Numbering Exception and Shotgun

[Ed Hickland]

Had an interesting variation on the A11:

Formation

86 77 65 77 63 84 81

35 23 7 32

63 is the snapper. #7 is the player in position to receive the snap. #7 is 5 yads behind the snapper.

Flagged this as an illegal formation they did not meet the numbering exception since #7 was only five yards deep and only four players were numbered between 50 and 79.

Coach's argument was they have run shotgun at 5 yards for 20 years. My retort is that it is not that the shotgun at 5 yards is illegal it is #84 who is not one of the five players between 50 and 79 and that the QB was not 7 yards deep. This did not compute.

Can anyone explain it better?