn’t nearly as valuable as being good at some stuff you and the kids can trust. If that means your whole offense is 3 runs and 2 passes, so be it.

11. It should go without saying... but try to hog the ball and shorten games. Take your time getting lined up. Milk the clock down. This will help keep your guys from getting worn out/hurt if they play fewer snaps per game and it makes an opponent’s superior numbers less of an issue. If you have to rest someone, do it on offense where you can keep the ball away from their replacement.

12. As I mentioned earlier, cross train everyone. Each player should know the basics of at least 2 positions on each side of the ball: DE/OLB, S/LB, WR/QB, etc. You will need them there. You’ll likely need to teach most of them a 3rd or even 4th position before the year’s over. I once had a kid start games at WR, FB, and G offensives while also playing S, CB, and OLB defensively, all within the same season.

Welcome to my life

Good luck

You have to be mindful of their legs and what you’re asking of them, because it’s easy to grind them into dust with these numbers.

Don’t bitch and moan about the numbers but brag on what you have. They’re badass playing iron man football and make it a sense of pride for them.

That doesn’t mean you won’t have have periods of physical practice but they’re limited and have a purpose.

We’re not banging to just be banging. In a lot of ways it will make you a better coach in the long term because it makes you condense your coaching points down so you can plug and play easily.

I think single wing and double wing for QB. I’ve went single wing because it eliminates a lot of backfield football so a less experienced coach can handle backs, while your best coach works with the line.

I think the split 4-4 is about the best small roster and staff defense too.

Inside backers and DT can basically be gap pluggers while you build an umbrella with you best players at DE, OLB, S and C

You're not in too bad a shape. You have a 7 to 1 ration (7 players for each coach).  With 21 players you will have to  control the hitting in practice.

In the past we have had to handle 122 players with 6 coaches (a 20 to 1 ratio).  After the "dust settled", we were left with 88 players for 6 coaches (a 15 to 1 ratio).

I dont know if you're asking for schematic help or organizational or all of the above. But for the majority of my coaching career we have had only three coaches (usually 28-40 kids).

Practice wise we would do stations, 1 coach with however many kids, for you it would be 7 each.
We would break it up based on positions/size of kid (OL/DL, RB/LB, DB/WR/QB)
Cones/ladders at one station, back pedal/shuffle at another, ball skills another.
5-7 minutes per round until each group had been with each coach once.
Then break up into Indy (I took QB/RB, other coach WR's, other coach OL) however long for indy.
Then we might go 7on7, with extra OL indy time.
Then team O.
Then switch to defensive emphasis. (Each coach now has a Defensive position group)
We might go D Indy, then Opp O walk through, then Team D.

In order to save time if i was HC, we wouldn't practice punting, kick return, punt return, PAT/FG at all for the majority of practices. Kickoff gets a little time each day (or a lot on one day). Punt return maybe 5 minutes on walk through day.
I'd just recommend finding what specials you don't want to use/emphasis and limit the time, spend it on O and D.

4-2-5

11/12 Personnel Power, CT, Jet, Screens

Why are there only 21 kids out for football in a school of 1900?

4.5 years of program destruction. We will get better, but that's not what this is about.

Disagree, depends on the quality of your 3 coaches.
3 good coaches that work well together get a lot more done than 6 idiots helping. If they can coach their parts effectively, you can definitely coach up those systems.

Just spitballing here for a 3 coach TCU system with limited players:
1 DL coach
1 LB coach
1 DB coach-I would put DC here

Incorporate drills to combine similar techniques for DBs within the scheme of the defense. An example would be including a crack/replace drill for CBs in the same diamond drill with safeties. That way you are repping your Cover2/sky look for the entire secondary. It would have the added benefit of the entire secondary of seeing what the other DBs do within your system if you have to move people around due to injuries/numbers.

You can do similar things for the front. Heck, you can even put safeties and LBs together for a run fit/pass distribution period if the CBs need a little more indy time with the DB coach.

Also, have SS split time between DB and LB because his skill set is more of a tweener anyway within that system.

Personally have coached both systems with a small team and it’s doable. Difficult but doable. Teach general concepts, cross train like crazy, plan out who your next man up is, and coach the crap out of them. We play small school football here and this is daily life.

A lot of good suggestions, I would just tweak the punt return/block - make it a defensive call but do a simple 1 for 1 switch.... we would take out the NG (since you can't hit the snapper)or the biggest kids on the DL and put in a kid to return. Or really just the kid you trust the most to catch it and not let it bounce and roll. Block it every time either from a 44 stack and let the kids take ownership of picking how to cross.