Two-Platoon at High School Level?

falcons53

falcons53

Well-known member
I have been away from Ohio for quite a while, but have been in some of the bigger football states over the past couple decades. We are now in Alabama at a 7A school (equivalent to D-1 Ohio) and our school is full two-platoon. My son was the starting running back and linebacker for the freshman team. Once he moved up to varsity, 10th-12th grade, they moved him solely to LB. The coaches said everyone only plays one position. I understand big schools with more athletes playing kids one way on Friday night. I am curious if all the bigger Ohio schools have gone to full two platoon? I coached at D-1 equivalent schools in Texas, Illinois and Ohio. We always had kids practice both defense and offense, then maybe only play one way for the game. Feels like a disservice to kids that young to limit their learning of the game and development? Maybe I am just missing the boat on this. As a side note, the team is around .500 over the past 7 years under the current staff. Not great, not terrible. Curious everyone else's thoughts.
 
 
The team I follow is D3. They play about 19 kids full time offense or defense so 3-4 play both ways regularly. Qb, No.1 running back and offense line usually play only offense. There are a few primary defensive players who will get some offensive snaps depending on the situation..two of the better athletes play safety and corner so they see the field in some sets.

Caveat: Reponse is based on 2024 season, I’m not privy to the staffs 2025 plans.
 
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What do the other schools in your league do? If they two-platoon it might be wise to do the same. The opposing offenses spend all week developing their schemes and player skills so defensively you might be forced to respond in kind. I presume that the squad sizes are large so after fall camp there are kids who are going to be full-time scout team that run nothing but the oppsing teams schemes so where is their development?

If I have a good kid and have to decide which side of the ball a kid is going to play I'll lean toward the defensive side of the ball, but I'm defensive minded, ymmv.
 
CedarBuck92 said:
What I tend to notice is that most large teams do some form of the two platoon system. But the best athletes always play
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This.
Once you get below D2, there's some form of both-way players on the field for most teams. Very few have the depth for offense and defense. But at D1 or D2, if you have a D1 3* or better recruit, they're on the field as much as they possibly can play.

Partly, also I think it's just how much time they really get to play. If you have great players on your team most games are over early and you pull them. So they might get 24 minutes on both sides of the ball and then they're off the field for the rest of the game a lot of times.
 
falcons53 said:
I have been away from Ohio for quite a while, but have been in some of the bigger football states over the past couple decades. We are now in Alabama at a 7A school (equivalent to D-1 Ohio) and our school is full two-platoon. My son was the starting running back and linebacker for the freshman team. Once he moved up to varsity, 10th-12th grade, they moved him solely to LB. The coaches said everyone only plays one position. I understand big schools with more athletes playing kids one way on Friday night. I am curious if all the bigger Ohio schools have gone to full two platoon? I coached at D-1 equivalent schools in Texas, Illinois and Ohio. We always had kids practice both defense and offense, then maybe only play one way for the game. Feels like a disservice to kids that young to limit their learning of the game and development? Maybe I am just missing the boat on this. As a side note, the team is around .500 over the past 7 years under the current staff. Not great, not terrible. Curious everyone else's thoughts.
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They’ve been doing this for decades
 
The large schools in our league use a two platoon system for varsity. I understand, but at the same time, your best athletes should be on the field as much as possible. What I don't understand is that they use a two platoon system for JV, which prevents them from fielding a 9th grade team. 9th and JV should be all about getting playing experience on both sides of the ball. Put 20 on a team, play both ways, provide rest when needed but give the kids the experience of playing. With 40 JV kids, they could easily play 20 on JV and 20 on 9th grade. Who cares what the final scores are - its all about experience on the field. The bigger issue is that they don't use practice time to work with JV and 9th grade so that they are even a little prepared for their Saturday games. lt's all about the varsity and Friday night and not enough about development of the younger players that they will need in the future. Many players end up walking away from the program because they don't see the field, which could be easily fixed.
 
HSsportfan said:
The large schools in our league use a two platoon system for varsity. I understand, but at the same time, your best athletes should be on the field as much as possible. What I don't understand is that they use a two platoon system for JV, which prevents them from fielding a 9th grade team. 9th and JV should be all about getting playing experience on both sides of the ball. Put 20 on a team, play both ways, provide rest when needed but give the kids the experience of playing. With 40 JV kids, they could easily play 20 on JV and 20 on 9th grade. Who cares what the final scores are - its all about experience on the field. The bigger issue is that they don't use practice time to work with JV and 9th grade so that they are even a little prepared for their Saturday games. lt's all about the varsity and Friday night and not enough about development of the younger players that they will need in the future. Many players end up walking away from the program because they don't see the field, which could be easily fixed.
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That would assume that half of your JV kids are actually freshmen.


My school did this for years. We would show up way early for the first JV game (like on the field at 8 for a 10am game) so we could practice and run through things. Surprisingly we were relatively successful at the JV level. My senior year this changed. The kids who were not on the Varsity 2 deep would practice the opposite side of the ball from the Varsity. So Tuesdays were Varsity Defense and JV Offense and so on. They got their time with their position coaches and even some time to practice running the offense as a team before we all spent the last part of practice running against the scout team. I think this worked out well.
 
Bless Em All said:
They’ve been doing this for decades
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Decades of full time two platoon? Even in practice? A kid is a TE and never learns defensive football? Even back when I played, some bigger schools would on game day play minimal two-way players, but in practice play both. As recent as 2022, I watched Texas 6A kids play in state finals and every kid was listed with both a defensive and offensive position in the program. Most only played one way, but were at least in the program listed as both.
 
falcons53 said:
Decades of full time two platoon? Even in practice? A kid is a TE and never learns defensive football? Even back when I played, some bigger schools would on game day play minimal two-way players, but in practice play both. As recent as 2022, I watched Texas 6A kids play in state finals and every kid was listed with both a defensive and offensive position in the program. Most only played one way, but were at least in the program listed as both.
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Happened back when I was in HS. D1 school in Ohio. Most kids learned both sides of the ball in freshmen and JV ball. Our freshmen were in a separate building and did nothing with the JV or varsity. So JV was mostly sophomores and a few juniors. They had positions on both offense and defense but usually was a platoon situation even at JV level.

Varsity was almost exclusively a platoon situation. Occasionally some offensive players would take some snaps on defense and vice versa. Usually due to injury or a special game plan for an opponent.

Varsity practices were platoon too. Occasionally a varsity player would jump in on scout team for specific matchups.
 
falcons53 said:
I have been away from Ohio for quite a while, but have been in some of the bigger football states over the past couple decades. We are now in Alabama at a 7A school (equivalent to D-1 Ohio) and our school is full two-platoon. My son was the starting running back and linebacker for the freshman team. Once he moved up to varsity, 10th-12th grade, they moved him solely to LB. The coaches said everyone only plays one position. I understand big schools with more athletes playing kids one way on Friday night. I am curious if all the bigger Ohio schools have gone to full two platoon? I coached at D-1 equivalent schools in Texas, Illinois and Ohio. We always had kids practice both defense and offense, then maybe only play one way for the game. Feels like a disservice to kids that young to limit their learning of the game and development? Maybe I am just missing the boat on this. As a side note, the team is around .500 over the past 7 years under the current staff. Not great, not terrible. Curious everyone else's thoughts.
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Just curious if your boy's soccer plays in the spring or fall. Going way back, 70's early 80's boys played soccer (SEC country) in the spring and most of those kids played football. Not up to date if it is the same today. Football rosters then were huge, even for small schools and that allowed for two platoon. My HS grad class had 150 and we had 100+, 10-12 on roster, frosh were listed as their own team. I was listed as a FB/LB but never played a down on defense. Football kids played baseball or ran track.
 
Been happening for some time, prominently at the DI level.

The HS where I played two platooned and the HS I coached at for 10 years two platooned. Both D1.

I have noticed in more recent years schools using their best athletes on both sides of the ball more due to necessity because numbers are not what they used to be, especially since Covid.

Regardless of division, if a school can do this, or come close, they should. It obviously gives an advantage in the amount of reps at practice and conditioning come Friday night.
 
Some ideas ...

a. We practiced everybody both ways but tried to play them only one way, especially linemen.

b. Most years we had a few that only practiced one way, like the starting QB.

c. We platooned the coaches. If I coached O-line I had the starting rotation on Monday and the JV and other subs Tuesday. The D-line coach had it the other way around.
 
chs1971 said:
Some ideas ...

a. We practiced everybody both ways but tried to play them only one way, especially linemen.

b. Most years we had a few that only practiced one way, like the starting QB.

c. We platooned the coaches. If I coached O-line I had the starting rotation on Monday and the JV and other subs Tuesday. The D-line coach had it the other way around.
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Think this was one of the best things my school started doing. Made sure the younger guys actually go some attention and work.
 
chs1971 said:
Some ideas ...

a. We practiced everybody both ways but tried to play them only one way, especially linemen.

b. Most years we had a few that only practiced one way, like the starting QB.

c. We platooned the coaches. If I coached O-line I had the starting rotation on Monday and the JV and other subs Tuesday. The D-line coach had it the other way around.
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The first I heard of platooning coaches... 🤔 . I like the concept! Then again, I think you are in a school that does not have pass and run coordinators, lol. Curious to how your JV games looked. I have seen staffs with dedicated JV staff then others that were a hodge podge of who is available....guess where that landed them.
 
Gamma Gobbler said:
The first I heard of platooning coaches... 🤔 . I like the concept! Then again, I think you are in a school that does not have pass and run coordinators, lol. Curious to how your JV games looked. I have seen staffs with dedicated JV staff then others that were a hodge podge of who is available....guess where that landed them.
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I know I wasn't the one you addressed but answering anyway. All our JV coaches were also Varsity coaches. The "head" JV coach was the offensive line coach and he also called the JV offense. The "assistant" JV coach was our Linebackers coach and he called the Defense. We usually had 1 or 2 more coaches on the sidelines but that varied a bit based on opponent and location of game.
 
CedarBuck92 said:
I know I wasn't the one you addressed but answering anyway. All our JV coaches were also Varsity coaches. The "head" JV coach was the offensive line coach and he also called the JV offense. The "assistant" JV coach was our Linebackers coach and he called the Defense. We usually had 1 or 2 more coaches on the sidelines but that vaSied a bit based on opponent and location of game.
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That is good there is a system in place and I am firm believer that is a product of program. Side note, I have seen where kids that get specials and some snaps on Friday come in on Saturday and don't want to play, though they are by all intent a JV player. The mindset of some of these kids blows me away....

I know a guy that used to coach in a school that is coming back into your conference and at that time it was a hodge podge....until a certain coach made it mandatory that all coaches coach on Saturday. Then films and varsity were addressed after the JV game. Also, made it mandatory that all varsity attend the JV game in the stands and not grab arsing on the sidelines. That coach has since moved onto college but I will say during his stint all players and coaches bought into what he was selling.
 
Gamma Gobbler said:
That is good there is a system in place and I am firm believer that is a product of program. Side note, I have seen where kids that get specials and some snaps on Friday come in on Saturday and don't want to play, though they are by all intent a JV player. The mindset of some of these kids blows me away....

I know a guy that used to coach in a school that is coming back into your conference and at that time it was a hodge podge....until a certain coach made it mandatory that all coaches coach on Saturday. Then films and varsity were addressed after the JV game. Also, made it mandatory that all varsity attend the JV game in the stands and not grab arsing on the sidelines. That coach has since moved onto college but I will say during his stint all players and coaches bought into what he was selling.
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Obviously Friday nights are where all the attention is, but I loved those JV games. Less pressure and more time to just have fun playing the game. We had a few plays that were JV only plays like a bubble screen pass and Fridge Left and Fridge Right. They also tended to call a more loose and aggressive D on Saturdays.
 
Years ago when my son played, mind you this was early 2010's down South at a D1 level school, they had all kids go through the pre-season learning both sides of the ball, once they got into their last scrimmage they went to a full 2 platoon system. Worked out great as the season got going and injuries happened. My son played Strong Safety/OLB, but when they needed to throw him in at TE late in the season, he had an understanding of the base offense already. Seemed like a good system to me
 
Seems like just a half dozen years ago most D1 and D2 schools had mainly 1 way players. But declining enrollments along with a decrease in the number of kids playing football has necessitated more players playing 2 ways. The teams with larger rosters minimize that and have packages for their best athletes, i.e. a LB or DE will come in as an extra TE or blocking back in a jumbo package. A WR will be a DB in the dime. Those types of things. But by and large, I'm seeing about 1/3 to 1/2 of the kids are playing 2 ways now at most D2 schools for most of the game and 1/4 to 1/3 at all but the football factory D1s.
 
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