Youth Football Online

The Wedge Play in Youth Football

The wedge play in youth football is a very powerful play! This season was the first time I’ve ever ran the QB wedge play. I always felt like it didn’t fit into our wing t offense, but I was clearly mistaken. It has been one of our better plays this season. Especially since we run so much jet and rocket stuff, the wedge off of jet killed defenses. We would hit defenses off tackle and outside and once they widened, we’d killed them with wedge. We decided to get away from our tackle trap play and implement the wedge play as our primary interior play. The wedge play in youth football is an underrated and under utilized football play.

The wedge play is easy to install and is essentially a play that has 6 or more blockers vs. one defender. It generates so much force it literally plows through defenders. The only hope for the defense is to cut the wedge down. It’s actually a pretty deceptive play. I’ve notice on film that defenders have no clue where the ball carrier is. Wedge is something we practice every single practice. We will work a lot on wedge in our individual position sessions.

The Wedge Play in Youth Football Coaching Points


Stopping the Wedge Play in Youth Football 

The team we played in the league championship this year did a decent job of stopping our wedge. However, we still had a lot of success with it. We hit a 50 yard TD run with our wedge.  The team showed us double A-gap defenders. They both were pretty big players and they would cut down the wedge by throwing themselves at the legs of our guards and center. If teams want to commit to stopping the wedge that is fine. If the defense commits to stopping our QB wedge, they will open themselves up for other plays off-tackle or outside.

The Wedge Play in Youth Football
As the wedge begins to collapse or separate the ball carrier needs to find day light and score. Once the wedge breaks down the OL must pick a defender and block them.

Conclusion 

This was the first year we ever ran wedge and I plan on educating myself more so on the wedge this off-season.  I have a few friends that are double wing and single wing coaches that absolutely love the wedge play. They have been telling me to run it for years.  We installed it half way through the season this year, but going forward this will be one of the first plays we install. I’m now on the wedge bandwagon.

If you have any coaching points for the wedge play please leave a comments. I would love to hear your thoughts on the wedge play in youth football. 

Exit mobile version