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Air Raid!
The date was October 26, 1985 and the place was the great West Texas city of El Paso. I was ten years old and in the fifth grade, and like most El Pasoans was looking forward to the upcoming college basketball season. The UTEP (University of Texas at El Paso) Miners basketball team, coached by the legendary Don Haskins, was the pride and joy of the Sun City. They regularly ranked in the AP Top Twenty (as the rankings were then called) and were expected to not only compete for a Western Athletic Conference (WAC) championship every year, but to also go deep into the NCAA Tournament.
Expectations for UTEP Miners football, by contrast, were lower. Much lower. Gridiron-wise, UTEP was college football Siberia: a place where coaching careers went to die. Such was the fate that loomed over head coach Bill Yung during the fall of 1985. The Miners were 0-6 and the team they were slated to play on that last weekend of October was none other than the #7-ranked Cougars of Brigham Young University (BYU), the defending national champions. Everyone, and I mean everyone, was expecting a blowout. Coach Yung likely felt the same way, but not his young offensive coordinator, a native of San Antonio named Hal Mumme (pronounced “mummy”). For some time, Mumme had been studying BYU’s passing plays, in particular a play called the Y-cross, which the Cougars never expected to see used against them. But Mumme did, and that plus an inspired Miners defense resulted in a shocking upset over BYU, 23-16.
Alas, it was the only game UTEP would win that year. Bill Yung was fired in the offseason along with his entire coaching staff, including Mumme. But while Yung’s career had come to an inglorious end, Mumme’s was just beginning. For Mumme had an idea, an insane, crazy, revolutionary idea that would evolve in the coming years and, in time, revolutionize all of American football.
It is this story that S.C. Gwynne tells in The Perfect Pass: American Genius and the Reinvention of Football. Being a native Texan like Mumme, it was perhaps inevitable that a book with such a thought-provoking title would catch my eye. It did not only that, but held my interest from cover-to-cover. Gwynne does a superb job explaining the trials and tribulations of professional coaching to the reader whilst weaving a fascinating autobiography of Mumme’s idea.
What was Mumme’s idea? It was this: football should be a pass-first game. These days that is a relatively non-controversial statement, rather like saying one prefers Pepsi to Coke or Woodford Reserve to Maker’s Mark, but in the late 1980s and early 1990s it was near heresy. Throughout much of the professional and college football world, it was widely assumed that a strong running game was needed to open up the passing game, rather than vice-versa. And in some quarters there was a deep-seated belief that passing first was the mark of a finesse, effete team. No less a personage than Walter Camp, the “Father of American Football,” worried that the introduction of the forward pass in 1906 would “sissify the game.” Eight decades later, that bias still held. Mumme would change it.
Gwynne recounts how Mumme rebuilt his career. Following his dismissal from UTEP, Mumme returned to the high school coaching ranks, accepting a position as head coach at Copperas Cove High School where, over the next two years, he fused together lessons he had learned from such offensive coaching minds as LaVell Edwards (of the aforementioned BYU Cougars), Bill Walsh (of the Stanford Cardinal and the San Francisco 49ers), Darrel “Mouse” Davis (of the Portland State Vikings), and Don “Air” Coryell (of the San Diego Chargers). To their ideas Mumme added many of his own, including the use of a spread-out offensive line. His system was coming together.
After two years at Copperas Cove, Mumme returned to college coaching at an NAIA school called Iowa Wesleyan. Upon arriving at his new job, Mumme began putting together a new staff, and among the applications he received was one from a most unlikely candidate: 28 year-old law-school graduate-turned-football coach named Mike Leach. Every Obi-Wan Kenobi needs a Luke Skywalker, and Leach would fill the latter role admirably.
Leach had never played college football, but while a law student at Pepperdine University he became obsessed with the game. Rather than pursue a career as an attorney, after graduation Leach dove head-first into coaching, taking up positions at such places as the College of the Desert and even Finland. To say Leach was quirky was an understatement. In conversations with Mumme he was quick to go off on tangents about his own interests, which included surfing, Geronimo, and an almost insatiable affinity for pirates (which would lead to one of Leach’s many nicknames, the “Old Pirate”). Perhaps Mumme sensed in Leach a kindred spirit, for he quickly hired him and brought him to Iowa Wesleyan. Leach not only brought an unbridled enthusiasm for Mumme’s ideas, but also a name for the new system that he and Mumme would perfect: the Air Raid.
At Iowa Wesleyan, the Air Raid took off. Over three seasons from 1989 to 1991, the Tigers went from being perennial doormats to doughty contenders. After Mumme left Iowa Wesleyan following a dispute with the college’s president, he took Leach and the Air Raid to the NCAA Division II Valdosta State Blazers in southern Georgia, transforming them from a power-running contender into an Air Raid powerhouse. After the 1996 season the Southeastern Conference (SEC) came calling. The Kentucky Wildcats wanted Mumme to be their new head coach.
It was at Kentucky that Mumme reached the peak of his career. Just as they had done with Iowa Wesleyan and Valdosta State, Mumme and Leach infused the Wildcats with a potent offense, all the more remarkable considering that the SEC was the epitome of a power-running, smash-mouth defense league. Perhaps the greatest moment of Mumme’s career came during his first year at Kentucky, when the Wildcats played the visiting Alabama Crimson Tide, a team they had not defeated since 1922. Perhaps the Tide thought the Air Raid would prove weak and ineffective. They were wrong. The Wildcats won a thrilling victory in overtime, 40-34. The Air Raid had found a national stage.
Regrettably, Mumme’s success at Kentucky would not last. He was forced to resign in early 2001 amid recruiting violations by one of his assistants, infractions of which Mumme had no knowledge and of which was ultimately declared innocent. Beforehand, Mike Leach had already left to become the new offensive coordinator for the Oklahoma Sooners in 1999, and then head coach for the Texas Tech Red Raiders in 2000.
Mumme would never return to the career heights he enjoyed in the late 1990s, but his pass-first concepts caught on and spread like wildfire throughout the college and professional ranks. And major college programs are today headed by products of the Mumme/Leach coaching tree, among them Dana Holgorsen at West Virginia, Kliff Kingsbury at Texas Tech, and Lincoln Riley at Oklahoma. Leach himself is still in the game, coaching the Washington State Cougars since 2012.
Gwynne’s story is a compelling tale of how even the most radical concepts can come to fruition by grit, guts, and sheer force of will. It is a truly American story, harkening back to the improbable, seemingly insane deeds of such men as Stephen Decatur, George Patton, and Neil Armstrong. It stands as a lesson that success and greatness can come from the most obscure and unheralded of men, even a Mumme and an Old Pirate.
Published in Sports
And last night I stayed up and watched the NFL Thursday night game that had close to 900 yards passing, so this is well timed. Sounds like a good read. I will have to check it out.
You write good, Mike. I’m not even a sportler (as my mother would say), and you kept me interested to the end.
Congrats on the upgrade!
Great post Mike. I listened to the Around the NFL podcast today and at they end they talked about pro football in 2018 and how it is all about the pass. Those teams who still have the “run first or establish the run” offense are the worst teams.
Happy to see you as a Contributor.
You were ten in 1985? Dang. Wise beyond your years.
Makin’ me feel old, brother.
Mouse Davis would bring the pass-happy ‘run-and-shoot’ offense to Canadian Football League, and from there it would travel to the Houston Oilers with Warren Moon at QB (who ran Davis’ system in the CFL) by the end of the 1980s, with Kevin Gilbride as offensive coordinator (Jack Pardee was head coach, and played six-man high school football in Texas, where basketball-like scores with tons of passing were the norm, so it’s not a shock he’d be open to a similar type of style in 11-man football).
The problem with v1.0 of that type of offense was it eschewed the old-style ground game so much there was no way to run clock and protect a lead when the passing game faltered, and the result was one of the greatest collapses in NFL football history, when Houston blew a 31-3 lead in the third quarter and lost their 1993 playoff game at Buffalo in overtime, 41-38.. The Oilers were never the same after that, before moving to Nashville to become the Tennessee Titans (Gilbride famously got punched out by defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan on the sidelines the following season over the offense’s downward spiral, though he’d later use a much-modified air attack with a real running game to win two Super Bowls as offensive coordinator with the Giants).
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. In 1985 I was twice as old as Mike, but I’m not twice as old as him now so . . . he’s catching up.
It’s ironic that Mumme is a Texan because my recollection (perhaps faulty) is that, in the 60’s-early 90s, the SEC and Southwestern schools (some of whom now dominate college football) were the most wedded to the run, and essentially based their entire offenses on it. It wasn’t dull because there were some truly great backs (Earl Campbell, Billy Sims). But the Wishbone was the thing, and QB’s had to be able to run off the option (not necessarily pass). I seem to recall pass-first QB Troy Aikman going to Oklahoma (unusual) but then transferring to UCLA. Now OU has passing QB’s winning Heismans and Pat Mahomes from Texas Tech is lighting up the NFL.
Yes, Jared Goff was amazing last night with five touchdown passes. His mentor at Cal was Sonny Dykes, another product of the Mumme/Leach tree.
Thanks, Western Chauvinist!
Thanks! Yes, the run-first teams aren’t going anywhere these days. Among their ranks is the current UTEP Miners football team, which hasn’t won a game since November 26, 2016.
Ha! Well, having entered middle age, I’m seeing the wisdom of an old Chinese proverb: “The older the ginger, the hotter it is.”
Yes, I remember that Houston-Buffalo game well. I was a senior in high school then. Jack Pardee went from being the toast of the NFL to a goat in an instant.
Here’s a video of the Ryan-Gilbride punch-up:
https://youtu.be/irbGIDdSLVI
I’m doing all I can to prevent that from happening!
Mahomes’ success at Kansas City is great. I saw him play in person while he was at Tech and his abilities seem near-superhuman.
I was gonna say the same thing, Boss. Well the feeling old part, not sure about the wise part. 😉
Ooh. Me likee. You’ll have to excuse me now: I’m going to go introduce the lovely and talented Mrs. Mongo to Boss’ “Ginger Dance.”
Oh, that’s going way too far.
I dunno, if you’re a Texan talking about football (that is what we’re talking about, right? ;-) ), you better Go Big, or go home.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about the air raid is how it levels the field between teams stacked with talent and the little brothers of the world — Kentucky, Texas Tech, Washington State, etc. If you’re running a traditional offense, to have a successful play you must win all or most of 11 individual matchups. If you’re running the air raid, you have to win only any one of five.
Mike Leach is the coach of my alma mater’s in-state rival. Grudging respect.
How about Nathan Bedford Forrest then? New approaches and tactics developed in the hinterland which upended the playbook.
I well remember reading the weekly “Bottom 10” article from back in the early 80s (it’s still on ESPN.com). My Ducks, the Oregon State Beavers, Kansas and Kansas State and the University of Texas El Intercepted-Paso were mainstays. 30 some years later and some things never change – The Beavs, Jayhawks (though showing improvement), and UTEP are still regular attenders.
Thanx for the review – I’m in need of a new plane book…
That’s good!
Mike, what do you make of the Pats victory over the Dolphins. I’m a Browns fan, and can’t stand Bill Belichick. But that SOB can coach. He pummels Miami with a fullback set, and Brady under center for something like 36 of 40 snaps (I’m trying to remember the stats from the Around the NFL podcast)?
Whisky Tango Foxtrot?
BTW, as a Browns fan, looking forward to the Mayfield-Mahomes matchup in week 9. Didn’t they put up games against each other in college pushing 1500 yards of offense or something sick like that? Oh, sorry, 1708 yards. I don’t think we’ll see a fullback in that game.
Belichick sure knows how to put together a balanced offense. But yes, I can’t stand him, either. South Park had him dead-to-rights a decade ago:
The fullbacks will be riding the pine for that game, no doubt. Should be an Air Raid extravaganza!