At the HS level and above, certain jersey number ranges are reserved for offensive linemen, who aren't eligible receivers. Basically in some state (Cali I think, not sure but it's out west) at the HS level there was an exception to this rule regarding jersey number and eligible receivers when a team lined up for a scrimmage kick. So these 2 HS coaches came up with the idea to technically line up in a kicking formation to take advantage of this loophole. By doing that, it technically makes all 11 players eligible receivers (A-11 = all 11). So opposing defenses literally have no idea who's eligible and who they have to cover until the offense gets set on the line of scrimmage. This leads to all kinds of crazy sets, .like 3 O-linemen, 2 QBs and tons of receivers. The A-11 is the spread on HGH and steroids, it hardly even resembles football. The whole offense was a gimmick, designed to help one team overcome a big disparity in talent against another. The problem was it's based on a rule loophole for which that offense was never intended. State HS athletic associations closed the loopholes in their rulebooks one by one until the national governing body outlawed it nationally. But the two guys who invented it wanted to get rich, so they actually lobbied high schools to withdraw from their state athletic associations to form A-11 leagues.
Good explanation, dolemite. With that said, last season I watched Central Catholic here in Morgan City use this offense, sometimes just for a play or two, sometimes for a whole series. (if it wasn't actually the A11, it was close). Even with still having 5 guys on the field with lineman numbers, defenses were hard-pressed to stop it, just because its hard for HS kids to figure out what their assignments are when facing an offense that looks so odd-ball.
