Aug 08 2008
The A-11: Where Everyone Can Be a Receiver
Since Walter Camp invented the gridiron, coaches have constantly looked for new ways to run an offense — the Wishbone, the Single Wing, the Run and Shoot, the Spread Option. Ultimately, they all have the same goal — find the weakness in the defense and exploit it as often as possible.
What if you could exploit those weaknesses by making everyone a receiver?
What you’re looking at here is the basic formation of the A-11 Offense, the brainchild of Kurt Bryan, who coaches football at Piedmont High School in Piedmont, California. He looked at his players, realized they were too small to run a traditional offense. So he created an offensive scheme with a center, two tight ends, two quarterbacks and six, count ‘em six wideouts.
How is this legal, you ask? At least one of the QBs is lined up at least 7 yards behind the ball, thus making this a scrimmage kick formation. As long as enough players are lined up on the line of scrimmage, pretty much anything goes.
One Deadspin commenter called it “Calvinball.” After watching this video, I’d say he’s not too far off.
Now you might ask, wouldn’t it be a lot easier to kill the QBs when there’s almost nobody blocking the pass rushers? Well, yeah, if Drew Bledsoe and David Carr are your quarterbacks. This is an offense for the Antwaan Randle Els of the world, and according to its creator, injury rates have actually decreased since he started using it.
“An unforeseen benefit for us has been a major increase in the safety and protection of our players. We have not had major injuries to our offensive players in a game or practice due to the spread out nature of the A-11, and this is a major selling point. It really helps the players of the much smaller schools stay healthier during the season, which in turn allows schools like us to remain competitive throughout the entire year.”
Piedmont High went 7-2 last season, which might be the only reason why this offense is garnering any attention. Clearly, the A-11 works on the high school level. The question is whether it could work in any level higher than that.
The NFL? No chance. Defensive ends and linebackers are too fast and too smart to allow this sort of thing to take place. Let’s not forget how quickly the Run and Shoot was shelved after the teams who used it got summarily tossed out of the playoffs every year. Had the Run and Shoot won a Super Bowl or two, we’d see a lot more of that instead of Bill Walsh’s West Coast Offense.
College football, however, is another story. There’s a lot more room in the college game for experimentation, and a small school with nothing to lose — or a school that’s a perennial doormat in a big conference (Duke, Northwestern, etc.) — might give this a try. The college coach that gives this a go, however, will have to find players who aren’t so interested in NFL careers. No A-11 quarterback will ever make it as an NFL quarterback. Just ask Andre Ware, David Klingler and, in about two years, Pat White about how QBs in exotic college offenses do in the pros.
Still, it’ll be interesting to see if this offense rises up from the high school level and makes it in college football. It would certainly make things a lot more interesting.
(First spotted on Shutdown Corner.)
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I’d be all about Vandy trying this.
Looks like they’re doing a lot of sideways motion with a few direct-snap runs to mess with DLs’ heads. It looks kind of like a flag-football offense - in my flag-football league, you’re not allowed to block (you just kind of stand there with your hands behind your back), so DLs get to the quarterback really quickly. You pretty much have to survive on screens and short passes from the pocket and rollouts if you want to throw long.