For many youth football teams the coaching duties are split up based on the interest levels of the coaches that are giving their time. If a guy played running back in High School, he usually coaches the running backs in youth football.

At face value that seems to make the most sense, but if you look at the decision a little closer, maybe it doesn’t.

If you are running an intricate specialized offense like the Split Back Veer, it probably makes a lot of sense to have a coach coaching the backfield that had previous backfield experience in the Split Back Veer. But for most youth offenses and defenses it’s not always the best choice to have coaches coaching the positions they played.

Here is an example: Let’s say you have a coaching staff of 5 of which none had any experience coaching the offensive line. Three of the coaches have backfield experience, the most technically sound coach has the most experience in the backfield, is an excellent teacher and likes to learn. The other two are typical dad coaches that played in High School ball and are so-so in putting time into being a better coach. In most youth football programs one of the two typical dad coaches would be assigned the offensive line duties and in most cases do pretty poorly with it and the best coach would be assigned the backfield. However, in my opinion the experienced coach with the interest in learning, would be the best choice for the offensive line coaching spot.

The offensive line is the most important but also the most neglected aspect of youth football. Most offensive line play in youth football is inpet at best. Don't we all know that it doesn’t matter a hill of beans how tight your backfield action is if you don’t have a simple and sound blocking scheme and linemen that are trained to properly execute it? Who cares if you have the best wideout-quarterback tandem in the league if you never have time enough to throw the ball.

Yet year after year the least experienced coach on the coaching staff is usually given the offensive line coaching job, while the more experienced coaches coach the “glory” positions. During the 2 year study I did of the best and worst youth football programs, the best programs consistently had excellent offensive line play and had competent coaches coaching it. The perennial poor teams put little time or emphasis on quality line play, they were often busy "perfecting" multiple pretty backfield actions, adding more football plays in and practicing intricate trick plays that never worked.

The coach with the most experience needs to coach the offensive line and in my organization the Head Coach is required to coach the offensive line. For some, that is a sobering thought, but put your money where your mouth is. If the offensive line is the most important part of your offense, the Head Coach should be coaching it. When the Head Coach is coaching the linemen, everyone understands the importance of that position.

I played running back in High School and in a very short and unspectacular College career. I knew nothing of offensive line play or techniques. Unfortunately many of the guys I coached with early on didn’t either, so I trained myself to coach the line as have many others before me. Like anything, it just takes a commitment, an open mind to learn and a little time. It turned out to be both easier in some ways and harder than others than I thought it would be. In my book we break it all down so ANYONE can teach the O-Line, with very simple but effective blocking rules as well as easy to install progressions and drills. The typical dad coach can easily make this work if he puts some time in to learn how. This is youth football, not rocket science.

When coaching youth football teams, you have to maximize the talent levels of your players and COACHES by putting them in the positions that best help your team. Put your best coach at Offensive Line and see your offenses productivity improve by leaps and bounds. Coach the position that is best for your team, not what brings you the most personal satisfaction.