Leading off today: It isn't quite up there with Apple's founders launching their dream in a California garage or Bill Gates sketching out version 1.01 of MS-DOS between card games at Harvard, but Steve Humphries and Kurt Bryan invented the A-11 offense a year and a half ago in the dining room of Humphries' San Francsico apartment.
Humphries and Bryan, coaches at Piedmont High School near Oakland, Calif., assembled about 60 plays over two weekends and created a sensation by accepting the principle that the ball moves faster than the man. As noted by The Washington Post this week, the A-11 has created a buzz that could surpass the West Coast offense, the run-and-shoot and the recently trendy spread offense.
The A-11 derives its name from the fact that all 11 offensive players appear eligible to catch a pass, which confuses the defense. It's suited nicely to schools with more skill-position stalwarts than linemen, which has led to thousands of calls and e-mails (including 70 inquiries from college coaches) to its inventors since they installed in last fall at Piedmont.
Before anyone gets too carried away, it's worth remembering Piedmont went only 7-4 last season (after an 0-2 start) and that the A-11 can be legislated into obscurity on rather short notice — and that's already happening in some states. In its present form, the A-11 bends but doesn't break the rules. But one or two simple rules revisions — like limiting the number of times a team can line up in punt formation without actually kicking the ball — could spell the end.
"For everybody who's saying this offense is no good for the game," Bryan told the paper, "why don't they ask our kids or the thousands of other kids who are going to play this offense this season and see how much fun it is?"
As shown on the A11offense.com Web site developed by the coaches, two quarterbacks in the A-11 line up at least seven yards behind the line of scrimmage. A center and tight ends on each side form a three-man offensive line. That leaves six receivers split wide. Though only six men are eligible to receive a downfield pass provided they're not wearing a uniform number from 50 to 79, the defense has to guess who's going downfield.
That, though, won't be the case everywhere even though the National Federation has given its blessing to the offense for now. In North Carolina, teams will be penalized 15 yards the first time they use the A-11 and the head coach will be ejected for the second infraction.
"This is different from innovative offenses like the wishbone and the spread, which meet number and
