A Love Letter to Power: How our JV Football Team Thrived on the Best Play in the Sport
This week I had the opportunity to record my first podcast appearance with the king of Gap-Down-Backer, Coach Chip Seagle. We talked JV development, philosophy, all the things I stand for. The most fun piece, though, was getting to talk about my favorite offensive concept. So, let me start this post the only way I know how — with a genuine, heartfelt, unapologetic love letter to the greatest play in football: Power.
Dear Power,
You complete me.
You make my offensive line feel strong, my backs feel fearless, my coordinators feel clever, and my quarterbacks feel like generals. You make the game simpler, cleaner, and tougher. You’re the answer to chaos, the cure for indecision, and the antidote to the modern obsession with “cute.”
You make 15-year-olds believe they can move a human being from Point A to Point B against his will.
You make 16-year-olds understand angles, leverage, pad level, and violence-within-the-whistle.
You give JV linemen purpose, rhythm, and ownership.
And best of all — you work.
Over and over and over again, no matter what the defense thinks it can do about it.
So yes. This is a love letter.
But it’s also a message to every JV and sub-varsity coach reading: if you’re not running Power, teaching Power, and building your identity around Power… then you’re leaving developmental gold sitting on the table.
Let’s talk about why.
Why Power Belongs at the Core of Every Sub-Varsity Offense
JV football is not about running the “full playbook” or trying to mimic what your varsity OC installed this week. It’s not about fancy tags, elaborate RPOs, or formation gymnastics. JV football is about teaching identity, rules, technique, and toughness — the foundations of varsity success. No single play develops those things like Power.
For the past three seasons, we have focused more on the zone scheme plays from our Varsity program; inside zone, outside zone, jet sweep, etc; the reason for it being that, in my mind at the time, zone scheme was easier to teach to young linemen than gap scheme. But after some work in the off-season, and discovering some wisdom from a great coach in his own right, power became the bread and butter of our team, and we were so much better for it.
As on offense, after basing around power, we averaged 8 yards per carry, with 26 total touchdowns on the ground. Power, itself, gave us 10 yards per carry. Our run game was bolstered by adding power, specifically, as that one play gave us 16 explosive plays throughout our 8 game season, and 9 of our 26 total rushing touchdowns. Because of power, we were able to also run a lot of counter, add play action, and make teams nervous about having to step up to our rushing attack. Power was such a great help to us, as it could be for you, and here’s why.
Football, at its core, is a contact sport. At the sub-varsity level, you are responsible for teaching kids:
-how to block
-how to strike
-how to create and absorb force
-how to finish
-how to play with urgency and violence
Power is a masterclass in all of these; your double teams must be physical, your down blocks must be crisp, your puller must hit with intent, and your back must run with conviction.
If you run Power well at the JV level, your kids will be tougher next year for Varsity. They will block better. They will run harder. They will strike cleaner. You are building the edge your varsity coaches want from the moment those players walk into their first varsity practice.
Zone can feel vague to new linemen. Pass protection is essential, but it’s slow to teach and immediate mistakes are costly. But Power? Power gives an O-line an attitude. The play says:
“We’re coming at you whether you like it or not. Stop us if you can.” The beauty is that everyone has a job with teeth. The frontside must down block with leverage.Your H Back must kick-out with force. Your backside guard must wrap wiith bad intentions. And you running back must run with vision behind chaos, daring close enough to the O-line to strike a match head off their backsides, but finding comfort in that closeness because he knows he’s about to break one off.
At the JV level, the biggest thing you can give your linemen is confidence. You can draw up all the spread formations and Air Raid concepts you want, but if your kids don’t believe they can fire off the ball and move people, your offense collapses. Our OL knew walking to the line and calling “B.S.” (for backside) that they were about to cause some damage and some chaos, and they took pride in that. Power gives them proof.
This is where the real magic begins. Power is effective because it has structure. Kids understand it. You can run it every week, against every front, and you always know who you’re blocking. And that brings us to the heart of this post:
Why a Rules-Based Approach Is the Only Approach at JV
There are two ways to teach offense:
At the JV and sub-varsity levels, the first method is doomed to fail. You can’t expect 14–16-year-olds to memorize dozens of situational assignments. They won’t do it, and that’s not their fault — that’s ours.
Rules, on the other hand, are simple. Rules create clarity. Rules give kids confidence. Rules allow them to play fast. And nowhere is that more true than gap scheme — especially Power.
Which leads us to…
The Genius of Chip Seagle and the “Gap-Down-Backer” Approach
You can’t talk about gap scheme without praising the greatest gift ever given to young offensive linemen:
GAP – DOWN – BACKER
Chip Seagle’s explanation of this method is elegant, timeless, and perfect for the developmental levels of football. If you’re not using it, you should be. If you are using it, you’re already seeing why it works.
Let’s break down why this framework is so devastatingly good for JV players.
Every lineman — regardless of position — has the same order of operations:
-GAP – is there a defender in my inside gap?
-DOWN – is the next defender down the line a danger to the play?
-BACKER – if neither of the first two exist, follow your tracks to a backer in the second level.
There is no guessing, There and no memorizing “if the Mike walks up then block the Will unless the 3-tech shades to the B-gap but only if the safety rotates down.” None of that. It’s clear, teachable, and most importantly, it’s universal.
That’s the beauty of it — you don’t teach new rules every week. We got into situations where, from week to week, we needed to add a wrinkle to our existing scheme to give us an edge. Normally installs can be expensive, but with Gap-Down-Backer, life is made so much simpler, because you use the same rules for, Power, Counter (GH or GT, or whatever variety you run), Buck, Trap, even Duo. The best part it, your kids get a system, not a scattered list of assignments and life just makes more sense for them.
Systems create confidence because they take thinking out of the equation. It becomes part of their being. When kids don’t think, they play. When kids don’t hesitate, they hit. And when kids know what to do, they compete.
And when the whole line is playing within a shared mental framework, you get a unit that feels connected — something JV teams often lack.
Our team this year took pride in not only Running Power Often (what they learned was the real meaning of RPO), but they relished in playing faster than the other team. Having rules helped them do just that, because it took thinking out of the equation. No matter how the defense lined up, our frontside went Gap-Down-Backer, our backside guard wrapped, our H kicked out the EMOL, and our ballcarrier (because our QB’s weren’t exempt from running power, either) followed the rumpline to paydirt.
When you use a rules-based approach, your film questions are simple:
-Did he follow his rule?
-Did he miss his gap?
-Did he identify the down defender?
-Did he climb properly?
Suddenly your kids aren’t just watching film — they’re learning from it. You can point out a kid, ask him “what did you do wrong?” and they have an actual rule and assignment to quote back to you, not just a guess.
If your varsity runs Power or Counter — and most do — then your kids show up on Day 1 already speaking the language. They know:
-What a gap is
-What “down” means
-How to pull
-How to run with physicality
-How to strike with leverage
You’re not just installing a play — you’re installing a developmental philosophy.
Why Power Works for Every Skill Group
One of the best things about Power is that it helps every position develop the skills they’ll need on varsity. Running Backs learn patience and vision. They learn to trust their puller, and move inside of them. They also learn how to accelerate through the line, and save the dancing for beyond the LOS.
Quarterbacks learn proper mesh timing and cadence control. They learn to handle shifts and motions, as well as simple but meaningful footwork. The tough enough ones, especially the two I had leading my offense this year, will even learn to run it themselves.
Receivers learn physicality in the run game. They learn how to crack block and stalk block with good angles. Most importantly, they learn how to play 100% every play, because so many pass plays can be run off of power, and if they’re only giving their all on the plays they’re involved in, defenses are going to start keying on them.
H-Backs / Tight Ends learn conflict responsibility and edge sealing. They learn the proper angle of a good kickout block, and how to be the most impactful player on the field.
And Offensive Linemen? Well they learn everything that matters. Truly — everything. Power is the best collective teacher in football.
How Power Builds a JV Identity
Identity is everything at the sub-varsity level. You’re not building a playbook — you’re building a culture. Our kids this year realized that Power was their culture, and they embraced that culture 100% When a moment was on the line, they oftentimes asked me to run power, because they knew that it was the best play in our arsenal. Power gives you:
When we ran Power well, our entire sideline feels it. Our players sense it, and want to build off of it. Our coaches sense it, and keep it building. The momentum becomes real, and so does the excitement.
Once you can run Power, you can build:
Counter
Power Read
Jet Power
GT Power
RPOs off Power
Play-action off Power
Boot off Power
Everything stems from it.
Why Power Wins at the JV Level (Even When Outmatched)
There will always be weeks where your JV team has the lesser athletes. Maybe the other school has size. Maybe they have speed. Maybe they have varsity players playing down. Power is the great equalizer. Because the truth is this: Most JV defenses can’t handle physical gap-scheme football. They don’t fit it well. They don’t practice against it. They don’t strike block destruction. They don’t communicate on the fly.
But your kids — if they’re trained in the rules, the angles, the leverage — will execute. Power lets you control the game, control the pace, control the clock, and control the line of scrimmage. That matters more than anything Power is more than a play, it’s a philosophy
When I say I love Power, I don’t just mean the Xs and Os. I’m talking about what it does for your program. Power teaches toughness, discipline, leverage, angles, teamwork, communication, finish, confidence It builds offensive linemen who aren’t afraid of contact, backs who trust their eyes, and quarterbacks who command the huddle. It creates identity. It creates consistency. It creates culture.
If you want your JV team to grow — truly grow — run Power. Teach it. Build around it. Let it shape your kids the way it has shaped football for generations. Because at the sub-varsity level, simplicity isn’t a handicap. Simplicity is a weapon. And no simple concept has ever done more for young football players than Power.
Make sure you continue to check out the socials (@coacheaston268 everywhere or The JV Playbook on Facebook and Instagram), and check out all the great Gap-Down-Backer and other football materials from Coach Chip, here on coachingshare.com, and on Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter/X.
Come back next week, and in the meantime don’ forget, Teach It, Build It, Rep It. That’s the JV Way.
