Air raid offense

In American football the air raid offense refers to an offensive scheme popularized by such coaches as Mike Leach, Hal Mumme, Sonny Dykes, and Tony Franklin during their tenures at Valdosta State, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Louisiana Tech, and Washington State.

The system is designed out of a shotgun formation with four wide receivers and one running back. The formations are a variation of the run and shoot offense with two outside receivers and two inside slot receivers. The offense also uses trips formations featuring three wide receivers on one side of the field and a lone single receiver on the other side.

History

The offense owes a lot to the influence of BYU head coach LaVell Edwards who used the splits and several key passing concepts during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s while coaching players such as Jim McMahon, Steve Young, Robbie Bosco, and Ty Detmer. Mike Leach has made reference that he and Hal Mumme largely incorporated much of the BYU passing attack into what is now known as the Air Raid offense. Some of the concepts such as the Shallow Cross route have been incorporated into such offenses as the West Coast offense during the early 1990s as well, prominently under Mike Shanahan while he was the head coach of the Denver Broncos.

The offense first made its appearance when Mumme & Leach took over at Iowa Wesleyan College and Valdosta State University and had success there during the late 1980s and early 1990s. The first exposure into NCAA Division I-A (now FBS) was at the University of Kentucky starting in 1997. There, Mumme and Leach helped turned highly touted QB Tim Couch into a star and later a #1 overall NFL draft pick. Leach would then serve as offensive coordinator at the University of Oklahoma in 1999 before landing the head coaching job at Texas Tech. Shortly into the early 2000s, assistant coaches started landing head coaching jobs such as Chris Hatcher at Valdosta State, Art Briles (first at Houston then Baylor), Sonny Dykes (first at Louisiana Tech, then at California), Ruffin McNeill at East Carolina, Dana Holgorsen at West Virginia, and Kevin Sumlin (first at Houston, then Texas A&M). Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury (Mike Leach's first quarterback at Texas Tech) runs the offense as well.

Air Raid System

The Scheme is notable for being very pass centric with as many as 65-75% of the calls during a season being a pass play. A large reason is due to the control that is placed on the QB who has the freedom to audible to any play based on what the defense is showing him at the line of scrimmage. In at least one instance, as a result of the QB's ability to audible, as many as 90%[1] of the run plays called in a season were audibled to at the line of scrimmage.

Another factor in this offense is the inclusion of the no huddle. The QB and the offense race up to the line of scrimmage, diagnose what the defense is showing, and then snap the ball based on the QB's play call. This not only allows a team to come back if they are down a lot as seen in the 2006 Insight Bowl[2] but it also allows them to tire out the defense and allow for bigger runs and bigger pass completions. The fast pace limits the defense's ability to substitute players and adjust their scheme. The hurried pace can cause defensive mental mistakes such as missed assignments or being out of position.

One important aspect is the split of the offensive linemen. Normally they are bunched together but in this offense, they are often split apart about a half to a full yard from another. While this allows easier blitz lanes in theory, it forces the defensive ends and defensive tackles to have to run further to reach the quarterback for a sack. The quick, short passes are then able to offset any Blitz that may come. Another advantage is that by forcing the defensive line to widen, it opens up more wide open passing lanes for the QB to throw the ball through without fear of having their pass knocked down or intercepted.

Coaches

Teams Running the Air Raid System

References

  1. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/04/magazine/04coach.html?pagewanted=print&_r=0
  2. ↑ http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/11664416.html?refer=y
  3. ↑ http://espn.go.com/dallas/college-football/story/_/id/9074615/hal-mumme-joins-smu-mustangs-staff
  4. ↑ http://www.vstateblazers.com/custompages/PDFs/Football/2014/2014%20FB%20Record%20Book.pdf

External links

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