also: 10 personnel · 11 personnel · 12 personnel · 20 personnel · 21 personnel · 22 personnel · 10p · 11p · 12p · 21p · personnel package
A two-digit code for who is on the field. First digit is running backs, second is tight ends, and the receivers are whatever is left over.
The standard way to name an offensive personnel group. The first digit counts running backs and the second counts tight ends, so 11 is one back and one tight end, 21 is two backs and one tight end, and 10 is one back and no tight end.
Receivers are never stated because they are never in doubt. Five eligible receivers are on the field on every snap, so whatever is not a back or a tight end is a wideout and the code only has to name the two variable groups. That is the whole trick. It is completely opaque until somebody says it once.
So the arithmetic always closes: receivers equal five minus the two digits. 12 personnel is one back, two tight ends and two receivers. 00 is nobody in the backfield and five wide.
personnel package, groupingformation, receiver-count notation like 2x2, jersey numbersPersonnel is two digits: first is running backs, second is tight ends. Receivers are never stated because five eligible receivers are on the field on every snap, so whatever is not a back or a tight end is a wideout.
| Code | Backs | Tight ends | Receivers | Called | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00 | 0 | 0 | 5 | empty | Five wide. No back to help in protection, which is the trade. |
| 01 | 0 | 1 | 4 | ||
| 10 | 1 | 0 | 4 | spread | One back, four wide. The Air Raid's default. |
| 11 | 1 | 1 | 3 | base | The most common grouping in football above youth level, because it threatens run and pass without substituting. |
| 12 | 1 | 2 | 2 | heavy | |
| 13 | 1 | 3 | 1 | ||
| 20 | 2 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 21 | 2 | 1 | 2 | pro | Two backs and a tight end. What most Wing-T and I-formation offenses are, in this notation. |
| 22 | 2 | 2 | 1 | ||
| 23 | 2 | 3 | 0 | Goal line. Nobody split out at all. | |
| 30 | 3 | 0 | 2 | Three backs, which is what a Wing-T or a wishbone looks like when a spread coach counts it. |
It is a count, not a formation. 11 personnel says nothing about where those eleven stand, and the same grouping can line up as an empty set or as a tight I. Coaches routinely use a grouping's name as shorthand for the look it usually produces, which is the shortcut that confuses everyone else in the room.
Rare in youth football, where substitution is limited and the vocabulary has no work to do. It becomes essential the moment a team substitutes by situation, which is also the moment the defense starts matching to it.