PLATOONING

Coach,

I am a defensive coordinator with a smaller sized school which is attempting to platoon this season. We area class 3-A school in Idaho and have about seventy players out for varsity and JV teams (about 30 are varsity players). Last year we finished third in the state playoffs losing to the eventual state champion after running out of gas in the second half. Last year we played about 15 kids for the majority of the game and it hurt us when it came to crunch time, so we are making the switch at trhe current time.

Here are some answers to your questions:

I believe it is good for all teams, if you have trust in your players. The more players who are contributing the better, you also should be fresher later in games by playing more players.

Our defense is replacing 9 starters and our offense the same, by platooning at this time we are decreasing the demand on players who would normally have to perform on both sides of the ball.

We are going to try to have 22 starters, but we realize that we may have some players who are just too talented to keep off of the field and that we will also come across times when we have injuries that will force players to play on both sides of the ball.

All of our players are learning one offensive position and one defensive position so I think our depth will be much greater. For instance last year we had three kids who could see action at corner and not hurt us, problem was that one of the three was a starting linebacker. This year we have four kids that are solid and could play without any hesitation, our very best corner will be a starting running back, so he will be a backup or could start if the other players are not getting the job done.

So far our practices have been more competitive. Each player practices an offensive spot and a defensive spot each night and we run team against each other. When it gets time to prepare versus a scout tem we will be practicing against a very good team rather than players who do not get to play.

Hope this helps, if have any other questions please let me know.


Dee Lewis

We are in the 4a class in Washington and We started this last season as we figured a 100 % 2nd teamer was better than the 60 % first teamer he replaced. We were a 2-8 team the year before and this past season we improved to 5-5 and narroly missed two other wins in which we came back both times in the 4th quarter. For us it has not only improved us as a program but has more kids excited and ready to contribute. What we do is look at a kid and determine is he better offensively or defensively then if he is a better offensive player we may have him split a defensive position. As an example last year we had a DE and OLB who were both defensive starters and they split the TE position for us on offense. All of our kids have a position on both defense and offense and they all have individual time on both sides of the ball.

Would 2 platooning also be a way of building numbers up in a program ?

Most kids want to play... the more kids on the field - the more they'll feel involved in the program.