How do you "sell" playing OL to your kids?

They get to do everything we do as a team first. Example, when we have thursday pregame meal, they get in line first. When we load the bus, they load up first and we try to give them a solo seat.

Believe it or not, in this alleged age of softness and selfishness, we have used the idea of general nastiness, blue collar attitude, and toughness to sell the OL to kids. It resonates with some kids that the idea of being the most sweat-drenched, dinged-up, position on the field is something to be sought after.

We faced this issue this year as well, although this team is the 7th grade team. We didn't have enough decent linemen to give us a chance, even our center couldn't get a decent snap half the time. So I asked the WR coach (who had a ton of extra kids) who didn't have good hands and could move.

I moved the kid and he was hesitant at first but I told him hey buddy, we are a running team, so you are either going to block as a wideout, or youre going to block on the line. And youre 3rd string on the depth chart, so you won't even get in much there. But if you play OL you are gonna start and play the entire game. He has excelled and is probably the best linemen we have. Since then I have taken two other WR's and turned them into linemen and they are both starting as well.

So I just sold it as they would get more playing time.

We've really put the effort into making playing Oline a prestigious thing the last 2 years.

No longer called Oline but now called "The Franchise"

Every couple weeks they get cookies, popsicles, or some snack and get to watch conditioning in the stands.

Franchise t-shirts

Pizza durring film if goals are met.

RBs never allowed to blame or talk bad about the Franchise. House rules.

Etc, etc.

Our FB from last year got dumped by his girlfriend over summer, got fat and was moved to Guard. He was reluctant at first but has worked really hard at making it his spot.

In our year around program - (with a lot of testing of strength, agility, & foot speed) we convince them where they should play.

OLM = "We do the Most, We're known the least, We are the Reason"

What does that mean?

Offensive line is like no other position. The only time you get noticed is when you screw up. With the offensive line it is all about the unit. They can't let the man next to them down. If you can get them to play for the unit and not for themselves, they will give more effort. We also hold them all accountable to each other for effort. We point out great effort and poor effort. I love coaching offensive line for this very reason. It is a challenge to get them to come together, but once you do it is a thing of beauty. The kids come up with our unit name each year, and we identify with that. It cost me $300 out of pocket to get 20 t-shirts made. This was a small thing that the kids like. They now have come up with a hashtag they identify with.

Let me say that a hashtag and a t-shirt won't make you play hard. But building and molding a unit will. We spend time together outside of practice eating and hanging out. This helps to build that unit.

When you are correcting them they already feel like crap for making a mistake. We talk about how to fix it. I tell my guys everyday, "I own your mistakes, you own your effort." When you make a mistake that is bad coaching and I will get you coached up. When you give poor effort, that is on you, and you and we will find a way to make you go hard." I also defend our guys to the death. If another player calls them out for not blocking or missing an assignment, I rip the tail of the guy that said it, and end with an invitation to join us if he thinks its so dang easy. They need to know you have their back.

You make it hard, you got to search for the kids that are mean, have a chip on their shoulder. I would not always worry about the size of the player when playing o line, if he has one of those qualities I would try to get him. Those are the guys. When we were short I would ask the rb coach or wr coach which kids they had that were not starting that had a mean side. Then you bust their tail and make it tough, but you just keep reinforcing that its got to be tough cause they are the toughest suckers on the team and keep it going.  I'll add,  wrestlers are ones I looked for.  A lot of my wrestlers were my line.  State championship team had my 130 pounder at center.  he doubled a lot, faced a lot of forty fronts where he was uncovered and he was mean.  I'm sure he did somethings in the pile that I didn't want to know about. 

Over the years, one of the things I have tried is to involve more pulling. They love to pull in HS for some reason.
Then you create an "H-back" which is really just an extra tackle but they don't know that. Then You pull GH instead and option the DE and shovel to the H for some love
Then you put the H at TE even if he can't catch and do the same thing. pull GE.Or get crazy and throw him a stick route
Then you go unbalanced and create a "tackle eligible" to give him some love with a pass.
Let them make their own line calls so they feel like a unit. And give the unit a name eg Diesel, Pancakes
When you're up big, put the big guy at FB and let him score.



A little love (getting the ball) goes a long way. And make your backs, even in practice, go back and high five the Oline every time they get an explosive run play

Culture, culture, culture. Blue collar, rough and tumble, etc. I throw off on the backs all the time "theyre over there playing catch while were over here working", not in a mean way but just picking on the backs a little and reinforcing that culture and attitude with the OL. We use Wing-T blocking, down block and pull/trap a lot. My boys get to tee off on DL that don't know where the hit is coming from. Makes blocking fun instead of just trying to get on a DLs left or right and cut him off. Best linemen on the team is my LG, he also plays DT. He gets more big hits at G than he does at DT, kids want to hit. He was begging to start on the DL all off season, now hes glad when I rotate him out on Defense because it keeps him "fresh for Offense".

Backs get rewarded by touching the ball, being a star. Linemen get rewarded by the experience, by brotherhood. Love em; high 5s, fist bumps, hugs, pick on them, joke around, commend great blocks and toughness more than big plays. When the Offense comes off the field after a scoring drive every OL gets congratulated by me and I talk to them as a group(or at least the available linemen).

opportunity to get on the field is a big one. "Son, do you want to be the 3rd string H-Back or a starting Guard?"

Glorify the linemen in any way you can. Another thing I did was I would have offensive lineman catch punts to end team conditioning. "If ______ catches this punt, we are finished with conditioning today". Every kid wanted to be an offensive lineman at that moment. Everyone would also have fun and be pumped up whether they caught it or not. Nothing like seeing 45+ swamp and carry a lineman off the field to end practice.