With the upcoming season for most of us, or the beginning stages of it for others, I figured I should take some time to talk about a topic I know we all do differently: install. For some coaches out there, it’s the means to an end; the hard grind you have to walk through in order to get to the big show on a Monday night. For others, like myself, it’s the best part of the season. I love our install weeks, because it’s the time I get to figure out exactly who we have, who we can use, and how we can start to adapt our scheme to fit our personnel. Yes, of course games are exciting, but to me, install is the best part of the year.
One of the most important jobs we have as JV football coaches is laying the groundwork for a successful season—not just in wins and losses, but in the development of players for the varsity level. The first two weeks of practice are where we set our tone. It’s where we establish expectations, build identity, and begin installing the core systems that will carry us through the season.
We all spend the offseason with lofty expectations of thirty different formations, motions for every player, 28 different blitz packages, and onside kicking every single time. But if we spend our install week trying to put in 50 different things a day, our kids heads are going to spin. That’s like your history teacher trying to teach you the entirety of Global History in one hour; no thanks.
The trick is knowing how much to install, how quickly to do it, and how to keep things simple without watering down your identity. That’s the real art of coaching JV football. So in this post, we’ll walk through what I believe is an ideal install schedule for a JV football program: three-pronged and development-focused.
We’ll break it into three major sections—Offense, Defense, and Special Teams—each of which requires a strategic and deliberate approach to installation.
Let’s start with the side of the ball everyone likes to talk about (especially me): offense. Offensive install is the period where we all think we can be Kyle Shannahan or Mike Leach, and create these intricate systems where every kid walks out the first day with a binder that they’re going to study that night and be experts in it, because obviously our kids have nothing better to do with the ends of their summer.
If you’re like me, you’ve got dreams of chunk plays, clean protections, and offensive series that run like a symphony. But at the JV level, the offensive install has to be less about wowing the fans and more about teaching the fundamentals within a system that mirrors your varsity program. This is where you lay the groundwork for future success on Friday nights. This is where you teach the base rules and skills they’re going to need in your program’s system. This is where you take what I’ve talked about in past blog posts, the conversations with your Varsity HC, the base plays he wants you to run, and the system that you’ve created for this particular group of kids, and you begin to turn it into something. But you don’t have to do it all at once. In fact, with younger kids, it’s better to go a lot slower than you think you may need to. It may seem counterintuitive, especially with a scrimmage or game upcoming soon, but trust me, slowing it down is more important for development than anything else.
That’s why I believe in the “1 Run, 1 Pass Every 2 Days” model.
By installing only one run and one pass concept every two days, you allow for:
Day 1-2:
Day 3-4:
Day 5-6:
Day 7-8:
Day 9-10:
Every play we install comes with built-in answers. If we’re a Power team, then Play Action off Power and/or Counter. And if we keep our formations consistent, we aren’t really installing more, we’re teaching new looks on the same core concepts.
By the end of two weeks, we’re not just calling plays—we’re calling a system.
If offense gets the spotlight, defense is where we make our money. And at the JV level, it’s where players either become varsity-ready or they don’t.
The biggest defensive trap JV coaches fall into is trying to throw too much at their players too fast. Coverage checks, multiple fronts, exotic blitzes—it all sounds great until your kids don’t know where their eyes are supposed to be.
So we take the opposite approach: install defense slow. Build the foundation first. Teach them to line up, read their keys, and fit the run properly. Blitzes come last.
The most important thing you can do with your defense is work the run fit first. If you’re able to get the kids to understand their run fits, you can get them to do most anything, and you’ll be able to hang with any offense you play against.. Think about it: how many JV teams across the country are lighting up the scoreboard through the air, and throwing for 500 yards a game. To be perfectly honest, if there were kids doing that on JV, they’d be getting pulled up tom Varsity sooner rather than later. That’s why we stress run fits. JV and sub-varsity teams live and die by their ability to succeed in the run, so we as JV defenses need to know how to fit the run in every scenario.
Day 1-2:
Day 3-4:
Day 5-6:
Day 7-8:
Day 9-10:
For years, I was a DC who believed in getting our blitzes in a.s.a.p. The problem with that, though, is that we weren’t getting the aggressive forward movement we needed from our linebackers. So, after doing some reading and listening to some podcasts, we’re trying a new approach this year; we’re not installing blitzes until after the initial two week install. I don’t want to have to rely on blitzes to get our linebackers to step forward, so I want our run fits to be so good that it looks like we’re blitzing every play.
A properly fit 6-man box with aggressive pursuit can stop more plays than a poorly timed blitz. Blitzing is the icing on the cake. It should be a bonus tool, not the foundation.
Too many coaches treat special teams as an afterthought. Not us. Special teams are the third phase of the game, and we approach it like the other two.
At the JV level, special teams installation has to be slow, intentional, and repetitive. You’re not trying to be exotic—you’re trying to make your players competent and confident. So when we do our special teams install, we are really focusing more on the skills needed by every player. Our install covers one special teams phase per day for the first 10 practices.
Day 1: Kickoff
Day 2: Kick Return
Day 3: Punt Team
Day 4: Punt Return
Day 5: PAT/FG Protection
Day 6: PAT/FG Block
Day 7: Onside Kick
Day 8: Onside Return Hands Team
Day 10: Tight Punt
Day 10: Full Team Special Teams Circuit
These two weeks of install aren’t just about getting schemes in. They’re about building a developmental framework. Every decision you make in the first 10 practices should serve one of three purposes:
We aren’t trying to win Week 1 by tricking the opponent. We’re trying to win the season by teaching our players how to play football the right way.
This plan isn’t flashy. It doesn’t look great on social media or in playbook clinics. But it works. And it’s built to last.
So get your whistle ready. Get your scripts written. And walk onto the field with a plan—not to win every JV game, but to win long term by building your program the right way.
JV isn’t just a stepping stone. It’s the foundation. And how well you lay it in these two weeks will determine how high the house can be built.
Next week, we’ll talk about how to utilize a JV staff, because sometime.s the hardest part about coaching is figuring out what to do with the adults you’re working with.
In the meantime, check out the newest episode of One Play the JV Way on youtube, this week with guest AJ Knutson. We had a great talk on the 5-2 defense, and emphasizing simple install and just teaching your players to do their jobs.
Make sure you’re following the Facebook Group The JV Community. Also make sure you’re following me on X, Instagram, and Youtube, @CoachEaston268.
Also, most importantly, while you’re here on the blog, make sure you’re checking out all of the other great products and shops here on coachingshare.com.
Until next week, just remember, Teach it, Build it, Rep it, That’s the JV Way.
