We’re back!!!!!
After a long, but not quite long enough, 12 weeks of football action, the offseason is finally upon me, and I can get back to this venture. Would I rather be coaching the game than talking about it? Well, obviously, who wouldn’t? At the JV level, though, we can’t be lucky enough to have things like a post-season, a championship, or fun things like trophies to continue our season for. What’s done is done, and in this Coach’s case, Season 13 has officially come to an end.
I told my players this, but Season 13 will undoubtedly go down as one of the most fun of my coaching tenure, but at the same time it will also mark as one of the seasons where the development definitely outshined the on-field results. While 3-5 isn’t a disappointing season, persay, it definitely isn’t the pinnacle of what we strive for as competitive coaches. At the end of the day, though, as a JV coach, I have to look at the myriad of improvements my players made over the season, and ask myself, “Did I make these kids more ready to eventually play Varsity?”
As with all seasons, there’s more than one story we can follow, so for this first post back, I’d like to take some time to debrief myself on my own season, and look at the many struggles, successes, and biggest takeaways from the season that was. As always, if you don’t want to read, that’s up to you, but if you don’t read it, you’ll never learn the big secret at the end of it all (trust me, it’s a big one…)
Run the Damn Ball
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; the majority of high school football games are won and lost on your team’s ability to run the football. It’s an artform that, unfortunately, is becoming more and more taken for granted the higher up a player gets in the sport, but at the JV level, running the ball can oftentimes make or break an offense.
Running the football creates a solid base for a program to build an offense on. It creates aggression and movement on the offensive line, it allows you to control the clock, and, when it really gets cooking, builds the energy and intensity of a football team throughout a game. In our offense this season, it was more than our identity; our kids bought into the idea of running the ball at will through their opponents. They took pride in their ability to move the ball on the ground, and it led to huge gains, both stats wise and in the development of these young men.
Statistically, this was the most productive season as an OC I’ve ever had. We moved the ball over 2,300 yards in 7 games. That’s a 400 yard improvement from last season. The most impressive part of these numbers, though, is HOW we got all these yards, and it just lends itself to the argument; as an offense, we gained 2,000 of that 2,300 yards on the ground. And, on top of that, I had my first 1,000 yard rusher in my tenure as a head coach.
This effort on the ground led to much of our success on offense, as well as became the target for many defenses we played. Not only were teams loading the box on us because they knew the run was coming, but they were grinding out long, slow drives of their own to keep our rushing attack off the field. They knew that once our backs had a chance with the ball, it was game over. My players took all this added pressure as a challenge, and often times rose to the occasion. We averaged 28.63 points per game, with 27 of our overall touchdowns coming on the ground.
Running the football can and will win you games. It is a lifestyle and a mindset, and taking it on can be life changing for your offense as a whole. So why did we go 3-5? Well, offense IS only one phase of the game…..
Wait, this is tackle football?
My defensive coordinator is among the best in the business. He kept a consistent front and formation all season, from which he was able to dial up all sorts of different stunts and blitzes to give opposing OC’s fits and headaches. In fact, in our final game of the season, against the dreaded Double Wing, more than once we could see their coach reaming kids and other coaches on the sideline for not knowing what to call against out defense.
So, again, if he’s so good, why did you lose 5 games?
Well, the answer to that is simple; a 37 year old man is not allowed to go on the field and tackle JV football players.
On film, we matched up so well against 90% of the teams we played against this season. On every drive, and what seemed like every play, we had players in the gap or at the point of offensive attack ready to take the ball carrier down. And almost every time, we would arm tackle up high and allow the offensive player to get 5-6 yards per carry.
Poor tackling was an EPIDEMIC on our team this year, and is going to be a major point of emphasis this coming offseason. The most frustrating piece of it all, though, was that it’s not like we didn’t try to fix it. Almost every practice, we ran form tackling drills of all different kinds, emphasizing the need to get the eyes through the thighs, wrap the legs, squeeze and drive. We mixed up the levels of impact, so as not to injure anyone seriously while working on it, but it just never seemed to get any better.
Am I blaming this on the kids? Well, sure, but not entirely. This is an experienced group of players, having played together for years from Pop Warner up through modified, experiencing all the highs and lows that can go with. And while you would think that eventually they would fall into line, I think the real culprit here is that we had to spend all season breaking them of old habits that they’ve picked up on along the way.
This is why it is so important to systemize your offensive and defensive teaching from the highest levels down, so that when kids are getting to the next level, they already know what to do, and unfortunately at the Youth level around the country, this doesn’t always happen. In fact, more often than not, youth coaches are out there going completely rogue, teaching the way that they learned it however long ago, rather than going with best practices. And unfortunately for us at the higher levels, this current crop of coaches seems to be the last holdouts of the “lower your head and drive your shoulder into them” crew. You see in on Social Media all the time, coaches posting highlights of their young kids absolutely bodying their opponents in ways that make Ray Lewis squirm, but fundamentally their technique is terrible. They’re tackling high, pushing with their hands, or diving at them like they’re Goldberg spearing somebody through a table. While this may work at the youth level, where sometimes your kids are just naturally bigger than the kids they’re playing against, as they get older, the opponent seems to get bigger and bigger, and don’t fall down on a push.
Piss poor tackling can absolutely break a season, but it is not the end all be all. With youth comes natural mistakes, and at the JV level that’s what we’re here to fix. I’m very proud of the way my boys played all season, and don’t ever try to misconstrue that. Surprisingly, it’s nice to have a starting point of “where to begin work” on defense. Now if we can just get everyone on board.
Come With Me versus Do It For Me
This past season re-taught me one of the most important lessons I’ve ever learned as a coach — the incredible difference between demanding performance and developing performance. Early on, I realized that when players made mistakes, my instinct was to correct them quickly and firmly — “do better,” “get it right,” “we’ve gone over this.” But as the season went on, I started to see that the tone and the approach mattered more than the correction itself. When I would shift from frustration to encouragement, everything changed. Our players didn’t just start performing better; they started believing they could perform better.
What really stood out was how the team responded to genuine investment. When we took the time to pull a kid aside and walk through what went wrong, when we praised small improvements, when we made sure they knew we still trusted them after a mistake — their body language changed. Heads went up. Confidence grew. Suddenly, the player who looked lost two weeks ago was flying around the field making plays. And it wasn’t because we added new schemes or plays; it was because we created an environment where mistakes were part of learning, not a death sentence for playing time or confidence.
For example, we were playing our cross-town rival late in September, and had managed to get down at half by a score of 22-7. At this point, things could have gone very bleak, as we had seen them do in previous seasons against this same team. Instead, we spent our halftime reassuring our kids that they were a damn good football team, and that we trusted them with all of our being to run the gameplan, and make a solid comeback of things. And comeback they did; they managed to tie the game up at 44 a piece, taking it into my first ever overtime game. I the second half of the 3rd overtime, we were able to punch it in for a TD and 2 point conversion to get the win, with a final score of 58-56. I’ve never been more proud of a group of kids in my life, and I made sure to let them know that. And that’s the difference; a team’s season can me made or lost on the encouragement and faith of their Coaching staff. If the staff believes in the kids, they can move mountains. But if the staff doesn’t believe, that can easily translate into the players, and lead to terrible on-field and off-field results.
Encouragement didn’t make our practices softer — it made them sharper. Players started coaching each other, picking one another up, and holding each other accountable in a positive way. The energy shifted from fear of failure to excitement for growth. Instead of tensing up under pressure, they played fast and free. That’s when we saw our best football — not because the drills changed, but because the mindset did. A team that believes in itself plays with a different kind of effort, and you can feel it in every rep.
By the end of the season, I reaffirmed much of what I already knew; that our real job as JV coaches isn’t just to teach the X’s and O’s — it’s to teach belief. When players know their coaches are with them, not above them, they’ll give you everything they have. Encouragement isn’t about being soft or lowering standards; it’s about showing kids that you see their potential, even when they don’t. And when they start to see it too, that’s when you get the kind of production — and pride — that no amount of yelling could ever create.
A tradition I use with my team, one that I picked up from my own High School experience, is to quote the late, great Bear Bryant as a team. Before the game starts, we all come together, grabbing a teammate, and repeat the following: “If you believe in yourself, have dedication and pride, and never quit, you’ll be a winner. The price of victory is high, but so are the rewards.” Belief is a powerful tool, but belief in your players is the mightiest weapon that your team can wield. Let your team know that you have faith in them, and they’ll break down walls for you.
Those were the 3 biggest takeaways from our 2025 season. Now, while I’m sure they’re not groundbreaking in any ways, I’m hoping that it’ll at least help you to take a look back at your own seasons with fondness, because even an 0-8 season can be full of fond memories and moments to fill your cup for the next 8 months while we wait to get back to work.
Speaking of getting back to work, I’ll be back to releasing more blog posts every week now that the season is over, and I hope you’ll join me. Not only that, but if you have anything you want more info on, or stuff you just want me to ramble on about, please feel free to comment or send me a DM on X (@coacheaston268), and I’d love to take a stab at it.
In the meantime, check out my profiles on X and Instagram (@coacheaston268), or the official pages of the JV Playbook (on Facebook and Instagram). Also, check out the Youtube page for new episodes of “One Play the JV Way,” coming soon.
Oh, and that big secret I clued you in on? Next week, I’m going to show you how I go about breaking down the previous season, and I’ll have an exclusive JV Playbook breakdown form, available next week on coachingshare.com.
Until then, thanks for reading, and remember; Teach It, Build It, Rep It. That’s the JV Way.
