I'm not calling revolution, but there's a new brand of football in town fresh off the pitch in one California high school. Piedmont High School coaches have developed an offense in the last year which sometimes allows all 11 players on the field to be eligible. Pay attention kids, because this is something that can happen in college football and not in the innovation-hostile NFL.
"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," [Piedmont High School coach Kurt] Bryan said. "Luckily, it turned out to be the latter."
Clearly. Like any innovation just one year into development, it needs work. However, the offense is already catching on.
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.
[Piedmont High School Director of Football Operations Steve] 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.
In other words, the evolution/revolution has already been televised. Cool.
Much more on the history of a new offense is available at this Rivals.com article, and the A-11 website. I look forward to a more prominent introduction this fall in college football, maybe even a College GameDay segment on it, hm? Get to work, Herbie.
Sports
(Via: my brother, who passed along the Rivals article)
