Maybe. Or maybe “reinventing” is way too strong a word (and it’s probably old news to real football fanatics), but this sure looks like an exciting innovation in the sport.
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.
And it appears it is catching on fast.
OFF TO COLLEGE
One Saturday this fall, Kurt Bryan and Steve Humphries likely will watch the offense they created and nurtured go off to college.
Bryan, the coach at Piedmont (Calif.) High, and Humphries, Piedmont’s director of football operations, installed the A-11 offense a little more than a year ago. The schemes drew the interest of college coaches – and even some from the NFL – almost immediately.
Bryan said coaches from 35 to 40 Division I-A schools, and from every conference, have contacted him and Humphries looking for information on the offense. Apparently, the college coaches are quick studies.
Humphries said he saw San Jose State run multiple A-11 plays last season against Stanford. Florida ran an offensive play recalling the A-11 against LSU. And Rutgers and the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers ran punt plays containing aspects of Piedmont’s offense.
There’s another common thread that brought college coaches to tiny Piedmont. “Anything that helps them win a game, they’re looking at it,” said Bryan, who won’t name the coaches because all asked for anonymity.
Bryan anticipates the A-11 offense to translate to college ball about 12-15 times per game, particularly on fourth downs, third-and-long plays, kicking situations and plays at the end of a half. Trick plays also would be a likely home for A-11 principles.
Bryan isn’t surprised to see college coaches embracing the A-11. The offense is based on the same principles of the spread and the run-and-shoot, finding running lanes and open space. Of the college programs seeking information on Piedmont’s offense, Bryan said about 70 percent of them run some version of the spread.
Talk of the offense began with word of mouth on the West Coast, then picked up when college recruiters received highlights of Piedmont games. Media reports during the spring brought more attention to the offense, presenting Piedmont’s coaches with a dilemma – should they share their creation or guard the company secrets.
They decided to share everything. Bryan and Humphries have fielded phone calls, hosted coaching clinics, sent film all over the country and established a Web site (a11offense.com) with access to diagrams and video. Humphries recently completed a comprehensive installation manual for the offense, as well.
“It was bound to happen,” Bryan said. “It’s amazing how sincere, how interested and how energetic they’ve been about something fresh.”
If you click on the link above you can see the team running the offense, and here’s their site that describes it in detail. It sure looks interesting, doesn’t it?
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