When it comes to football, I want to be a mad scientist. That might also be the problem. A key tenet of youth sports–of life in general, perhaps–is Keep it Simple, Stupid. I have never done that in life, and trying to do that in 12u football is breaking me. Honestly, I probably should coach a younger team where I am not expecting as much from my players. Not only do I want these kids to execute the plays, but I want them to understand the sequencing and I want a QB who knows how to make audible calls in the huddle. Barring that, I have a lot of work to do in order to streamline my offense.
At least I figured out a play call system that is working.
Two, actually. I’ve been running plays in and out of the huddle with my wingback, because they are largely interchangeable. This is a good look, because it keeps teams guessing as to which back is the real breakout back. I’m not even sure yet, but I know that each of the wings possess speed, but one is a better between the tackles runner and the other has a bigger arm. Each play I switch them out to get the new play call in. Sometimes I’ll keep them both and pull the QB to go into a pure wildcat package. This, however, is not the complexity that concerns me.
All my plays stem off the idea of jet sweep. Simply put that means if you can beat the B-gap, you can likely disrupt what I am trying to do. I’ve developed some on the fly calls to challenge that–particularly running opposite the sweep with the FB and RB. It works to confuse a defense that starts creeping heavily to one side or the other, but the execution has to be money and it has not been thus far. Part of that is not having a fullback I can completely rely on. As with all things it comes down to personnel and practice.
Some Thoughts:
- Rough night in many ways. Still, I’m doing my best to be that rock.