Football University

I think there have been several threads like this in the past, some folks definitely do it. After my first year coaching middle school, most of them do not know anything. My other son played rec this year and the coaches and refs did not know basic rules like you have to have 7 men on the line. It is a good idea if you can find the time, make it quick and fun, and get good participation, maybe reward them.

We do some of this kind of stuff in the summer and early fall. Not "general offense" or "general defense" necessarily but think like field dimensions (especially for DBs), rules, situational stuff, etc.

But it happens when we have "regularly scheduled" football stuff going on, not in the winter season.

"Regularly scheduled" varies widely from place to place so I'm positive our calendars are all very different.

I suggest not to do this.

Do the teaching during the season when on the field.  Post season, encourage the guys to play other sports.

Engaging in another sport (or 2) results in a more well rounded athlete.

Remember that these guys are kids.  Not too long ago they believed in Santa Claus.  They do NOT generally devote nearly the time to the game as do the coaches.

Now, the weight room should always be available and monitored!

Honestly, many of these kids will regard your "program" as just another class they have to take.  They want to get out of class and go outside and play!  5 years ago they were outside climbing trees.

Encourage them to play a different sport.  Give them a break.

It depends when you plan to do this. If you have a conditioning class or athletic period during the school day I think it's fine. If you plan to do it after or before school then it's just something else extra for the kids (and coaches) to do. 

We do it on the field mostly. On special teams early in the year we make sure we cover things like blocked kicks behind the line, blocked kicks that pass the like, long field goals, punting at the end of the half, Punting backed up, pinning them deep, hideout guys on the sideline, etc.

Then for offense and defense, we do some starters vs starters team periods where we dictate the situations. 2 minute, 4 minute, 3rd and long, 3rd and short, etc. As the season goes on we change that "good vs good" period to be a more game-like scenario where it's 1st and 10 at the XX yard line and we play until there's either a score or a stop. If a scenario comes up that we've covered before we reinforce it.

Kids watch a lot of football on the weekends and don't realize HS rules are different in certain instances.

I always like to make sure our DBs understand they can be physical all over the field as it's not PI until the ball is in the air. (They still have the 5 yards only for contact in their heads).

Also, 2 pt plays can't be returned by the Defense. Trying to get the QB to understand that a busted 2 pt play is still worth taking a shot to any receiver. It's better than taking a sack since you probably aren't scoring anyway, might as well take a chance since there's no worry about giving up points.

Since the OP has time before implementing this idea he may want to look for video of unusual plays that illustrate the rules.

This one, a blocked FG behind the LOS, is a great example (Scroll to 3:05 of the video)

Yes. I might have killed him if it was 1st & goal.

We "attempt" about 2-3 of those every year. We score on almost half of those. Years ago we even won an OT game on a pass off of a failing 2 pt. play.