EndZone26

Thanks for all the great advice! Some of you all are geniuses!!!!

So here's what happened:

1. I asked the players why they thought we were 1-3 instead of 4-0 and they all pretty much said the same thing...teamwork. So, the vowed to help each other on offense (like lining up correctly) and also on defense (alignment & yelling out "RUN!" or "PASS!")

2. Completely got rid of the wrist coach & had them huddle on the sideline w/ me. I diagramed all my plays with the name of the play under it. The primary receiver was in red & secodary or check-down receivers were dotted. Only problem with that was I just found out that my QB has not studied his playbook at all and doesn't know the formations (very frustrating, since they have had them since March and I tell them to look @ them twice a week). So, I had to tell him by name who to look for. Also, whenever we do the "Half Back Pass" multiple times in a row, I let them huddle on the field and call their own routes.

3. From now on we run 1 defense and only 1 defense. I switched some people around in regards to position & nobody changes positions at all

End Result....we beat the only undefeated team in our league!! They had been doing a little trash talk, but for whatever reason they seem to forget that they only beat us by a single point the first time & were also shutout the whole second half.

Thx guys for all your help!!!!!

Doesn't appear your losses were blow outs, a few pts here and there. Some good points by the other coaches already.

Have you asked the kids why they think it's difficult to line up and run the plays?

You said your QB has decision making issues. I'd make it simple for him and take away the variables. Play #1 you hand off to RB. Play #2 you fake handoff and throw to WR1. And so on. If you run plays and he is supposed to find the "open" man most of the time, that could be difficult.

If they're having trouble lining up and running routes, I'd simplify things. It's better than having chaos on the field every possession. Maybe two formations and run varations off those. I'd give the same kids the same colors every time.

Break down into smaller groups (stations) during practice and have different dads/coaches work on fundamentals (running routes, taking handoffs, executing good fakes, QB footwork, etc.). Rotate the kids through the each station.

Yeah, our losses have been a few bad plays here & there. The first loss was completely a bad coaching move. I had all of my best players on "1st team" and my lesser athletes on "2nd team" and alternated them back & forth throughout the game. The other team only scored on our 2nd team. The ran back 2 picks for TDs and have a long drive. I plan to ask them tomorrow about why they think we are having the problems. Each player plays only one position on offense and one on defense because they kept getting confused the first 2 weeks of practice. My fear about having the QB throw to s specific person is that he may throw to them if he/she isn't open. You have obviously been doing this longer than I have.....so am I just being paranoid & should roll with it?

To answer a previous question, this is the first year with this team (w/ the exception of my son). However, we have been practicing since March and they had the playbooks since then as well.

My QB is the only one with a wrist coach. I call out a number & he calls the play that corresponds with that number. No pictures on the wrist coach, just words. My positions are R, L, C, H and QB. For example Twins Left would look something like this:

L_____H_____C__________R
____________QB

If I yell out "7". The QB would read: "Twins Left L-Go, R-Stop, H-Stop, C-Go". L & C are running go routes and H & R should run stop routes.

I get what you're saying about the plays, but I don't think the 15 plays will be any different from the 27 plays. It's mostly just different route combinations. I don't have a lot of crazy trick plays or even that many run plays. It's 18 pass plays, 8 run plays and 1 half-back pass. So, my biggest issue is trying to find the best way to communicate the play to them and not have them forget by the time the ball is snapped.