When I played flag football in college...

Wait, first let me put this disclaimer out there. Yes I technically played. The first year, I was on a team that ran the option and I never was offense. I was a defensive back on defense and the opposing team threw it to my side every time because our safety on the other side was a former QB from Austin Peay University (let's go Peay!). We made it to the championship game before getting beat. I really didn't have much to do with our success though.

A couple of years later I played with the campus ministry team. Actually, I was relegated to the "B" team because I wasn't that good. Funny thing though, the QB on that team was like the guy in the Soloflex commericals from the mid nineties. Running around all over the place and no one could catch him. Good stuff.

But when I played, out of all the teams out there, there was one team that was head and shoulders above the rest. At Alabama, it was the "Daisy Dukes". At any other school, you've got "that" team, filled with a a bunch of former all-county high school football players who decide their goal in life is to dominate flag football. They want to represent their school at the national tournament and so they devote their college career to winning the flag football championship. You can see them practicing every day and you hear about them "recruiting" freshman to come play with them next year. They'll also wear eye-black, tape their ankles before the game and will scout future opponents. They also had their own "plays" as opposed to the other teams that just tell everyone to get open. The starting linebacker calls out audibles before the snap.

And on offense.... They were always the masters of pitching the ball once down field. You see, if you can get that down, you are guaranteed an extra five yards every time . If not more. Those teams were so frustrating to play, because once you pulled the flag, the ball was already gone. And some dude, wearing his high school football shorts, was running down the field for another touchdown.

So, why do I bring this up?

Well, about two weeks ago, I read this article on the new A11 offense being run out in California. If you haven't read it, here's basically a breakdown of the A11 offense:

The plan began at Humphries' house in northern California while the two were dreaming of ideas. The question: how to effectively level the playing field for Piedmont, with an enrollment of less than 1,000, when the Highlanders faced schools with student bodies nearly twice that.

Then, Humphries came up with a whopper: Why not put two quarterbacks in a shotgun formation and make every player on the field a potential receiving threat?

"It was originally the 'Pluto offense,' " Humphries said. "We wanted to do something very unique, cutting edge and different. There were a whole variety of offensive formations that looked very different from a normal offense."

What developed from that brainstorming session was the "A-11 offense" - as in all 11 players potentially are eligible.

The base offense is one in which a center and two tight ends surround the football, three receivers are split right, three more split left and two quarterbacks stand behind in a shotgun, one of whom has to be at least 7 yards behind the line of scrimmage.

And here's the icing on the cake:

Yes, per the rules of the game, only five players are eligible to catch a pass during a particular play and seven players have to set up on the line of scrimmage. But in the minds of Bryan and Humphries, you can develop an infinite number of plays with an infinite number of formations.

Talk about confusing a defense.

"It presents a different set of challenges for defenses because they have to account for which guys go out or might go out," Bryan said. "Those guys who are ineligible to go down the field and catch a pass, they can take a reverse pitch or a negative screen or a hitch behind the line of scrimmage.

Pitching the ball as part of your offense.... That's what I love most about this offense. If you're going to go with the "flag football" offense, why not include the pitch in your offense? In fact, you don't have to run the A11 to include the pitch. Why not incorporate it into your current offense.

Think about it the positives. If the "pitch" is always in play, wouldn't that create more one on one opportunities down field? The cornerback can't leave his man because he might come underneath and take the pitch from another receiver down field. And how many times could you fake a guy out by pretending your going to pitch the ball. At the end of the day, you would demoralize the opposing team, just like the Daisy Dukes did to everyone else.

I know. I know. Most control freak coaches would hate the fact that this opens up opportunities for more turnovers. But the more this is practiced, the better you could get at it. It would become second nature, just like the triple option.

We're OK with a pitch when the defense intercepts the ball. We're OK with the pitch on the kickoff return at the end of the half. Boise St was OK with the pitch against Oklahoma two years ago. Why can't we incorporate it even more?

Man, think about how that would change fantasy football........