What is Football Lineman Drills – Open the Hole?
Football Lineman Drills – Open the Hole is a free football drill on FantasyHQ’s Football Coaching hub for football coaching work. Use the setup notes and coaching cues below to add it to this week’s practice plan.
- Football Lineman Drills – Open the Hole is part of FantasyHQ’s free football drills library.
- Focus: Football Coaching.
How to run this drill
Football Lineman Drills – Open the Hole is built for youth, high-school, and volunteer coaches who need clear drill language — not a random cone circuit. Beginners can install the first progression; experienced staffs can layer competition.
- Read the purpose once, then walk the setup on air before live tempo.
- Demonstrate one clean rep so players see landmarks, pad level, and finish.
- Run short competitive periods — quality reps beat long lines.
- Close with one coaching cue players can repeat in the huddle next period.
Full drill
Offensive linemen need to open holes, and the defensive linemen need to close them. This is one of the most effective [tag]football lineman drills[/tag] to teach this. 
What you need – Field an entire offensive and defensive line, along with one QB and a running back.
How this drill works – The [tag]football[/tag] coach will stand in the defensive backfield, and the offensive line, QB and RB will be shown which hole the [tag]coach[/tag] wants the play run. So, the offense knows what they are doing and so they have the responsibility of opening up the hole for the RB to run through.
The defensive line doesn’t know where the play is going, so they need to be aware of which way the o-lineman is pushing them and fight against that direction to make the tackle.
This is a battle between the offensive and defensive lines.
Result – Both lines get to work on their technique and their blocking and tackling skills.
