The A-11 Offense: Genius or Madness?

by huskerlibrarian on Aug 11, 2008 7:12 PM CDT Comment 3 comments

Did you think that the giant wave of spread offenses was the crazy, wacky fad of the month, or that it may spell the end of all life as we know it? If so, then Michael Weinreb on ESPN.com's Page 2 has discovered the surest sign of the Apocalypse yet:

The A-11 Offense

The idea is that you have 2 QBs and three "pods" of 3 people. Everyone wears a number that makes them an eligible receiver. The center and 6 other "receivers" line up at the line of scrimmage (who is on the line depends on the read and play), and you run the offense out of it. The principle underlying the formation is "the ball is faster than the man," meaning that laterals between the 2 QBs are used to counteract the inevitable holes in the line.

Essentially, it's what lays at the bottom of the slippery slope of the Spread. Weinreb describes it as follows: "On film, the A-11 often resembles a hybrid of the spread and an elementary-school fire drill gone wrong."

Apparently, NCAA rules would allow the formation in situations where a kick could be attempted, and its creator is expecting to see up to 70 colleges implement some form of A-11 this year.

This FanPost created by a registered user of Corn Nation.

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I've

read some about this. Count me among those guys that think they’re loonie and I hope that whenever anyone tries to run this crap they’re immediately flagged for it.

If I wanted to watch basketball on a football field, I’d advocate a different set of rules. Since I have no desire for this, I prefer big huge guys smashing into each other, the way football should be.

Can we have these supposed innovators burned as witches? Or is it too late for that?

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Corn Nation!

by corn blight on Aug 12, 2008 12:44 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Bah!

We’ll see, but something like this just seems to gimmicky. Like, honestly it’s going to confuse your offense as much as it does a defense, and the whole field is just going to dissolve into chaos.

by carlinthemarlin on Aug 12, 2008 12:15 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Ive read about this extensively and talked about it with several people

First of all, the scrimmage kick formation doesn’t change the rules about covered/uncovered receivers, so the idea that the two “tight ends” next to the center are eligible receivers who may go out for a pass is false. You could only make one an eligible receiver, but to do that, you’d need to align him as the EMLOS, which means everyone else would be aligned on the oppsite side, so you would actually only end up with 5 eligible receivers in that case (the TE and three receivers on the opposite side of the formation).

If you teach your DBs to recognize covered and uncovered receivers, they can ignore the blockers posing as receivers, and shut down the passing game.

by Beergut on Aug 12, 2008 10:58 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs