Finally, a win!

You'll notice not too many of us old timers are offering you advice on your "contain" problem. It's not because we're ignoring you. You're not providing us with enough information. What kind of defense do you run? What are the alignments? Who has contain now?
Do you run a reading defense or an attack defense?

At the youth level, more often than not the contain assignment is left to a single player. That would be okay except for two things 1) the propensity for human beings to make mistakes and 2) coaches like me. If you assign one player to contain, in all likelyhood it is the DE. If so, you have begun with a problem because for a DE to play contain is an unnnatural thing to do. The natural thing for them to do is get sucked in - which is what you're complaining about. So you have placed them in a position of making a mistake simply by doing what comes natural. That's when we come to the next factor in the equation - Coaches like me. Coaches like me look for ways to lure your DE inside and we have excellent bait. If your DE refuses to come inside, we just won't block him at all and run inside him. And then we watch... and we wait ... and pretty soon he's going to come inside and make the tackle and all his buddies will "high-five" him - And we will see it. And now we will fake that same play and take it outside while he is rushing inside thinking "high fives" again. Oops! No "high fives" this time! The same action that got him a reward on the play before has now netted him a talking to on the sidelines by his coach and a TD for us. Or we'll line up with an SE on his side and watch his helmet. If his helmet turns to the left and turns to the right, we know what he's thinking. He's thinking, "Who's got me?" and "I've got a free shot into the backfield!" And he takes it - Only it wasn't a free shot after all and we have a touchdown again and he's getting another talking to on the sideline. A coach like me will study a DE and see if he sits or comes across the LOS. If he comes across the LOS, we kick him out. If he sits, we crack him with our motion man or start running plays away from him and wait for him to start flowing over to help out - and then reverse on him. A coach like me will even get a DE who doesn't suck in sent to the sidelines for a good chewing out. We'll run a reverse to our side of the field against a DE who refuses to suck in - but we won't run it to "D" gap, we'll run it to "C". Touchdown again! And another talking to by the coach even though the kid stayed outside. Being a DE on contain is just a thankless job because a coach like me will read the DE every down and make certain that, whatever he does, he's wrong. If you take a kid and expect him to do something unnatural and then do it well - you've got a tough season ahead. I can even spot a DE's tendencies just by how you line him up. The further outside you line him up, the more times he's been been beat on contain. I know this kid will suck just by your correction. I just need to give this boy an extra second or so to run inside and then crack him and run the reverse. I can do this 3-4 times to him in the game. I know because that's why you moved him out.

Okay! But you didn't ask me how to to romp, stomp, and suck your DE's. You asked me how to train them. To do that you need THREE DE's and a pair of eyes. Send two DE's out on the field and keep one standing next to you on game day. Tell the DE beside you that the two of you are going to watch the near side DE to see if he plays it right. The first time you see the near DE get sucked in, even if he makes the tackle, you tell the DE beside you the mistake he made and to go out and replace the DE that screwed up. The DE that screwed up now comes off and you tell him his mistake. He is now told that he'll get to go back in the game again as soon as one of the other DE's screws up. Well! You know it's not going to be the DE you just sent in because 1) He knows the mistake that got the first DE pulled and he's not apt to repeat it and 2) He knows (thinks) your watching him. So now you and the DE who erred now move down the sidelines to where you can watch the DE on the other side of the field and the two of you watch him to make a mistake. You shouldn't have to wait long. As soon as he makes a mistake, you point out the error to the DE beside you and send him in to replace the far DE. The far DE comes out and joins you. You explain to him his mistake and tell him that as soon as the NEAR DE makes a mistake, he'll go back out again. This, of course, could be a long wait (Not too long though since it is natural to get sucked). The longer the wait, the quicker the DE standing on the sideline learns that, if he wants to stay out on the field in the game, he'd better play it as you taught him. So your contain will improve very quickly. For you as a coach, here are the "rules" for replacing DE's. They are 1) Do not wait for the TD to be scored on a DE making a mistake before replacing him. Replace him immediately when the mistake is spotted 2) Leave the second string DE on the field until he too makes a mistake. It is better to have a second rate DE playing mistake free than a first rate DE making mistakes. If you are so convinced the second string DE can't do the job and that you must put the first stringer back in, at least keep the first stringer on the sideline for three plays as his punishment 3) Do not yell or scream at a DE for screwing up. As I said, this is a thankless job. Yelling at him makes it even more thankless 4) Put your arm around the DE on the sideline as you both watch. You are his comrade as well as his mentor (And, besides, mom and dad are watching and they disagree with why you pulled their kid (This is guaranteed) so make it look friendly.). Inside of 30 minutes of game time, you'll have your DE's doing it your way (Whatever that is) and you'll be kicking yourself for not having done this earlier.