The A-11 Offense: Boom or Bust?

Two quarterbacks, are you dreaming? Let's say someone tells you they've seen this offense, and it runs with two quarterbacks, and anyone on the field can score. Sounds like fantasy football team right?

Nope, this offense is the new craze that is about to hit the NCAA here pretty soon. That's right, two quarterbacks and everyone is a receiving threat. Its an odd thing really.

Don't believe me? Check out the A-11 Web site.

So how do they line up? They line up three receivers to the right, three to the left, a center and two tight ends on each side. And here's the money—two quarterbacks line up behind center in shotgun formation, kind of like the way you see it when the punter lines up with another guy just off to the side.

On any given play, any six of them can go out for a pass, and five have to stay on the line of scrimmage. You don't know who is going where and you have to cover all of them.

Does it work? This offense was developed by a couple of high school coaches, check out the article at Rivals High.

The team, Piedmont High in Piedmont, California and the coaches, Kurt Bryan (head coach) and Steve Humphries (Director of Football Operations), took it to the field this year. About 60 percent of the time they ran the A-11 offense and 40 percent of the time they ran a traditional football offense.

The team went 7-4. They usually never break .500.

So why does a high school football team mean anything? They received rave review from opponents and even from college. By the end of the season, they had representatives from scouts to head coaches from colleges all around the nation, many of whom will use it in some facet this year.

Bryan and Humphries do not want to reveal the schools that said they were going to use it, but one or two colleges will use it as part of their normal offense. It proves that smaller schools can compete at any level.

The future is upon us. It's like seeing the first cell phone or mp3 player—you just know that the thing is going to take off and just dominate.

I have a feeling this is the next big thing for college ball, since those small schools want to compete. If you think parity in college football has hit a new high, "you ain't seen nothing yet."

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