Structuring JV practice with only 1 coach

I've been in roughly a similar situation before, some thoughts:

Lots of drills of ubiquitous skills: tackling, blocking, etc (things that everyone needs to do eventually). Along those lines lots of change of direction and athletic development type stuff.

Have different position groups help out the other: 10 Minute Pass pro section, have the skill players serve as the group we are blocking.

Its okay to learn things that arent for your position: Who knows where these kids will develop in a year or two, that WR may end up playing on the line. That being written, be up front and explain that you are just one coach, so the OL's may need to go with the skill players for some stuff, just set it up so the skills get most of the reps.

You have two eyes, use them: You can divide into small groups and have them work on specific skills while you bounce back and forth, especially if you draw things up and instruct them well early on.

See if your QBs can work with the varsity: At least now and then, it ends up being an oddball position with little crossover to others, in regards to individual work.

Teach everyone how to read a scout book: Map out the scout plan for team time, let everyone know how to read it and understand it. Maybe put someone in charge of it.

You don't need to rely on team: It seems the easiest way, but you still need to teach them to be football players, not just how to run football plays.

3.5 hours is bonkers, even for a full staffed varsity team, see about getting that trimmed down. If not, weight room is good work during the season, or maybe teaching them to watch film (if someone is filming your games).

3-3.5… hours… all by yourself?

The first thing I’d ask for is for 1-2 other coaches (or even injured upperclassmen) who can help. If that is turned down, you’re in a tough spot, but it sounds like nobody cares about JV much so don’t take it too hard.

The second thing is, since this is JV we’re talking about, don’t worry about scout cards and all that. Focus on just getting the kids taught how to line up, run the base defense and special teams, and how to execute like 3-5 plays of offense including one pass.

For practice, what resources will you have that you can use? How many days will you get?

If it’s just you, some things to save a little time:

Teach punt return as a defensive play. Have the base, like 1-3 blitzes, and PR for the entire defensive playbook. It just saves time. Don’t even bother with PATs and XPs. Just go for 2 and go for it on 4th down every time you cross the 40.

For scout defense, don’t even bother with scout cards. Just line up in a 4-2 box one day and a 3-3 box the next. Have the LBs tap the DT in front of them to slant them one way while the LBs finish opposite,

For scout offense, simulate all snaps so you’re not just spending the whole period chasing bad ones around. C moves his hand back while the QB has it in his hands and pats the ball at the start of the play,

Some things you can do with the whole team to work fundamentals:

A blocking rotation (better if you’re a ground and pound team, but if you’re all by yourself, let the WRs get a few reps on downblocks). Use a sled, bags, board drills, etc.

A mesh/ball security rotation (as above, let the OL get some reps taking handoffs and running in traffic).

A tackle rotation working angle tackles, form tackling, strip drill, close and pursue, etc—a lot of this can basically be LB drills.

A pursuit drill.

For the teaching itself, do some walkthroughs on air where you call the play, spot the ball, and get lined up. Keep this limited to like 10 min or less and only to work spacing and alignment, as it does almost nothing for the OL.

Do light contact thud scrimmaging, but you can break this up and do like 1 period devoted to each of the 5 offensive plays you’re running. Walk through the assignments and really stress rules and WHO to block, try to keep your JV dudes in the same spot week after week so the learning builds.

Defensively, focus on teaching them how to follow their rules against the common things they’ll see: 2x2, 3x1, 2x1, Power, Counter, IZ, etc. If you can 2 platoon your JV kids and have your offense run your own schemes at the D, you get a 2 for 1 here.

Rough estimate for a 3 hour schedule would be 1 hr of offense, 1 hr of defense, 10 min each on KO, KOR, and Punt, and 30 min of water breaks, possibly with some extra conditioning. For conditioning try to make it fun somehow.

If you have that much time for 2-3 days, try to do some drills to just work flexibility and movement for about 30 minutes a day, possibly broken up into a pair of 15 minute periods that come from offensive and defensive time, respectively.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with having the kids lift for a portion of that if at all possible. It’s probably going to do more for them than trying to run a cluster of an 11 vs 11 scrimmage with JV kids all by yourself.

How many kids?

Well we won today 12-6 against a much bigger school. A lot to fix, but there was a lot of good as well. Now we’re up to two of us as the JV “staff”.,

Long, aggravating to plan for, but breaking it into 15 min chunks with special teams “breaks” and short walk through periods before team sessions. Varsity was still practicing at 7 pm apparently while we were at our game. Practice starts at 3:30 pm, it’s been an incredibly long season team is on track to be 8-2, but the atmosphere is that of a 2-8 team. JV morale up significantly after this game and a week of more stable practice.

Maybe it’s because I am older and have a toddler now, but we could definitely get everything we do done in 90 min to 2 hours tops - we’re definitely living in the Land of Diminishing Returns.

Was that way, our HC randomly demoted our Special teams coordinator to “Head JV Coach” so there’s two of us now

It’s a mess, I joined the team 2 weeks before the season started as a job I thought I had lined up at a Hogwarts type private school fell through. Apparently all summer there was a ton of times when only two coaches at practice so all training and install over the summer was in team.

Our OC and I have coached at really good programs in the area and it’s our first year here. We’re fighting the “city” mentality of just using your talent and lining up and poorly executing zone read bubble or fades. Our HC wants to basically run a ton of team because he read about Pulaski Academy/ Presbyterian U’s HC approach to practice of running more inside run and team periods. Basically we run 3 hours of team at the varsity level. I had to turn inside run and Team D into my Indy periods with our linebackers.

If things were better structured and better organized, like we are for track and Field at the same school, we would easily go 7-3 every year with the potential to make big playoff runs as the school itself is one of those urban schools that operates like a nice suburb school and has great teachers and a state report card score higher than many of the wealthier suburbs that surround it. I am just getting worn out and it feels more like a 2-8 season than the current 4-2 varsity situation.

I think I am might just quit/ “retire” from coaching after this season if I don’t get tapped to be an HC somewhere else. It sucks because I have coached these kids in track but my family can’t do 3 hour practices now that I have a toddler.

I know this isnt going to help you in the way you asked. But if you are, teacher, and the attitude is the jv isnt worth the varsity’s time…go recruit other teachers. If you can get them up to speed quickly…looks good if you want to be hc.
btw we have 40 kids  +?- 1 or 2 in the entire program.