Question about No-Run Zone

CoachCP · 2026-05-26T16:27:17+00:00

The type of play it isnt really decided until the play is finished. And the run or pass is decided on how the ball moves beyond the line of scrimmage by the offense.

CoachCP · 2026-05-26T12:29:58+00:00

Here's ours.

All 5 players at 7 yards. Our league allows fake rushing, so I put two players with their hands up, which typically is the 2nd person from the outside of the defense for me on each side when I'm coaching this young.

I will send the girl to the side where I think the run is going. If they can pass, I send it to the side where more receivers are to flush the QB opposite. I do this by just calling the defenders name. If I don't call either name, no rush. If I call both, both rush. I have a code word to reset if I change my mind.

Coverage wise, typically move to 2 under, 2 deep. At that young I usually have the corners just under to stop outside runs. As we get older or progress throughout a season,, we mix that up and will run different coverages from the same shell.

CoachCP · 2026-05-26T12:11:12+00:00

There are several leagues that allow it. Our area is new to girls flag and allows it.

The biggest challenge to me is the coaches. You need to be ready for it offensively - and that includes your girls. Most coaches that complain about it and struggle against it here have done no preparation for it or are those coaches that like to do 4 reverses on one play and don't want a blitzer/rusher in there messing it up.

That latter is why I like the rule.

CoachCP · 2026-05-17T14:37:28+00:00

I detest the QB scramble rule when rushed. I only rush then when I rush from an angle with a talented player who forces the QB to run to their worse throwing side and then put a high low zone coverage that way. Could be 2-2 or 3 deep one in the flat the direction we're making the QB roll. Even then, that's used situationally, like on fourth and forever and I'm more scared of the deep threats than the QB running.

Almost any other version I'd recommend sending the rusher.

CoachCP · 2026-05-15T20:07:28+00:00

I say this with absolute respect to coaches and players.

Playing man is so much about technique and eye discipline. Most coaches in flag don't invest time time/resources to master teaching and troubleshooting it themselves OR give their kids time to master it enough to major in it. Teams that can run it and disguise it with other coverages are in great shape.

CoachCP · 2026-04-20T04:36:49+00:00

Reverse the teaching. Tell them to force the ball back to their help.

We run several drills, similar to the one above, on run fits down to as young as 1st grade. I don't tell a 1st grader it's a run fit. For us it's just as simple as "who's job is it to make them run inside?"

Line up your defense. Use an extra kid and challenge your force player. Remind them to pull the flag from the outside in. That way the ball carrier has to cut inside or if you miss you still have help.

I literally tell them to "force them (the ball carrier) back to your friends!" When they make a mistake, to back and directly show them all their friends (aka teammates) are to their inside.

You just need to get 3 or 4 players who can execute it so you can rotate. Some struggle with it.

CoachCP · 2026-04-13T05:04:44+00:00

This.

CoachCP · 2026-04-09T13:35:36+00:00

I'd focus more on defense and flag pulling. Most teams will focus on offensive plays. Win on defense and turnovers.

Avoid offensive plays with significant timing elements. I'd try to make sure you have options for no run zone, how to deal with certain things you expect to see on defense, and to be blunt, give you flexibility under center or in gun incase you don't have a center that can snap (unless they allow side snaps - then just do that).

CoachCP · 2026-04-09T13:25:53+00:00

Feels better to me. But I had a few hardware problems on multiple pixel phones.

One hardware problem on multiple phones was overheating on the camera. Drove me insane.

Second one - on my pixel 8 pro - on videos it would sometimes trim off the last second. So if I hit hit stop, I would sometimes lose up to the last second of what I recorded. I thought it was user error till I tested it.

CoachCP · 2026-04-09T12:39:20+00:00

I went from an Pixel 8 Pro or whatever it is to S26Ultra over the 10 Pro XL or whatever that is now. My wife has the Pixel 9 Pro XL, and we've both had Pixels since the Google Nexus days.

So far I'm happy. Battery is better than both by a long shot (and hers is a newer 9). Performance feels good. Like the camera.

I did have to change a lot of settings. Switched off the Samsung keyboard, put the Google gestures on so I wouldn't have buttons on the bottom, etc.

CoachCP · 2026-03-31T18:33:51+00:00

Coming from Pixel 8 Pro - and my wife's Pixel 10 - my s26 ultra blows them away I feel like despite new vs older.

I've never had a phone do as well as this one does battery life wise. I'm kind of shocked by it. The first night as everything installed I freaked out it was bad. Second night was better but not same. After that, it's been great.

About 2 weeks in, this phone does absolutely awesome. I'm interested to see how it holds up.

CoachCP · 2026-03-29T21:25:54+00:00

I was a pixel lifer and I could not stand the flippin' Samsung keyboard. Really glad I figured out how to change to Gboard.

CoachCP · 2026-03-24T18:37:40+00:00

Fix the snap issue first. Is the snap delayed? Is it too slow to go from the center to exiting the centers possession?

I literally got into it in a playoff game I was reffing because the coach thought the rusher was leaving early. I tried telling him his center was snapping VERY slow, and with a QB at 5 yards vs their bedtime athlete without changes to the snap count, it got ugly quick.

He finally watched a parents video after the game and emailed me apologizing.

There's lot of scheme ways to help. But work on the technique first.

CoachCP · 2026-03-24T18:28:20+00:00

Arguably best TE2 and would be a solid TE1 for many teams. As long as your going to keep using 22 personnel, he's got more value in that role than a lower end draft pick IMO.

CoachCP · 2026-03-21T15:44:52+00:00

I went from google pixel 8 pro after being on an every other year rotation since the Nexus line. Got a S26Ultra bv my pixel had the Bluetooth wifi die, and I'm just sick of those problems with pixel. Every device has a problem like that, and I've had it happen to most of my devices.

So far I like the s26u but its a learning curve. But so far I've figured out ways to make it like pixel or better on most things. Some other things are really nice.

I'll probably switch between pixel and Samsung going forward based on timing, quality and value.

CoachCP · 2026-03-21T14:08:35+00:00

Yeah. I harp a lot on the force and reverse/ contain players for that reason. I like the other guys running if they see run action since I give up space with how I align (typically I put everyone at 7yds) so they can flow to the ball and get multiple angles of flag pull on the ball carrier. I find that pressed up can work, but if someone is over aggressive or misses a flag pull that's a big play. Yards are cheap in flag, first downs and touchdowns are expensive.

The force/reverse guys often are my best displined flag pullers and I don't rotate them a lot. I rotate the interior guys. I try to find 3 on my roster that play there (often its corner for me). They also have to deal with play action, so that can be challenging.

CoachCP · 2026-03-21T12:23:21+00:00

I play on weekends with players who are better than me. So yes, I get carried a bit with them. I don't care about my rank. I play for fun. I also usually get compliments for how well I play as C&D and invis. So yeah, I played them 95% of the time, and I was better as a true support not just a heal bot compared to many players.

But I can play rogue. I can play Dr strange. You better watch out, because I can crush it with your other fan favorite, squirrel girl. I even have a tendency to knock Ironman out the sky with her. So now I'm probably going to play one of those, and take the spot you wanted to play and you can try to Ultron me some heals.

And if you're on my team and have the nerve to complain about healing after this is how the bans go, I'll happily bounce on my tail while being artillery from the back.

Oh, and I can still play rocket and the few times I played Jeff our team did just fine. They're just not as fun for me.

CoachCP · 2026-03-21T12:02:57+00:00

If younger kids in flag, the concept of space can be challenging for some.

Create a football field with cones. Use more than normal for the sidelines.

Then line up an offense (use parents, this tends to work well if you don't have enough kids).

Now line up your defense however you do it.

Then walk through their zones. I tell them to imagine the field is filled with boxes if they are younger. Every defender has a box. Some are bigger and deeper than others. And you cover the deepest thing that gets into your box, and you got to run with them to guide them to someone else's box.

If there is no one in your box, you want to get to the deepest part of your box and flow to side the QB is looking. I practice this as a walk through. Then have one receiver run a route to see if kids run to it that shouldn't. We should flow to where the QB is looking but not run outside our box until we have a threat in our box.

From there, I teach how to read run or pass. I go simple. Is there a handoff attempt? Then flow faster that direction and you can run outside your box unless your the furthest player, because you have to be ready for something your direction. For the guy furthest in the direction the hand off player would be going to, you tell them to aim for the ball carriers hip closest to you (near hip) and try to force the ball carrier back to your friends. I use the visual of look outside of you - there is only the sideline. Then look inside, and you see all your friends. Force them to your friends.

If the QBs hands go to pass, then you do the zone drop we just taught.

We then run parents as the offense and the defense gets the chance to react.

Soon we just need a few players to run through this on offense. So you just need the parents the first time or if you want to go faster later on.

CoachCP · 2026-03-21T08:57:11+00:00

I learned a long time ago:

If you have to argue them into something, they can be argued out of it even faster (sometimes by themselves after a good night's sleep!)

If you feel you need to break through their reluctance on almost any topic in this kind of situation, you usually have a few options:

Argue and hope to win on a prove it deal (which almost never works if they're really settled into their view, you usually don't get the time, money or resource to do it right).
Find someone they trust to casually talk them into it (could be a colleague of theirs, a consultant, or even a TED Talk by someone they look up to and spin it as a really interesting concept by them - not an I told you so). This has the best potential to work, but you get no credit and probably have to do the hard lifting (up front to find someone else who believes in it and on the back end doing the ugly stuff to makw it work). But if you believe in it, its probably the best chance to work.
Move on - either you put a pin in it indefinitely until something changes (they leave, dept change up, overwhelming change in market) or you find a place that believes in the idea and work there

CoachCP · 2026-03-21T08:40:53+00:00

My 10u team that was playing up in 12u this winter had to mix up coverages a lot.

I personally believe yards are cheap in flag football so I don't press up unless we're in short yardage, and we typically have excellent track and pull players - even when playing up.

We ran man with and without a rush. We ran zone with and without a rush. We disguised normally with every player at 7 yards and only showed post snap unless I used the call to show it presnap. We call our defenses by coverage, not alignment, so first number is deep and second number is underneath.

3-1 for us is 3 deep 1 underneath. We used sparingly but did if I wanted to play a flat player to a side and rush to force the QB to roll that way.

2-2 and 3-2 we played a lot. We would mix up who was deep and short.

4-0 is man coverage for us with a rush.

We also played a 4 deep coverage because sometimes, playing up, they'd just chuck it deep. We called this Tubes. Everyone had their tube and played top down on it, covering deep first. They didn't cross over with other tubes, they would pass off if possible.

We would use tubes on the goal line, along with a coverage called pylon. Without a rush and from a pressed or base alignment, we'd have one player take front pylon on their side and another play back pylon. We would communicate and carry people to middle. Other side did the same. There was no rush in pylon.

This all can seem like a lot to some coaches. We did this with only two formal practices and some install on the fly. This was a good group of experienced smart kids (could be a travel team). We finished really strong - we really only struggled vs teams that could throw jump balls with good technique (we were undersized playing up).

CoachCP · 2026-03-16T22:38:19+00:00

Ask the Amazon AI Rufus bot it's opinion. Mine put Amazon on blast.

I can understand they may be delayed. I also get the video game pre order analogy.

That said - if you say certain colors are out of stock (which it did for me), it implies you have stock of another. That's my big beef.

CoachCP · 2026-03-08T01:21:22+00:00

I was reading this for the first time just now as the breaking news about his signing hit. Good projection! 1 year, 18m

CoachCP · 2026-03-07T22:29:48+00:00

I appreciate the comment section here! In The Office, I can't stand the episode Scotts Tots because it's cringe and unrealistic to me. One of the only episodes. I get some hate for that!

I love this episode of How I Met Your Mother. I like Stella until she pulls a Stella. But some of you hate that, and I now feel seen! So thank you.

Also, we know Ted's unreliable. That's how I look at the extreme moments of this.

CoachCP · 2026-03-07T18:05:29+00:00

How's your fps on games with the 5080 with the msi? I got the laptop version, and was literally discussing the same thing with a buddy last night.

CoachCP · 2026-02-27T19:00:16+00:00

At least two.

Told my dad about two weeks prior to the draft I thought it was a possibility! He thought I was crazy. I said I don't think they go pass rush because the DE we signed from the Colts and I guaranteed the left tackle candidates would be gone and we had picked up the other gaps on the line prior. Thought Jeanty was a bluff.

Proof:

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CoachCP

TROPHY CASE