[SchoolyardChoke]

Josh Katzowitz
Special to Rivals High

When quarterback Jeremy George entered the Piedmont (Calif.) High School football coaches' office to talk to Kurt Bryan, he noticed an unusual formation on the dry-erase board.
At first, George thought the formation was meant for the punt team.

No, Bryan said, that's our new offense.

George looked back to the board and was a little confused.

"Initially, the first thought I had was, 'I'm pretty sure that's illegal,' " George said. "I've got to admit I thought it was a little crazy. I think most of the players thought it was crazy. A lot of people were a little skeptical."

And for good reason.

Bryan, Piedmont's coach, and Steve Humphries, the director of football operations, had developed an offense in which all 11 players on the field potentially are eligible to catch the ball. Though they weren't certain it was legal when they first concocted the idea, they were willing to implement it for the 2007 season.

After compiling a 7-4 record and a first-round playoff appearance, Bryan and Humphries now call their innovation a success.

"Going into the season, we thought that either we're going to get fired or we're going to transform the game because of the innovative aspects and the wealth of ideas," Bryan said. "Luckily, it turned out to be the latter."

The plan began at Humphries' house in northern California while the two were dreaming of ideas. The question: how to effectively level the playing field for Piedmont, with an enrollment of less than 1,000, when the Highlanders faced schools with student bodies nearly twice that.

Then, Humphries came up with a whopper: Why not put two quarterbacks in a shotgun formation and make every player on the field a potential receiving threat?

"It was originally the 'Pluto offense,' " Humphries said. "We wanted to do something very unique, cutting edge and different. There were a whole variety of offensive formations that looked very different from a normal offense."

What developed from that brainstorming session was the "A-11 offense" - as in all 11 players potentially are eligible.
The base offense is one in which a center and two tight ends surround the football, three receivers are split right, three more split left and two quarterbacks stand behind in a shotgun, one of whom has to be at least 7 yards behind the line of scrimmage.

A description on the offense's Web site - Welcome To The Online Home Of The New A-11 Offense - describes it as "an innovative offense blending aspects of the spread option, West Coast and run and shoot."

Yes, per the rules of the game, only five players are eligible to catch a pass during a particular play and seven players have to set up on the line of scrimmage. But in the minds of Bryan and Humphries, you can develop an infinite number of plays with an infinite number of formations.

Talk about confusing a defense.

"It presents a different set of challenges for defenses because they have to account for which guys go out or might go out," Bryan said. "Those guys who are ineligible to go down the field and catch a pass, they can take a reverse pitch or a negative screen or a hitch behind the line of scrimmage.

"We've opened up the game to the extreme with the rules already in place."

First, though, Piedmont coaches had to make sure this offense was actually legal. Bryan and Humphries scoured the rulebook, met with league officials and submitted the concept of the offense to the National Federation of High Schools and the California Interscholastic Federation.

"We had a 99.9 percent feeling that it was legal," Bryan said. "After it was approved, there was a sense of, 'OK, now what do we do?' "

First, they had to install the offense during spring practice and during the summer. Bryan said it wasn't pretty. Even into the first two games of the 2007 season, contests in which the Highlanders lost while scoring a combined nine points, the coaching staff continued making adjustments.

Then, something clicked and they went on a seven-game winning streak, using the A-11 offense about 60 percent of the time and a more traditional formation the other 40 percent. This season, Bryan said he wants to use the A-11 offense 85-90 percent of the time.

"There was a lot of learning, and we put in a lot of the preparation," Humphries said. "We adapted every week. We learned from what the competitors were doing against us. We made changes and adjusted techniques. We saw nine different defenses in 11 games. It was a wealth of information on what things different defenses can do against this. The different techniques are invaluable."

Now, after a year, Bryan says the interest level from coaches across the country is high, and Bryan has produced five instructional videos.

Though Bryan admits there probably is some resistance to this radically different offense, one of his opponents said he sees nothing wrong with it.

"It's pretty trailblazing," said Hayward (Calif.) Moreau Catholic coach Andrew Cotter, whose squad was pummeled by Piedmont 47-7 last season. "The fact they came up with the idea - it takes a lot of work. I don't think they're trying to take an easy way out.

"I'm a new coach coming from an old-school philosophy. Football is meant to line up, get your hand in the dirt and figure it out. But playing within the rules and trying to create an advantage is not something I'm against. There is a philosophy that says you need to line up and see who's the man. However, if you're not the man, you need to come up with some significant strategies to counter that."

Now, Bryan looks to the future and ponders what this offense can mean.

"It is limitless," Bryan said. "Here's what's going to happen. If we were sitting down with football coaches and players in 50 years or 100 years, the A-11 would be no big deal because that's what the game will be.

"People can laugh at it, but that's reality."

Source: Rivals High - A-11 offense could be the future of football (vid on link)


So...what's everybody think? Gimmick or legit?

[Hinch]

It's strangely hilarious. I'm unsure as to how it could stand up to some blitzes, but basically having two sets of QB and receivers is utterly awesome.

[Shawn333]

I think it would be hilarious and entertaining to watch, but I don't see it working at the NFL level. I'm guessing it's probably illegal to have everyone as an eligible receiver at the college and pro levels anyway. I'm thinking in the NFL, the big guys up front on defense would cut past the receivers and smash the QB's ass before he even had the chance to drop back. You need blockers. The 2 QB's might buy him some time and confuse defenses, but still I just see him getting off a short pass at best during blitzes, in which case, you might as well have O-linemen and dump it off to a HB or TE anyway. Sure the defense can't cover everyone, but they don't have to, just play it safe, don't give up the big pass play and blitz, blitz, blitz.

Also players don't usually gel and like it when a coach uses more than one QB, and that's not even at the same time! The team needs a player/ leader and as the old saying goes in pro football "if you have 2 QB'S you don't have a QB." Even at the highschool level, why not just use a half back that can pass and a 5 receiver set? You can use hand offs and have the HB pass, or flip it back to the QB for him to pass. Plus, it's still hard for the Defense to cover 5 receivers, and you can still have some protection for the QB.

[akutz1]

gimick, may work at highschool level but will never be used elsewhere. It looks like theres a ton of offenseive possibilities with motion and 8 receivers but no play action without running back. I would blitz all day on D

[falconstalon]

psssshaaaaw anyone of us whose played football in the park or with friends have been doing this for years

8 wr's 2 rb's and one 1 QB


one mississippi
two mississippi
three missis.....nevermind

[doomonyou]

Interesting. Looks to be the option except with passing. It would be fun to watch, but as the talent level of the defense increases, it would become less effective.

[The Gem]

I've seen articles about this. This offense caught on and then one of the teams ended up facing a coach who was prepared for it.

It basically works when teams aren't aware of what the offense is.

I believe the coach described beating the offense using a zone blitz scheme with only 1 down lineman. The corners would contain blitz similar to how a defensive end would rush the passer. it would just funnel everything towards the defense who would use a lot more linebackers and safeties than usual.

[warmma76]

My old High School ran a gimmick offense a couple years back and had their best season ever. This guy that graduated when I was a freshman was their head coach. Basically it was a 5 receiver set on every play, but the QB was the RB from the year before, so you had to account for him running. It worked because they had a bunch of fast guys that could catch. I went to 3 of their games that year, and it was pretty cool to watch. That shit would never work in college though.

[Shizzy]

Probably would only work on occasion in High School.

[Mithra]

Originally Posted by akutz1

gimick, may work at highschool level but will never be used elsewhere. It looks like theres a ton of offenseive possibilities with motion and 8 receivers but no play action without running back. I would blitz all day on D

If the QB's are good you would get picked apart...

The beautiful thing about this offense is the fact it forces the opponent to spread out leaving the middle wide open for draws and forcing the defense to attempt to cover all the receivers..

It would take the bigger linebackers straight out of the game, would wear out the other linebackers forced to cover smaller and speedier players...

The biggest problem against this is the opinion of people, "old school" coaches and football fans would think it has to suck because it is so new.

But if guys like Urban Meyers begin to use it, it could take off