Rules-makers stifle an innovative offense
Restricting use of the A-11 formation to fourth down removes an exciting and fun element from the game.
The recent decision of the rules committee of the National Federation of State High School Associations to "clarify" a rule regarding the use of the A-11 football offense seems to fly in the face of the game's culture.
The clarification, which has yet to be entered into the rule book, makes the innovative offense permissible only on fourth down. It also takes some fun and excitement out of the game.
Football plays are designed to deceive or fool the defense so the offense can move down the field to score. It's up to the defense to figure out those deceptions.
The A-11 offense was developed by Piedmont High (Calif.) coach Kurt Bryan and offensive coordinator Steve Humphries. It potentially makes all 11 players - regardless of number but contingent on positioning - eligible to catch a pass using the numbering exception for a scrimmage kick formation.
The exception allows players in punt, or scrimmage kick, formation to complete passes to players not wearing Nos. 1-49 or 80-99. That means the defense cannot presume which players are eligible to catch a pass from a punt - or shotgun - formation.
The A-11 features two quarterbacks in the shotgun formation and, by spreading the offense across the field, forces the defense - since the numbering exception makes all players eligible - to account for every possible receiver on each play. Five players may go downfield to catch a pass, and seven players must be on the line of scrimmage at the snap.
Granted, the A-11 offense takes advantage of the numbering system exception. But arguments against its use seem hollow. Opposition was such that, before the rules committee action, at least 10 state high school athletic associations banned it. To their credit, the PIAA and NJSIAA were not among them. However, as members of the federation, the PIAA and NJSIAA will abide by the clarification.
Most critical of the odd offense were officials and administrators who said the formation was too difficult to officiate.
Mark Dreibelbis, director of officials for the North Carolina High School Athletic Association, is on record saying the offense "was unfair to the defense and cannot be officiated."
He's right when he said that rules makers never dreamed of making "an exception for a specific play situation [scrimmage kick] into an every-play down." But why can't it be officiated? In talking with more than a dozen PIAA officials, none saw it as an officiating nightmare.
One simply called it "another spread offense."
What Bryan and Humphries did was not illegal. And it gave Piedmont, a small school of 800 students, a chance to offset a size disadvantage in virtually every game it played. It obviously served as a great motivator for Bryan's team. The players found they could create confusion for the opposition even if they were outsized and outmanned.
In my opinion, officials were too quick to judge the A-11 offense. Innovation has become a hallmark of sports. Remember what Knute Rockne and Gus Dorais did? If you don't, look it up.