The Perfect Pass: American Genius and the Reinvention of Football

Football is a very tradition-based sport that prides itself on violence and physical contact. Change does not come easy. It took the deaths of many players in the early days to kick start some initial change (such as the allowing of the forward pass.) However, it took oddballs to really bring the passing game forward. The "outsiders" would go on to heavily influence the game, yet not be able to glory in the rewards.

Hal Mumme had toiled the near-destitute life of a football coach. He had worked for high school and college programs. In the process he became enthralled by the passing offensive. He researched efforts by other programs, such as an Ohio high school, BYU and the San Francisco 49ers. These programs had opened up passing offenses. BYU in particular under Lavell Edwards had focussed on passing to compete with teams that had much greater talent levels. Mumme sucked in any knowledge he could get as he went on to develop his offense.

He helped Copperas Cove high school in Texas to get out of the cellar and even defeat rival Temple. From there he got a college coaching job at small school Iowa Wesleyan. He built up the team nearly from scratch, recruiting people from all over. He also hired quirky Mike Leach to help run his offense. Together they had a great deal of success. In fact is was too much, and the university decided it was time to move on. He went on to a college in Georgia before being hired at Kentucky. There he helped fill the stands with his pass-happy offense before being chased out. Since then, he has toiled in relatively minor coaching rolls. Leach has managed to carry on better with positions at Texas Tech, Washington State and Mississippi State. However, he was chased out of Texas Tech, despite being one of the winningest coaches.

Mumme's innovation was the "air raid" spread offense. This was a fast moving, pass-first offense offense. The playbook was kept very simple. Players had the ability to quickly read the defense and adjust accordingly. This made it appear very complex to the defense despite being relatively simple for his players. He was also able to give his players many more reps practicing the plays due to the simplicity. He also had a "lighter touch" to practice. He didn't want players to get injured with heavy contact. The plays focussed on short, high probability passes. Despite throwing more, his quarterbacks had much higher completion rates. He utilized the entire width of field to space things out. The offense is extremely difficult to defend.

The old guard of football criticized Mumme's offense as being gimmicky. However, it has since gone mainstream in all levels of football.