O-Line

We are a triple option team. We run ISV, OSV and midline. Our kids are just to slow to get out to backer and not aggressive enough to hold a double team. It think it has to do with attitude more than anything. We are a suburban prep school where class rank and colleges are more important than homecoming or pep rallies. A lot of the kids are from wealthy families where they have been spoiled and coddled. To a lot of them, football is a social activity, like Key Club, rather than hard hitting competitive sport. It's very frustrating for a coach who grew up in a hard scabble mill town and earned a roster spot on the basis of my hitting, aggression and passion for the game. . Our numbers are low and we are one injury on one of our key guys to be a total crap fest. I also coach special teams and I emphasize contact, athleticism and enthusiasm. I had a problem with this at first, but my LB, DE and FB types have bought into it. Unfortunately, my lineman are too slow, fat, clumsy and soft to do much of anything. They are smart kids as I have said, AP students, NHS members, etc. but just don't have that edge. I don't think I can coach that into them.

Coach Charger, we have comparable situations. I coach at a catholic schools where my kids are flat out spoiled rotten. I played at a high school that was an old-fashioned one town, one community school. All we did in practice was beat the heck out of each other. I take over at this catholic school, and I have to adapt to survive. It's terrible. The advantage is that they are good kids, but they are kids who treat football like Key Club. It's not a way of life. The kids get bumps and bruises and they want to sit out of practice. It's disgusting. The only way that I know that this situation will get better is for us to get more numbers so that we have competition at practice. But I know with my current situation--- it's triple option or bust. We won't win if we have to block everyone on every, single play. That's why 33 percent of my offense is one play-- INSIDE VEER. Coach Charger, good luck with your team, and God Bless! I am where you are... Oh, and another thing-- I have 21 kids on my team (2 seniors). The only thing that keeps me going is that I know that one day it will get better. Take care Coach.

I don't know if they will increase the intensity for your o-line, but I really like the series of videos by DeLeone from Syracuse. We are a combination zone and rule blocking team, and since introducing some of the concepts from these videos we have become a much more technically proficient offensive line. I think the biggest problem with high school offensive linemen is that they are hesitant to want to bury their friends that they go to class with, socialize with, etc. We try to get them to leave that in the locker room, and that if they are double teaming someone, he should be on the ground when the play is done. We also struggle getting good on good, where an older kid doesn't really have to work very hard to block a weaker and/or younger defender. We go a good amount of half-line, especially early in the first half of the season. That way, our starting right side can go against the left side, and vice versa. We still struggle with inconsistant line play, but it is getting better.