I decided to take some time with this blog post to discuss something that’s near and dear to my heart. From the time that I was a player myself, to my first year of coaching, to creating this blog and sub-varsity movement, I have always been drawn to offensive line play. The comradery of the position, to the fact that they need to make movements and use techniques that most “superstars athletes” would find difficult, life on the offensive line has always been where I love to exist. In recent years, I’ve moved to other position groups, dedicating myself to coaching QB’s and being an OC, but I still continue to work with the underlying knowledge that every play in football starts on the offensive line.
If you want to build a high school football program with staying power, you start in the trenches. More specifically, you start with your JV and sub-varsity offensive line. They may not get the headlines, and they may not always be the flashiest part of your roster, but if you’re serious about building varsity-ready linemen, you have to commit to teaching them the right way — early, often, and with consistency.
This post is all about how to do exactly that. I’ll cover key fundamentals, talk about scheme selection, and dive into how to balance the realities of JV football with the long-term goal of developing linemen who can step into a varsity role without missing a beat. If you coach JV football and want your offensive line to not only hold up, but grow up — this one’s for you.
Step One: Develop their Feet First
The first step an offensive lineman takes is often the difference between a successful play and a blown-up backfield. At the JV level, it’s easy to get caught up in the chaos of assignments and schemes, but none of that matters if the foundation isn’t there — and it starts with feet.
On Day 1 of our install, we re-teach all of our linemen stance and start. In my opinion, if a player’s stance is incorrect, then everything else they do during that play will also be incorrect. That being said, we start with their feet shoulder width apart and slightly staggered (depending on which side of the line they’re playing.) Knees bent, ass down, they drop their hand below their head so if their eyeball fell on a string it would touch their thumb.
Once you get the stance locked in, we move to the steps. We always start with inside zone footwork (we’ll get to that later), so we want a short first step to get to our aiming point, then a second step to turn the rest of our body and square up with our first step. We rep that into oblivion, making sure that our OL knows they can’t step too long (off-balance) but not too short either (not enough force).
I like to use the phrase “Step with intent.” Every foot placement has a purpose. We don’t just step to move — we step to position ourselves for leverage, for balance, and for power. O-Line play becomes a lot easier when the kids understand angles, and getting your feet into the correct position helps a lot with that. With our first steps, we’re teaching our players to point their first step at an angle where we can crotch the guy in front of us and take an angle at half his body.
Whether we’re running gap or zone schemes (more on that later), the first step needs to get us on path, in phase, and into a position where we can win. That means a 45-degree step for down blocks, a lateral step for outside zone, or a deep enough step on a pull (flat or 2nd level.). We also have to make sure of no false steps and no wasted movement. We want clean, sharp footwork, and the only way to get it is to drill it relentlessly.
Drills to Build It At every single practice, we run a 5-7 minute footwork circuit before we get into any other indy work:
Drive steps (straight ahead, quick punch)
Lateral steps
Pull Steps
Kick slides (pass protection)
Mirror steps (for lateral agility)
We teach it with no pads, at half speed first, and correct as we go. Then we increase tempo, and then we add resistance or a visual key. Eventually, once we’re fully padded, our kids run it themselves in pre-practice so we don’t have to spend time in Indys working on it (because we all know how valuable Indy time is as an OL coach)
An Offensive Lineman lives and dies by their footwork; if they take the wrong angle, or step in the wrong direction, the entirety of the play can be broken. Remember, at the JV level, where you’re taking some kids who have never actually had to physically move another person before and preaching to them that they need to give everything they can to do it, the pressure can be intense. So remember, one step at a time. That’s how JV linemen learn. You may understand the entire arc of a play — they don’t. Not yet. They need to be walked through it, repped through it, encouraged when they get it right, and corrected without frustration when they don’t.
You can’t skip this part. These are still young kids. They’re not all going to be Jason Kelce right away.
Step Two: Scheme Smarts
Let’s settle one thing: both zone and gap blocking work. Both are viable at the sub-varsity level. For example, as absolutely partial as I am to Power (it is the Lord’s play, after all), I’ve already stated that the base step for our offensive linemen is Inside Zone. Now, we do this because we’ve been able to determine a blocking scheme that works based on Zone steps (watch my One Play the JV Way videos for more), but maybe that doesn’t work for you. Maybe your kids OL is all one foot undersized from their same age peers, and weigh 50 lbs less than average linemen at their level. The key is picking the one that matches your talent and sticking with it long enough for your linemen to truly understand it.
Gap Scheme – Teaching Downhill Attitude Gap scheme blocking is built on angles. You’re creating double teams, down blocks, and kicking out defenders. Most times, you’re alos pulling a lineman, which allows for your more athletic big-men to tee off on unsuspecting players and get in on the fun. It’s physical, it’s straightforward, and by God it’s beautiful, but most importantly for young linemen, it makes sense. They learn:
Leverage
Tracking backers
Working double teams
How to communicate with adjacent linemen
We base the majority of our calls in gap scheme. Why? Because it gives linemen a clear, defined target. It teaches aggression, leverage, and responsibility. Also, did I mention it’s a beautiful thing?
Zone Scheme – Teaching Communication and Patience Zone schemes are more fluid. Linemen block areas first, defenders second. There’s a greater emphasis on:
Lateral movement
Combo blocks
Climbing to the second level
Reading defensive flow
We used Zone footwork as our initial steps because, in my opinion, they translate better to helping teach Gap footwork than the other way around. The idea of your first step creating your angle and your second helping you to follow through just MAKES SENSE to me for some reason.
Obviously, zone doesn’t place as much an emphasis on blocking down as Gap, but it teaches linemen to take Defensemen at face value, along with getting them to communicate with each other when they need help. Zone makes our players more aware of what’s going on around them, and develops their minds more than Gap scheme.
If your JV group can move well and communicate, zone is an excellent choice — but only if you’re willing to invest the time teaching the rules. That means explaining track concepts, defensive alignment reads, and making double teams part of your daily routine. It’s an investment, sure, but it does provide you opportunities to get the RB’s to be their natural athletic selves, rather than limiting them to following the pull.
Install Tips
Choose one scheme to install first.
Use walkthroughs with cones or landmarks to show aiming points.
Rep double teams every day.
Use a numbering or color system for simple rules (e.g., Green = gap, Blue = zone).
Don’t Mix Too Soon Some coaches want to run it all — inside zone, outside zone, counter, trap, power. Slow down. Pick two core runs in the same scheme first and build confidence. I’d rather have five plays they know inside and out than a dozen they can’t execute.
In our system, we use both Zone and Gap scheme, but we spend the first five days working Zone scheme, getting them to thoroughly understand what they’re doing. Then, once they’re confident, then we’ll start running our gap scheme.
How do you choose? Well, like I said before, see what your kids can do! If your players are good at Zone, then run Inside, Outside, Midline, Veer, whatever your heart desires. But if your kids struggle with Zone, but they fire off the line then Gap-Down-Backer all day!
Step Three: Keep It Simple
You’re not building the 2019 LSU Tigers here. You’re coaching 15-year-olds who probably played both ways on modified and maybe haven’t been in a real stance for more than a year or two. If your kids can understand more than 3 blocking schemes, by all means, you do you boo. For the rest of us peons, who have 3 out of 5 starters on our O-Line identified with Learning Disabilities, keep the scheme simple.
Philosophy: Limit Playbook, Maximize Reps I cannot stress this enough. The best thing you can do for your JV offensive linemen is give them fewer things to learn and more chances to master them. If you’re constantly changing calls, adding tags, and tweaking responsibilities, they’re going to regress.
Choose 2-3 Core Concepts We’ve had great success with:
Power
Counter
Inside Zone
These concepts complement each other, can be dressed up with motion or formation, and require similar base blocks.
Daily Reps and Rules Each lineman should be able to answer these questions for each play:
What’s my first step?
Who am I working with?
Who is my target?
If they can’t do that, you’re either installing too fast or teaching too little.
For Gap Scheme plays, we teach Gap-Down-Backer, all day! Is someone lined up in your backside gap? Then block them down. Is no one there? Then run your tracks till you find someone who is!
For Zone, we simply ask them one question: are you covered or uncovered? If you’re covered to your playside, then attack their inside or outside shoulder (depending on the concept). If you’re uncovered, then double back and climb till you get to a backer.
KEEP THE RULES SIMPLE! The key rule I’ve always followed for O-Linemen is you can’t make them think too much. It’s like Josh Allen when you give him too much time to throw; they make mistakes.
Teaching Tools
Walk-throughs with no pads.
Scout team with no resistance for mental reps.
Whiteboard quizzes during install periods.
“Teach the coach” sessions — let players explain the rule back to you.
If you can get your linemen consistently telling you and executing their rules, then you’ve done your job as their line coach. And if you can get more than 5 kids to understand what they’re doing, that’s when you become really dangerous.
Step Four: JV vs. Varsity – Coaching for the Level You’re At
JV football is not varsity football. The game is slower, the players are rawer, and the margin for error is wider. Too many coaches, though, make the mistake of teaching their JV linemen like they’re preparing for Saturday film sessions. They’re not. They’re preparing to someday earn those sessions.
JV Linemen Need Habits, Not Hot Reads. We’re not asking our JV guys to recognize blitz packages or run complex protection schemes. We’re asking them to:
Come off the ball low and fast
Get their hat placement right
Finish blocks to the echo of the whistle
Know where the double team goes
If they can do that, they’re winning.
Varsity Linemen Have to Execute Under Pressure At the varsity level, linemen face faster defenders, more stunts, and more crowd noise. The pressure is higher, and the details matter more. If your JV linemen don’t build good habits now, you’ll be fixing them under the lights.
Align Your Teaching Even if you’re not running the full varsity playbook, use the same terminology, footwork drills, and combo progression. Varsity linemen should look at JV film and recognize the techniques. That’s how you build continuity.
Tip: Share Time With Varsity Line Coach Have a 15-minute overlap weekly where the varsity OL coach watches your group or co-leads an Indy period. This aligns vision, reinforces program language, and gives your JV players a taste of what’s coming.
Step Five: System Over Scheme – Program Alignment Matters
If you want long-term success in your offensive line development, the JV and varsity staff must speak the same language. That means:
Common terminology
Shared play concepts
Unified drill routines
Why It Matters
JV kids graduate to varsity and already know the base rules.
Less time teaching, more time refining.
Program identity is preserved — your linemen know who they are and what they do.
Coaching JV Is a Developmental Job Winning is fun, sure — but your real job is building the varsity line of the future. That means:
Repping inside zone even if the game calls for something else
Taking time to fix a false step instead of ignoring it for a W
Rotating linemen in to get live reps, even when it’s close
Tactics for Staying Connected
Weekly meetings between JV and varsity line coaches
Shared film review sessions
Common Indy period drills (even if team periods differ)
One-page handout of core vocabulary and techniques
Final Word: Build the Wall Early
You don’t build a wall on Friday night. You start stacking bricks on Monday afternoon at practice. For us, those bricks are:
Stance
Steps
Leverage
Finish
At the JV level, you have a chance to coach kids when they’re still moldable. Still wide-eyed. Still listening. Teach them the right way. Drill the small stuff. Speak the varsity language. Keep it simple, but coach it hard.
If you do that, you’re not just developing linemen — you’re building a program.
And trust me, when they finally get that Friday night start, and they come off the ball like you taught them two years ago, you’ll feel it.
You’ll know you built that.
Next week, we’re focusing on how to approach and schedule your install days. In the meantime, check out past posts of The JV Playbook on Coachingshare.com, and make sure to check out all of the great stuff coaches have to offer on their website. From playbooks to install directions, to drill work and videos, Coachingshare.com has what you need!
Check out my Youtube series “One Play the JV Way.” This week, special guest AJ Knutson is going to be sharing how he teaches his 5-2 defense for the JV level
Join our Facebook group, the JV Community for weekly tips, practice plans, and drills focused on sub-varsity football development.
Thanks for reading, and remember, Teach it, Rep it, Build it.
That’s the JV Way.
