Every offseason, we do the same thing as coaches. We grab the playbook, flip through the pages, and ask ourselves a dangerous question: “What should we add this year?”
Or, maybe you’re like us, working a rebuild of your playbook, and trying to find that winning formula to gain victories in the next season. Regardless of what you’re looking at, maybe you’re thinking “I can use these formations and plays all together to create success for our program.
More often than not, the answer is right in front of our faces, because the better question is: “What should we build around?”
At the JV and sub-varsity level—and honestly, at every level—offenses don’t become great by accumulating plays. They become great by identifying one concept that defines who they are and building everything around it. That concept becomes your base play. It becomes your teaching tool, your measuring stick, and your identity.
For us, that base play is Power. It’s our North Star, the one that our program has defined as “Our Play.”
But the philosophy applies whether your base is Inside Zone, Outside Zone, Duo, Mesh, Triple or anything else.
What Makes a Good Base Play?
Not every play deserves to be a base play. Some plays are great complements. Some are situational answers. A true base play has to meet very specific criteria.
First, you have to be able to run it against any defense. Odd fronts. Even fronts. Over, under, stack, bear, blitz-heavy teams, and passive teams. If your base play only works when the defense cooperates, it’s not a base play—it’s a gimmick.
Power fits this perfectly. Gap schemes, when taught with rules like Gap-Down-Backer, don’t care what the front looks like. The rules don’t change, so the confidence doesn’t change.
Second, you need to be able to run it from multiple personnel groupings and formations. Your base play can’t be married to one set or one look. If the defense knows exactly what’s coming just because you lined up in a certain formation, the play owns you—not the other way around.
Power can be run from 21, 20, 11, 12, pistol, gun, under center, unbalanced, condensed, spread—you name it. The concept stays intact while the picture changes.
Third, your players must be able to execute it consistently. That sounds obvious, but it’s often ignored. JV players don’t need the “perfect” play on paper. They need the play they can rep, understand, and execute at full speed.
A good base play is one your worst player can still run correctly because the rules make sense.
Identifying Your Base Play From Last Season
The process of identifying your base play shouldn’t start with clinic notes or Twitter clips. It should start with your own film.
When we break down a season offensively, we’re not just looking at yards and touchdowns. We’re asking deeper questions:
What concept did we call when we needed something?
What play did our kids believe in?
What concept held up when things broke down?
What play still worked on our worst nights?
More often than not, the base play reveals itself.
For us, Power showed up again and again. It wasn’t always perfect. Sometimes the pull was late. Sometimes the kickout wasn’t clean. A lot of times the down blocks were lazy. But even on imperfect reps, Power gave us answers. It gave kids angles. It gave us leverage. It gave us movement.
When we charted success rate, consistency, and confidence—not just explosive plays—Power separated itself.
That’s how you identify a base play. Not by what looks best on a whiteboard, but by what survives real football.
Building the System: Countering Off Your Base Play
Once your base play is established, everything else in the offense should exist to either:
The most natural complement to Power is, of course, Counter. Same backfield action. Same pullers. Opposite direction. If linebackers start flying downhill to Power, Counter slows them down immediately.
For us, last season we were able to create large amounts of success with GH Counter, but things really started popping off when we added GT into the mix. Why? Well, when teams play us, more often than not they’re keying our H Back. Even on GH, when he’s crossing, the RB is following. So, we added GT to take advantage of that. Let them key the H going backside, we’re still gonna run opposite of him.
You don’t need ten counters. You need one good one that mirrors your base play closely enough to create hesitation.
This is where system building matters. Counter isn’t a new play—it’s Power’s sibling.
Running and Passing Off Power
A base play also has to marry well with the pass game.
Power play-action is brutally effective because it forces linebackers to step downhill. You don’t need deep, exotic route trees. Simple concepts—boots, flats, posts, and over routes—work because the run action is believable.
At the JV level, that believability is everything. If your base play isn’t something the defense respects, play-action becomes a waste of time.
Power creates real conflict. That’s why it works.
And if Power isn’t your base? Inside Zone and Outside Zone do the same thing in different ways. Duo stresses linebackers vertically. Mesh stresses defenders horizontally in the pass game. The principle stays the same: your base play should dictate your complements.
Protecting the Base Play With Formations and Motion
One of the biggest mistakes coaches make is adding new plays when what they really need is new pictures.
You don’t protect your base play by hiding it. You protect it by dressing it up.
Unbalanced formations.
Condensed splits.
Backfield motion.
Jet action.
Shifted sets.
None of those change the play. They change how the defense lines up to it.
This is especially important at the JV level, where kids need repetition. Running Power from five different formations is better than running five different plays from the same formation.
Same rules. Same footwork. Same confidence. As my buddy Ian Tatum says, “SAME AS” is a life changer when you start applying it to your offense.
Using Other Base Plays as Examples
Power isn’t the only concept that works as a base play—it’s just ours.
Inside Zone works when you want to major in double teams and vertical displacement. Outside Zone works when you want to teach stretch, leverage, and patience. Duo gives you downhill physicality without pullers. Mesh can be a base for pass-heavy systems that still want answers versus man and zone.
The common thread is this: the base play must define how you teach football.
If your players can explain the rules of the base play, you’ve chosen correctly. If they need reminders every practice, you haven’t.
Why Build Around a Base Play at All?
Because identity matters.
Players want to know who they are. They want something they can hang their hat on. Something they believe in when the game gets hard.
A base play gives them that.
It simplifies teaching.
It accelerates development.
It builds confidence.
It creates physical and mental toughness.
This season we were down at halftime by three scores to our cross-town rival, General Brown. Looking for answers, it was my captains that came up to me and said “Coach, just run power. We’ve got this, but it’s gotta be behind Power.” That confidence in that play made all the difference, and on the back on Power, and with it Counter, we were able to come back and win in triple overtime.
At the JV level, where development is the mission, that matters more than trick plays or variety.
When players know, “This is what we do,” everything else falls into place.
Final Thoughts
Offensive systems don’t need to be big. They need to be intentional.
Find the play that carried you.
Confirm it with film.
Teach it with rules.
Build around it with purpose.
Whether it’s Power, Zone, Duo, or Mesh, your base play should be the heartbeat of your offense.
Because when the base play is strong, the system grows naturally—and your players grow with it.
Teach it. Rep it. Build it.
That’s the JV way.
