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The Perfect Pass: American Genius and the Reinvention of Football
A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Year
In the tradition of Michael Lewis’s Moneyball , award-winning historian S.C. Gwynne tells the incredible story of how two unknown coaches revolutionized American football at every level, from high school to the NFL.
Hal Mumme is one of a handful of authentic offensive geniuses in the history of American football. The Perfect Pass is the story of how he irreverently destroyed and re-created the game.
Mumme spent fourteen mostly losing seasons coaching football before inventing a potent passing offense that would soon shock players, delight fans, and terrify opposing coaches. The revolution he fomented began at a tiny, overlooked college called Iowa Wesleyan, where Mumme was head coach and Mike Leach, a lawyer who had never played college football, was hired as his offensive line coach. In the cornfields of Iowa, while scribbling plays on paper napkins, these two mad inventors, drawn together by a shared disregard for conventionalism and a love for Jimmy Buffett, began to engineer the purest, most extreme passing game in the 145-year history of football. Implementing their “Air Raid” offense, their teams—at Iowa Wesleyan and later at Valdosta State and the University of Kentucky—played blazingly fast—faster than any team ever had before, and they routinely beat teams with far more talented athletes. And Mumme and Leach did it all without even a playbook. Their quarterback once completed sixty-one of eighty-six passes, both collegiate records.
In The Perfect Pass , S.C. Gwynne explores Mumme’s leading role in changing football from a run-dominated sport to a pass-dominated one, the game that tens of millions of Americans now watch every fall weekend. Whether you’re a casual or ravenous football fan, this is a truly compelling story of American ingenuity and how a set of revolutionary ideas made their way from the margins into the hot center of the game we celebrate today.
In the tradition of Michael Lewis’s Moneyball , award-winning historian S.C. Gwynne tells the incredible story of how two unknown coaches revolutionized American football at every level, from high school to the NFL.
Hal Mumme is one of a handful of authentic offensive geniuses in the history of American football. The Perfect Pass is the story of how he irreverently destroyed and re-created the game.
Mumme spent fourteen mostly losing seasons coaching football before inventing a potent passing offense that would soon shock players, delight fans, and terrify opposing coaches. The revolution he fomented began at a tiny, overlooked college called Iowa Wesleyan, where Mumme was head coach and Mike Leach, a lawyer who had never played college football, was hired as his offensive line coach. In the cornfields of Iowa, while scribbling plays on paper napkins, these two mad inventors, drawn together by a shared disregard for conventionalism and a love for Jimmy Buffett, began to engineer the purest, most extreme passing game in the 145-year history of football. Implementing their “Air Raid” offense, their teams—at Iowa Wesleyan and later at Valdosta State and the University of Kentucky—played blazingly fast—faster than any team ever had before, and they routinely beat teams with far more talented athletes. And Mumme and Leach did it all without even a playbook. Their quarterback once completed sixty-one of eighty-six passes, both collegiate records.
In The Perfect Pass , S.C. Gwynne explores Mumme’s leading role in changing football from a run-dominated sport to a pass-dominated one, the game that tens of millions of Americans now watch every fall weekend. Whether you’re a casual or ravenous football fan, this is a truly compelling story of American ingenuity and how a set of revolutionary ideas made their way from the margins into the hot center of the game we celebrate today.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2016
About the author
S.C. Gwynne
10 books657 followersS.C. “Sam” Gwynne is the author of two acclaimed books on American history: Empire of the Summer Moon, which spent 82 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award and won the Texas and Oklahoma book prizes; and Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson, which was published in September 2014. It was also a New York Times Bestseller and was named a finalist for both the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pen Literary Award for Biography. His book The Perfect Pass: American Genius and the Reinvention of Football, was published in September 2016, and was named to a number of “top ten” sports book lists.
Sam has written extensively for Texas Monthly, where he was Executive Editor from 2000-2008. His work included cover stories on White House advisor Karl Rove, NASA, the King Ranch, football player Johnny Manziel, and Southwest Airlines. His 2005 story on lethal Houston surgeon Eric Scheffey was published in “The Best American Crime Writing, 2006” by Harper Perennial Press. In 2008 he won the National City and Regional Magazine Award for “Writer of the Year.” He also writes for Outside magazine. His articles include a 2011 story about running the remote Pecos River in Texas, a 2012 piece about Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific, where the Americans tested atomic weapons, and a 2017 profile of disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong.
Prior to joining Texas Monthly, Sam worked for Time Magazine as Correspondent, Bureau Chief, National Correspondent and Senior Editor. He traveled throughout the United States and to England, Austria, France, Belgium, Spain, and Russia to report stories for Time. He won a number of awards for his Time work, including a National Headliners Award for his work on the Columbine High School shootings. He also won the Gerald Loeb Award, the country’s most prestigious award for business writing, the Jack Anderson Award as the best investigative reporter, and the John Hancock Award for Distinguished Financial Writing. He has also written for the New York Times, Harper’s, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, California Magazine, Boston Globe, Dallas Morning News, and other publications.
Earlier books were Selling Money, about Sam’s adventures in the international loan trade, and The Outlaw Bank, about the global fraud at Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI).
Before his career in journalism, Sam was a French teacher and an international banker.
Sam has a bachelor’s degree in history from Princeton University and a master’s degree in writing from Johns Hopkins University, where he studied under the acclaimed novelist John Barth. He lives in Austin, Texas with his wife, the artist Katie Maratta.
From: https://scgwynne.com/author
Sam has written extensively for Texas Monthly, where he was Executive Editor from 2000-2008. His work included cover stories on White House advisor Karl Rove, NASA, the King Ranch, football player Johnny Manziel, and Southwest Airlines. His 2005 story on lethal Houston surgeon Eric Scheffey was published in “The Best American Crime Writing, 2006” by Harper Perennial Press. In 2008 he won the National City and Regional Magazine Award for “Writer of the Year.” He also writes for Outside magazine. His articles include a 2011 story about running the remote Pecos River in Texas, a 2012 piece about Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific, where the Americans tested atomic weapons, and a 2017 profile of disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong.
Prior to joining Texas Monthly, Sam worked for Time Magazine as Correspondent, Bureau Chief, National Correspondent and Senior Editor. He traveled throughout the United States and to England, Austria, France, Belgium, Spain, and Russia to report stories for Time. He won a number of awards for his Time work, including a National Headliners Award for his work on the Columbine High School shootings. He also won the Gerald Loeb Award, the country’s most prestigious award for business writing, the Jack Anderson Award as the best investigative reporter, and the John Hancock Award for Distinguished Financial Writing. He has also written for the New York Times, Harper’s, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, California Magazine, Boston Globe, Dallas Morning News, and other publications.
Earlier books were Selling Money, about Sam’s adventures in the international loan trade, and The Outlaw Bank, about the global fraud at Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI).
Before his career in journalism, Sam was a French teacher and an international banker.
Sam has a bachelor’s degree in history from Princeton University and a master’s degree in writing from Johns Hopkins University, where he studied under the acclaimed novelist John Barth. He lives in Austin, Texas with his wife, the artist Katie Maratta.
From: https://scgwynne.com/author
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 164 reviews
December 6, 2016
This book is so obviously influenced by Michael Lewis that it could have been annoying. But Gwynne is amazingly convincing in plucking a name out of obscurity and pronouncing him responsible for modern, pass-happy game of (American) football: and it isn't the late Bill Walsh. Rather, this is a bio of a high school and college coach named Hal Mumme, whose motto "Play the Next Play" is both a name for the hurry-up and a metaphor for optimism.
Mumme (rhymes with mummy) never became a big-time coach, save for a few years at Kentucky. But the charm of this book is reading about him bouncing between crappy jobs, coaching crappy teams, and turning 50-75 kids not only into winners, but men. Were it not for the fact that I was working all weekend, I would have inhaled "The Perfect Pass" in a single sitting.
ADDED 5 December:
Review in The Weekly Standard:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/running...
Mumme (rhymes with mummy) never became a big-time coach, save for a few years at Kentucky. But the charm of this book is reading about him bouncing between crappy jobs, coaching crappy teams, and turning 50-75 kids not only into winners, but men. Were it not for the fact that I was working all weekend, I would have inhaled "The Perfect Pass" in a single sitting.
ADDED 5 December:
Review in The Weekly Standard:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/running...
December 3, 2016
A fun history of the career of somewhat obscure football coach Hal Mumme, the principal innovator of the Air Raid offense that has transformed football at every level. The book follows Hal Mumme through his peripatetic career from Iowa Wesleyan to Kentucky and then back down the ladder swiftly.
Gwynne does an excellent job of interweaving football strategy (complete with graphic diagrams of key plays) with better character development than I would expect to find in a football book.
Gwynne does an excellent job of interweaving football strategy (complete with graphic diagrams of key plays) with better character development than I would expect to find in a football book.
June 27, 2020
Would have rated it 3 stars for the football history lesson. Adding a 4th star due to the Mouse Davis references.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouse_D...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouse_D...
October 1, 2016
I very interesting story about a influential football coach and thinker Hal Mumme. And there are two threads in the book: one focused on Mumme's coaching career through high school and obscure colleges before a brief stint at Kentucky in the SEC; and another focused on the development of his famous Air Raid offense. Both are fascinating. The brutal reality of trying to climb the ranks of college football coaching is illustrated by Mumme's career. The incredible pressure to produce wins by recruiting and coaching young me far from the bright lights and full scholarships of big time college football. Interestingly, at least twice Hal was forced out after growing the football program at a small school a little too much. Some schools wanted the recruitment benefits that can come from having a winning football team but got nervous when Hal looked to take it to the next level. And tragically, once he made it to big time football, and big time money, at Kentucky he was soon forced out by an aggressive athletic director and a recruiter who broke the rules. Hal was back to jumping from small school to rebuilding program. And he continues in that world today.
The other aspect is the story of how Hal helped lead a revolution in football from a smash mouth run oriented game to one where passing was an integral if not dominant focus. The book covers the history of this change, the key players, and the Xs and Os involved. It portrays how Mumme's offense developed into the Air Raid offense that broke records across divisions and leagues in both pro and college football. You will need to be a serious fan of football to really enjoy this aspect. But if you are a fan of the game you will find this fascinating.
If I had a complaint, it would be that the book can have an over-the-top aspect. The author is making the case that Mumme is an unknown genius and that his impact on the game is vastly underrated. But at times it just felt he was pushing a little too hard and the hyperbole felt odd. the conservative and change resistant nature of football is constantly castigated and presented as the foil for Mumme.
To be fair, Mumme is probably tragically unappreciated by the average football fan and the history of how pass first offense, and its offshoots, is not well know. Gwynne just seems like more of an advocate than a historian at times.
Fans of football and its history will enjoy reading about how Mumme overcame the odds and had a huge impact on the game they love.
The other aspect is the story of how Hal helped lead a revolution in football from a smash mouth run oriented game to one where passing was an integral if not dominant focus. The book covers the history of this change, the key players, and the Xs and Os involved. It portrays how Mumme's offense developed into the Air Raid offense that broke records across divisions and leagues in both pro and college football. You will need to be a serious fan of football to really enjoy this aspect. But if you are a fan of the game you will find this fascinating.
If I had a complaint, it would be that the book can have an over-the-top aspect. The author is making the case that Mumme is an unknown genius and that his impact on the game is vastly underrated. But at times it just felt he was pushing a little too hard and the hyperbole felt odd. the conservative and change resistant nature of football is constantly castigated and presented as the foil for Mumme.
To be fair, Mumme is probably tragically unappreciated by the average football fan and the history of how pass first offense, and its offshoots, is not well know. Gwynne just seems like more of an advocate than a historian at times.
Fans of football and its history will enjoy reading about how Mumme overcame the odds and had a huge impact on the game they love.
October 17, 2016
(4.5) Probably doesn't make a lot of sense to start a football book review by discussing a baseball one but what made Moneyball so great (and what makes this one so damn good) is NOT the talk about how Billy Beane was a genius among fools, rather it was how the underfunded, understaffed Athletics exploited a badly inequitable system for gain. Beane saw abilities that were underutilized in players and he pounced because Oakland did not have the money to compete with the big boys.
This book gets that spirit. It's not a hagiography on Hal Mumme or a tale about how he is so much smarter than his coaching contemporaries. It's how he was willing to take risks and build a system that would allow teams with less talent and few resources to compete where they had no business. Along the way, the reader learns a good lesson about the evolution of the forward pass and how football offenses aren't always as complex as they are made out to be.
But more than anything, as a sports fan, I enjoy reading about people who fight the Old Man Logic of "This is how it's always been done." Hal Mumme did that his whole career and S.C. Gwynne recounts how in a way that is entertaining and enlightening. Without a doubt, one of the best football books I've ever read and maybe a top 10 sports book for me as well. If you like football, particularly football strategy, you owe it to yourself to check this out.
This book gets that spirit. It's not a hagiography on Hal Mumme or a tale about how he is so much smarter than his coaching contemporaries. It's how he was willing to take risks and build a system that would allow teams with less talent and few resources to compete where they had no business. Along the way, the reader learns a good lesson about the evolution of the forward pass and how football offenses aren't always as complex as they are made out to be.
But more than anything, as a sports fan, I enjoy reading about people who fight the Old Man Logic of "This is how it's always been done." Hal Mumme did that his whole career and S.C. Gwynne recounts how in a way that is entertaining and enlightening. Without a doubt, one of the best football books I've ever read and maybe a top 10 sports book for me as well. If you like football, particularly football strategy, you owe it to yourself to check this out.
April 8, 2021
I really liked this book, but only for the football nut.
This book recounts the creation/evolution of the pass first offenses we see today which slowly and sometimes painfully evolved from 50’s to today.
Recounting the great innovators (and I’ll miss a bunch) but Mouse Davis, Lavell Edwards at BYU, Bill Walsh and his West Coast offense. But mainly focuses on Hal Mumme, on his start as a small college assistant, high school coach who soaked up knowledge anywhere and everywhere he could get it. To me that was the fascinating piece is how these coaches collaborated, stole, borrowed from each other to build a better mousetrap and totally change the whole paradigm of offense and football strategy. From West Coast, to Run and Shoot, to Air Raid.
Mumme then adds a young college grad, Mike Leach... just fascinating to see these men tinker, and tweak their strategy and plays to become eventually the Air Raid offense at Valdosta college.
Amazing changes, from Spreading the field, larger gaps for OL, simpler and fewer plays, capitalizing on/ exploiting space, using no huddle, allowing players to alter routes on the fly based on defense... all new concepts and all very effective. Also interesting to see the pushback of old school coaches that wanted nothing to do with it.
Very interesting read if you are a football fan.
This book recounts the creation/evolution of the pass first offenses we see today which slowly and sometimes painfully evolved from 50’s to today.
Recounting the great innovators (and I’ll miss a bunch) but Mouse Davis, Lavell Edwards at BYU, Bill Walsh and his West Coast offense. But mainly focuses on Hal Mumme, on his start as a small college assistant, high school coach who soaked up knowledge anywhere and everywhere he could get it. To me that was the fascinating piece is how these coaches collaborated, stole, borrowed from each other to build a better mousetrap and totally change the whole paradigm of offense and football strategy. From West Coast, to Run and Shoot, to Air Raid.
Mumme then adds a young college grad, Mike Leach... just fascinating to see these men tinker, and tweak their strategy and plays to become eventually the Air Raid offense at Valdosta college.
Amazing changes, from Spreading the field, larger gaps for OL, simpler and fewer plays, capitalizing on/ exploiting space, using no huddle, allowing players to alter routes on the fly based on defense... all new concepts and all very effective. Also interesting to see the pushback of old school coaches that wanted nothing to do with it.
Very interesting read if you are a football fan.
October 31, 2017
Somehow a book about football, and more specifically, the forward pass, was a total pageturner. I didn't want to put this down. It was a book-length version of "this New Yorker article looks somewhat interesting, I'll start it and see what happens... oh... look at that, I read the entire thing."
While it might be too sportsing for the non-sportsy reader, it's got enough explanation of the sportsball to help anyone (like me) who somehow picks this up and realizes they want to read the story but don't really care about Y-sticks and X-Men, and just want to follow the main narrative of the outsider with the big idea who does his own thing while everyone thinks he's crazy. So, in that sense, it isn't really about football, but about something larger. Like how change comes slowly to American institutions.
While it might be too sportsing for the non-sportsy reader, it's got enough explanation of the sportsball to help anyone (like me) who somehow picks this up and realizes they want to read the story but don't really care about Y-sticks and X-Men, and just want to follow the main narrative of the outsider with the big idea who does his own thing while everyone thinks he's crazy. So, in that sense, it isn't really about football, but about something larger. Like how change comes slowly to American institutions.
October 29, 2017
Finally a book about football that is as well written as a book about baseball, almost. Sam Gwynne tells the story of the mostly anonymous man behind the biggest revolution in football, the evolution of the forward pass. This is an entertaining, well-told tale with a narrative of rags to richest to rags again that would not be believed if it were fiction. The man at the center of the story is Hal Mummy, a small time college football staffer who had dreams of creating a pass first offense. Gwynne sets up the story by emphasizing how run-centric college and pro football were throughout most of the sports history despite several examples of the pass's effectiveness. Then he chronicles how Mummy made his way to several tiny failing colleges with the dream of creating an unstoppable, high scoring, pass first, lightening quick offense. He goes from the worst, small college team in America to Division 1, to defeating Alabama and back again. It is almost too much to believe and very entertaining.
June 18, 2017
I picked this up because I saw it on the new non-fiction shelf at my local public library and it sounded like a fun change of pace from some of the heavier history I had been reading lately (and it was). "Perfect Pass" is the story of Hal Mumme, Mike Leach, and the Air Raid offense of college and high school football. Mumme and right-hand-man Leach developed the offense in podunk Iowa Wesleyan and little known Valdosta State before breaking out with bigger name schools like Kentucky Wildcats, Oklahoma State, and Texas Tech. Air Raid is credited with influencing modern Blur offenses (Chip Kelly, et al) and pass-wacky spread offenses, although I think the book is reasonably honest about football tactics do not develop in a straight line and there are other influences out there (Air Raid itself is admittedly in no small part a synthesis of other ideas).
Gynne is a journalist with several previous books under his belt. His writing is as brisk and fun as would be expected. This is a quick and very enjoyable read that mixes colorful characters, obscure events and locations, encounters with famous football figures, and an understandable explanation of football strategy and tactics and their evolution.
There are a few repetitive spots and once a famous upset occurs the subsequent two decades are basically crammed into the epilogue as a big afterthought. My main issue is that this book drops the ball (pun intended) by having offensive tunnel vision. It's all about offenses putting up crazy stats, often with unimpressive on-field talent and how opposing defenses struggle against that offense. The result is failing to tackle (again, pun intended) the major criticisms of Air Raid (and Run-n-Shoot, et al): their struggles at the goal line and in trying to bleed the clock, and most of all on the team's own defense (particularly by running so fast they fail to give their own defense time to rest). Why did Mumme's teams frequently fielding porous defenses and find themselves in shootouts?
Highly recommended to my fellow football fans.
Gynne is a journalist with several previous books under his belt. His writing is as brisk and fun as would be expected. This is a quick and very enjoyable read that mixes colorful characters, obscure events and locations, encounters with famous football figures, and an understandable explanation of football strategy and tactics and their evolution.
There are a few repetitive spots and once a famous upset occurs the subsequent two decades are basically crammed into the epilogue as a big afterthought. My main issue is that this book drops the ball (pun intended) by having offensive tunnel vision. It's all about offenses putting up crazy stats, often with unimpressive on-field talent and how opposing defenses struggle against that offense. The result is failing to tackle (again, pun intended) the major criticisms of Air Raid (and Run-n-Shoot, et al): their struggles at the goal line and in trying to bleed the clock, and most of all on the team's own defense (particularly by running so fast they fail to give their own defense time to rest). Why did Mumme's teams frequently fielding porous defenses and find themselves in shootouts?
Highly recommended to my fellow football fans.
February 14, 2017
If you thought this was a sports book, you'd be correct. But then you'd be missing the complete story. Here, Mr. Gwynn reminds us that the world is ever changing, and that innovation is not just important, but actually necessary to continue to be relevant.
I'm a little surprised to have just finished two books from the same author on two such disparate subjects as Stonewall Jackson and Football's forward pass, until I realized that they both talked to innovation. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson propelled the Confederacy to win after win because he chose the innovative path. Had he not been killed, the end of the Civil War might have turned out differently. So might the popularity of Professional and Collegiate football have been different without people like Hal Munne.
I'm a little surprised to have just finished two books from the same author on two such disparate subjects as Stonewall Jackson and Football's forward pass, until I realized that they both talked to innovation. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson propelled the Confederacy to win after win because he chose the innovative path. Had he not been killed, the end of the Civil War might have turned out differently. So might the popularity of Professional and Collegiate football have been different without people like Hal Munne.
October 23, 2016
A must read for football fans! The biggest flaw is that the author stops the detail when the story could have been better (Kentucky years and Leach's Tech years).
December 17, 2016
Very fast read, didn't understand a lot of the plays he outlined here but that is fine. Makes me want to yell at NFL games more. You're all dumb! and overpaid!
January 24, 2017
I doubled my knowledge of football by reading this book. I am not usually a sports reader, but this was a quick read with lots of interesting anecdotes and people.
September 21, 2016
Play the next play...
This is the story of how a college coach, Hal Mumme, developed an “unstoppable” offense that would defeat even the biggest, strongest defenses; and of how that offense gradually spread throughout college football and into the professional leagues, changing the very nature of the game – the Air Raid offense.
Sometimes you just have to take the things life throws at you and run with them. When SC Gwynne won my Book of the Year award in 2014 for Rebel Yell, his brilliant biography of Stonewall Jackson, I gave him the usual prize – my promise to read his next book. Of course, I was assuming it would be another biography of a historical soldier or politician. Imagine my... delight when it turned out to be a book about a passing offense in American football! In my life I have watched one full game and a bit of another, and frankly thought it wasa jolly silly game a game one has to have grown up with to fully appreciate. So the question was not so much whether I'd like this book as whether I'd even understand it!
Gwynne starts with a great description of Texas Tech putting the Air Raid offense into action in 2008. He then whisks us back in time to meet Hal Mumme at the beginning of his coaching career. He shows the uncertainty of life as a college coach in a nation obsessed with the game – a hero when leading his team to victory, but abused and reviled if they lose. Hal had always wanted to coach, despite the low pay and precariousness of the profession. His big idea was that he was going to make throwing the ball the centre of the game.
To explain why this idea was so radical, Gwynne gives a potted history of the rise of football. He shows it as arising out of a nostalgia for war – an opportunity for men to hone their manly aggression in peacetime. Therefore it was all about brute force in “the pile” in the middle of the field – meat on meat, as it was charmingly summed up. The more broken bones, busted skulls and fatal injuries the better – a real man's game! Forward passing was initially prohibited, but when reformers began demanding that the game be made less dangerous, it was eventually legalised. However, it was rarely used, since in this beefy culture it was seen as “feminising” the game. In short, passing was for sissies. Games were all about bulldozing the opposition, and as a result were usually low-scoring and rather dull to watch. This chapter is so well-told and very funny in places, especially over the “manliness” aspects of it all.
Hal was convinced though that passing could be made to work, especially for teams without the brute power to win against bigger opponents using traditional plays. The bulk of the book is taken up with Hal's long road to development of the Air Raid, learning from other coaches who used passing plays in their games, trying out new things with the various teams he worked with and, with his long-time coaching partner Mike Leach, gradually refining his system so that even fairly mediocre players could be taught it. It wasn't just on the field that he changed things. Again the culture was to make the players prove their toughness in full contact training, often being injured before they even got to play, or being worked so hard in training sessions they would be on or past the point of collapse. Hal had his players do shorter sessions, focussed on passing rather than tackling, developing precision in throwing and tactics rather than beating each other to a pulp. His idea, which doesn't sound as though it should have been revolutionary but apparently was, was that football should be fun!
And gradually, the no-hoper teams he initially worked with began to win games, and to win them spectacularly with huge scores. And dismissive traditionalist crowds began to see that the passing game was exciting (especially the fans of the winning teams – the losing fans perhaps weren't quite so enthused). Slowly other coaches started to use Hal's techniques until eventually passing became an accepted part of the game. Hal's own career remained chequered and he never made it into the professional divisions, but his ideas did, and the final version of all his work, the Air Raid offense, has been used and adapted by the top teams.
This isn't a hugely long book, but even so I've only given a flavour of it. Gwynne's writing brings the sport to life and he explains all the various plays clearly enough that even I felt I understood them. There are lots of diagrams to show the various offensive formations and how they're designed to bamboozle the opposition defenses. Through it all, Gwynne's respect for and warmth towards the game, its coaches and players, shines through, and the occasional humour and great descriptions of the games make the book entertaining as well as informative. A surprise hit for me, proving that a great writer can make almost any subject fascinating. I may even watch a few more games now...
(Since the game is American, I've gone along with thewrong American spellings of offence and defence throughout... ;) )
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Scribner.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
This is the story of how a college coach, Hal Mumme, developed an “unstoppable” offense that would defeat even the biggest, strongest defenses; and of how that offense gradually spread throughout college football and into the professional leagues, changing the very nature of the game – the Air Raid offense.
Sometimes you just have to take the things life throws at you and run with them. When SC Gwynne won my Book of the Year award in 2014 for Rebel Yell, his brilliant biography of Stonewall Jackson, I gave him the usual prize – my promise to read his next book. Of course, I was assuming it would be another biography of a historical soldier or politician. Imagine my... delight when it turned out to be a book about a passing offense in American football! In my life I have watched one full game and a bit of another, and frankly thought it was
Gwynne starts with a great description of Texas Tech putting the Air Raid offense into action in 2008. He then whisks us back in time to meet Hal Mumme at the beginning of his coaching career. He shows the uncertainty of life as a college coach in a nation obsessed with the game – a hero when leading his team to victory, but abused and reviled if they lose. Hal had always wanted to coach, despite the low pay and precariousness of the profession. His big idea was that he was going to make throwing the ball the centre of the game.
To explain why this idea was so radical, Gwynne gives a potted history of the rise of football. He shows it as arising out of a nostalgia for war – an opportunity for men to hone their manly aggression in peacetime. Therefore it was all about brute force in “the pile” in the middle of the field – meat on meat, as it was charmingly summed up. The more broken bones, busted skulls and fatal injuries the better – a real man's game! Forward passing was initially prohibited, but when reformers began demanding that the game be made less dangerous, it was eventually legalised. However, it was rarely used, since in this beefy culture it was seen as “feminising” the game. In short, passing was for sissies. Games were all about bulldozing the opposition, and as a result were usually low-scoring and rather dull to watch. This chapter is so well-told and very funny in places, especially over the “manliness” aspects of it all.
Though the passing technology was more than half a century old, there was still something morally thrilling about watching the quarterback toss the ball to the tailback, while the guard or tackle pulled and the fullback crashed down on the defensive end and the whole team seemed to move en masse in that swinging, lovely rightward arc of pure power followed by the popping sounds of all those helmets and pads and the scream of the crowd as the whole thing disintegrated into a mass of bodies on the turf.
Hal was convinced though that passing could be made to work, especially for teams without the brute power to win against bigger opponents using traditional plays. The bulk of the book is taken up with Hal's long road to development of the Air Raid, learning from other coaches who used passing plays in their games, trying out new things with the various teams he worked with and, with his long-time coaching partner Mike Leach, gradually refining his system so that even fairly mediocre players could be taught it. It wasn't just on the field that he changed things. Again the culture was to make the players prove their toughness in full contact training, often being injured before they even got to play, or being worked so hard in training sessions they would be on or past the point of collapse. Hal had his players do shorter sessions, focussed on passing rather than tackling, developing precision in throwing and tactics rather than beating each other to a pulp. His idea, which doesn't sound as though it should have been revolutionary but apparently was, was that football should be fun!
And gradually, the no-hoper teams he initially worked with began to win games, and to win them spectacularly with huge scores. And dismissive traditionalist crowds began to see that the passing game was exciting (especially the fans of the winning teams – the losing fans perhaps weren't quite so enthused). Slowly other coaches started to use Hal's techniques until eventually passing became an accepted part of the game. Hal's own career remained chequered and he never made it into the professional divisions, but his ideas did, and the final version of all his work, the Air Raid offense, has been used and adapted by the top teams.
One of Hal's favourite sayings was, Play the next play. The words were a combination pep talk and theory of life, perfectly aligned with his coaching philosophy. The gist was, life, like football, is a headlong dive into the future. There is no past, at least not one you should worry too much about. If you lose, let it go. Don't panic. If you win, don't be too satisfied. Play the next play.
This isn't a hugely long book, but even so I've only given a flavour of it. Gwynne's writing brings the sport to life and he explains all the various plays clearly enough that even I felt I understood them. There are lots of diagrams to show the various offensive formations and how they're designed to bamboozle the opposition defenses. Through it all, Gwynne's respect for and warmth towards the game, its coaches and players, shines through, and the occasional humour and great descriptions of the games make the book entertaining as well as informative. A surprise hit for me, proving that a great writer can make almost any subject fascinating. I may even watch a few more games now...
(Since the game is American, I've gone along with the
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Scribner.
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November 14, 2017This is an examination of how passing the football has taken over from the run in American football. Author Gwynne shows how it happened by focussing on little known college coach Hal Mumme who took small schools Iowa Wesleyan and Valdosta State College (Georgia) to unexpected heights of success by throwing the football up to 70% of the time. Gwynne details the history of offensive tactics back to football's earliest days noting the persistent bias against throwing-in favour of running- a bias that is now gone forever thanks at least in part to coach Mumme. This is a great read for any football fan but as a defense guy I read it wistfully and couldn't help but notice how most of the great offensive pass throwing machines talked about in here- BYU, University of Houston, San Diego Chargers of the 70s, Miami Dolphins and Mumme's teams as well- played terrible defense. Is it not possible to excel on both sides of the ball?
February 12, 2018
I enjoyed the novel. I will be moving away from sport stories and this was my last.
March 17, 2022
A fascinating and informative narrative on the origins of the Air Raid offense and the men who molded it. Appealing to both the football fan and the fan of American entrepreneurialism.
January 26, 2023
Great storytelling of Hal Mumme's career and in depth analysis of how the air raid offense came to be.
RIP Mike Leach
RIP Mike Leach
May 31, 2017
The Football Genius: Earlier this year, the Atlanta Falcons, an NFL franchise that has only been to the Super Bowl once (a defeat to the Denver Broncos), routed the Green Bay Packers in the final football game to be played in the Georgia Dome. The Packers were coming off an impressive 'come from behind' victory over the favored Dallas Cowboys in Texas Stadium (affectionately known as "Jerry's World”) the week before. Led by their Hall of Fame bound Quarterback Aaron Rogers, the Packers dismantled a Cowboy team that had amassed the league’s best regular season record behind brilliant play of two rookies, including their Quarterback, Dak Prescott and a superb offensive line. The Falcons dismemberment of the Packers was a textbook example of two principals of football, one widely recognized and one still up for some debate. "Offense wins games but Defenses win championships" is a saying as old as the modern game and one the Falcons demonstrated definitively -- shutting down the future Hall of Famer until late in the 3d Quarter, when the game was no longer in doubt. However, in the still lingering argument over the type of offense still required, the Falcons and their Quarterback, Matt Ryan, put on a demonstration of the "Air Raid" offense that SC Gwynn explores in his most recent book.
SC Gwynn, a writer for Texas Monthly and author of entertaining works such as Empire of the Summer Moon, takes us on an intriguing trip into the culture of football by way of exploring the origin and development of the "Air Raid" Offense. Following the path of an itinerant Texas High School Football Coach, Hal Mumme and his partner in crime, Mike Leach, SC Gwynn explores the development of one of the several pass-oriented offenses that has come to dominate the way the game of football is played today and gives a case study in that particular American trait -- innovation -- and how 'big ideas' get translated into action.
Gwynn starts off his story in Lubbock, Texas on a night that is still known as "Lights Out" at Texas Tech. That night, in front of a sold out crowd on the Staked Plains, the Red Raiders, led by head coach Mike Leach engineered one of the greatest upsets in the Big 12 defeating the incredibly talented Texas Longhorns in their only regular season loss. Fresh off their defeat of Oklahoma in the Red River Shootout and led by the incomparable Colt McCoy, Mack Brown and his Longhorns scored with less than 2 minutes remaining to take the lead. With no huddle, Graham Harrell, the Red Raider Quarterback engineered a drive in which he ran the same play four times out of six total, scoring on a pass to Michael Crabtree that secured the victory in what Gwynn calls the Air Raids coming out party.
Gwynn’s book describes a concept in which Pass is the primary weapon with a purpose of utilizing the field in both depth and width; shotgun style formations with extended lineman splits and upright stances; no huddle/high optempo, fewer plays with QB's and receivers required to read defenses simultaneously to generate options. A great story about innovation and genius.
SC Gwynn, a writer for Texas Monthly and author of entertaining works such as Empire of the Summer Moon, takes us on an intriguing trip into the culture of football by way of exploring the origin and development of the "Air Raid" Offense. Following the path of an itinerant Texas High School Football Coach, Hal Mumme and his partner in crime, Mike Leach, SC Gwynn explores the development of one of the several pass-oriented offenses that has come to dominate the way the game of football is played today and gives a case study in that particular American trait -- innovation -- and how 'big ideas' get translated into action.
Gwynn starts off his story in Lubbock, Texas on a night that is still known as "Lights Out" at Texas Tech. That night, in front of a sold out crowd on the Staked Plains, the Red Raiders, led by head coach Mike Leach engineered one of the greatest upsets in the Big 12 defeating the incredibly talented Texas Longhorns in their only regular season loss. Fresh off their defeat of Oklahoma in the Red River Shootout and led by the incomparable Colt McCoy, Mack Brown and his Longhorns scored with less than 2 minutes remaining to take the lead. With no huddle, Graham Harrell, the Red Raider Quarterback engineered a drive in which he ran the same play four times out of six total, scoring on a pass to Michael Crabtree that secured the victory in what Gwynn calls the Air Raids coming out party.
Gwynn’s book describes a concept in which Pass is the primary weapon with a purpose of utilizing the field in both depth and width; shotgun style formations with extended lineman splits and upright stances; no huddle/high optempo, fewer plays with QB's and receivers required to read defenses simultaneously to generate options. A great story about innovation and genius.
June 25, 2017
If you love football, this is an interesting read on the development of the modern passing offense by someone a lot of NFL fans (or college fans outside the Southeast) probably aren't familiar with. If you liked how Moneyball explained aspects of baseball, you'll love how Gwynne tells the story of Air Raid offenses in this book.
September 12, 2023
I think it was probably the closing of Iowa Wesleyan University that made me want to read this book. I can only think of one person I know (The Quiet Man's sister) who went to IWU down in Mt. Pleasant but the only other thing I ever knew about the place was that legendary football coach Hal Mumme along with Mike Leach helped develop the Air Raid system down there and as people usually mention, 'changed the face of football.'
Other than that, I knew nothing. Nothing about IWU or really about the history of football in general- I mean, I've taken in a couple of seasons of Dead Letters now and have expanded my knowledge base about specific teams as a result, but the development of the game? It's ebb and flow? I didn't know about that. What I did know is that the author of this book, S.C. Gwynne wrote a fantastic book called Empire of The Summer Moon about the Comanches and I figured if I enjoyed the writing in that book (I did), then this book couldn't be too bad.
Turns out, I was right: this too, is a fantastic book.
The early part of the book covers Hal's coaching journey and it is something of a revelation, especially if you're a fan of the sport. I know Coaches- especially at the top end get a lot of grief for the size of the salaries and things of that nature and maybe the market there is due for a correction at some point in the future, I don't know- but you can also argue that the process of working your way to the top of the heap is unforgiving, takes years and if you get there, the least you- and more importantly perhaps, your family deserve is some compensation for the journey.
And for sure, the early part of Mumme's coaching journey seems rough. Lots of work for not a lot of money before finding a rung on the ladder as a QB/WR coach at West Texas and then following the head Coach to UTEP for a stint as Offensive Coordinator, When that blew up, there were some very lean times before Hal found a high school job and plotted out his next move- which as it turns out was to Iowa Wesleyan University.
It's been kind of popping up in my mind lately, but I feel like one thing people don't talk about when it comes to success and metrics of success is the idea of obsession. I feel like whether it's food or anything, people at the top of their game, people who wind up thinking differently about what they do-- they're all a little bit obsessive. It would fascinating- and I'm sure there are books out there, to hear about what the life of a Coach is like for their families on the way up the ladder because a nomadic life for a relatively small amount of money takes years to pay off doesn't sound like it would be a recipe for family stability and happiness.
Here's what I didn't know: The forward pass was considered heresy for the majority of the existence of the game of football. There were some flashes of use here and there-- the run and shoot emerged in the late 70s and into the 80s and it had some brief flashes of use in high school- famed coach Glen 'Tiger' Ellison turned around a successful state powerhouse by just throwing the ball around- though nowhere near as much as Mumme would end up doing. By the time Hal was coming up, really the only game in town during the 80s that was passing the ball in any meaningful way was Levell Edwards at BYU.
It was fascinating to listen to the evolution of the ideas that would eventually form the Air Raid- with Hal knowing, convinced that there's something to this idea of the forward pass and seeking out everyone ranging from Bill Walsh to Mouse Davis to figure out what, if anything was there. After a stint at UTEP and a step back to the high school ranks, he got back on the ladder when Iowa Wesleyan University gave him a call.
There's sort of a deep, sad, irony that underlies the initial call from Iowa Wesleyan. At the time, their football program was bad. Really, really bad, and the then President wanted to put the theory of 'athletics is the front porch of the University' into practice by hopefully reviving the football program to wait for it: increase enrollment.
There's a counterfactual 'what if' here that's fascinating to consider: What if Iowa Wesleyan had leaned into Hal's vision for the program and their athletics department just a little bit? I don't know if it would have prevented the inevitable from coming- but I feel like it might have staved it off for just a bit longer. But whatever the reason, Hal goes to Iowa Wesleyan. He meets Mike Leach. He starts refining developing and reducing the playbook and the fortunes of IWU begin to turn immediately. Culminating in a victory of NW Missouri State that served as an announcement that the Air Raid had arrived. But- IWU decided that they didn't want athletics overshadowing their academics so Hal is let go and winds up moving up a Division to Valdosta State.
Here is where the Air Raid really comes into its final form- when Mumme, Leach, and company decide to go all gas no breaks, and essentially run a no-huddle offense. Valdosta State proved to be a tougher assignment than IWU, because down in 'real football country' no one was convinced that anything involving passing the football was going to work. Mumme had to adjust after the first season when he realized he had moved away from keeping things as simple as possible- but once they got going, it went like crazy, with many of his quarterbacks-- not only at Valdosta but at IWU putting up unheard of passing yardage and featuring in the top ranks of quarterbacks and offenses of the sport. They defeated Division I-AA (FCS) powerhouse Central Florida in a barnburner of an upset and then faced conference rivals North Alabama not once, but twice and the second time is probably my favorite. Mumme decided to play conventional football in the first half to wear down North Alabama's defense and then in the second half, down eleven, he flipped the switch and turned on the gas. Valdosta State won and soon, Kentucky came calling.
NCAA scandal took Mumme down at Kentucky, but soon enough his offense was everywhere- with Mike Leach carrying it to Oklahoma and then Texas Tech and the coaching tree going from there. Mumme never really got back on the ladder again, but it is indisputable that he changed the game of football- forever.
Overall: This was one I snagged off Audible, so I have to give credit to narration- Santino Fontana does an excellent job and even though he has you 'refer to the PDF' so you can look at schematics of the various plays they talk about in the book- a helpful feature, I thought- I didn't find that it took away from my overall enjoyment of listening to it. (Gwynne also narrates the Afterword himself, which is a nice touch-- talking about how the genesis for this book came from that famous Texas Tech victory over Texas and that he just kept coming back to it again and again until he finally wrote the book.)
I genuinely did not know just how revolutionary the Air Raid was for the game of football itself, so this made for a fascinating experience to learn about it-- but in the bigger picture, it's a fascinating story of one man knowing that he's got the germ of an idea and is an exploration of the process of developing that idea and growing and refining that idea until it finally comes into full bloom. It would be a compelling story in any number of fields/contexts but it works brilliantly here. The tagline for the book is: American Genius and the Reinvention of Football and that's an absolutely perfect description.
I would call this a must-read for any serious football fan, but I'd call it a good read for just about anyone full stop. My Grade: **** out of ****
Other than that, I knew nothing. Nothing about IWU or really about the history of football in general- I mean, I've taken in a couple of seasons of Dead Letters now and have expanded my knowledge base about specific teams as a result, but the development of the game? It's ebb and flow? I didn't know about that. What I did know is that the author of this book, S.C. Gwynne wrote a fantastic book called Empire of The Summer Moon about the Comanches and I figured if I enjoyed the writing in that book (I did), then this book couldn't be too bad.
Turns out, I was right: this too, is a fantastic book.
The early part of the book covers Hal's coaching journey and it is something of a revelation, especially if you're a fan of the sport. I know Coaches- especially at the top end get a lot of grief for the size of the salaries and things of that nature and maybe the market there is due for a correction at some point in the future, I don't know- but you can also argue that the process of working your way to the top of the heap is unforgiving, takes years and if you get there, the least you- and more importantly perhaps, your family deserve is some compensation for the journey.
And for sure, the early part of Mumme's coaching journey seems rough. Lots of work for not a lot of money before finding a rung on the ladder as a QB/WR coach at West Texas and then following the head Coach to UTEP for a stint as Offensive Coordinator, When that blew up, there were some very lean times before Hal found a high school job and plotted out his next move- which as it turns out was to Iowa Wesleyan University.
It's been kind of popping up in my mind lately, but I feel like one thing people don't talk about when it comes to success and metrics of success is the idea of obsession. I feel like whether it's food or anything, people at the top of their game, people who wind up thinking differently about what they do-- they're all a little bit obsessive. It would fascinating- and I'm sure there are books out there, to hear about what the life of a Coach is like for their families on the way up the ladder because a nomadic life for a relatively small amount of money takes years to pay off doesn't sound like it would be a recipe for family stability and happiness.
Here's what I didn't know: The forward pass was considered heresy for the majority of the existence of the game of football. There were some flashes of use here and there-- the run and shoot emerged in the late 70s and into the 80s and it had some brief flashes of use in high school- famed coach Glen 'Tiger' Ellison turned around a successful state powerhouse by just throwing the ball around- though nowhere near as much as Mumme would end up doing. By the time Hal was coming up, really the only game in town during the 80s that was passing the ball in any meaningful way was Levell Edwards at BYU.
It was fascinating to listen to the evolution of the ideas that would eventually form the Air Raid- with Hal knowing, convinced that there's something to this idea of the forward pass and seeking out everyone ranging from Bill Walsh to Mouse Davis to figure out what, if anything was there. After a stint at UTEP and a step back to the high school ranks, he got back on the ladder when Iowa Wesleyan University gave him a call.
There's sort of a deep, sad, irony that underlies the initial call from Iowa Wesleyan. At the time, their football program was bad. Really, really bad, and the then President wanted to put the theory of 'athletics is the front porch of the University' into practice by hopefully reviving the football program to wait for it: increase enrollment.
There's a counterfactual 'what if' here that's fascinating to consider: What if Iowa Wesleyan had leaned into Hal's vision for the program and their athletics department just a little bit? I don't know if it would have prevented the inevitable from coming- but I feel like it might have staved it off for just a bit longer. But whatever the reason, Hal goes to Iowa Wesleyan. He meets Mike Leach. He starts refining developing and reducing the playbook and the fortunes of IWU begin to turn immediately. Culminating in a victory of NW Missouri State that served as an announcement that the Air Raid had arrived. But- IWU decided that they didn't want athletics overshadowing their academics so Hal is let go and winds up moving up a Division to Valdosta State.
Here is where the Air Raid really comes into its final form- when Mumme, Leach, and company decide to go all gas no breaks, and essentially run a no-huddle offense. Valdosta State proved to be a tougher assignment than IWU, because down in 'real football country' no one was convinced that anything involving passing the football was going to work. Mumme had to adjust after the first season when he realized he had moved away from keeping things as simple as possible- but once they got going, it went like crazy, with many of his quarterbacks-- not only at Valdosta but at IWU putting up unheard of passing yardage and featuring in the top ranks of quarterbacks and offenses of the sport. They defeated Division I-AA (FCS) powerhouse Central Florida in a barnburner of an upset and then faced conference rivals North Alabama not once, but twice and the second time is probably my favorite. Mumme decided to play conventional football in the first half to wear down North Alabama's defense and then in the second half, down eleven, he flipped the switch and turned on the gas. Valdosta State won and soon, Kentucky came calling.
NCAA scandal took Mumme down at Kentucky, but soon enough his offense was everywhere- with Mike Leach carrying it to Oklahoma and then Texas Tech and the coaching tree going from there. Mumme never really got back on the ladder again, but it is indisputable that he changed the game of football- forever.
Overall: This was one I snagged off Audible, so I have to give credit to narration- Santino Fontana does an excellent job and even though he has you 'refer to the PDF' so you can look at schematics of the various plays they talk about in the book- a helpful feature, I thought- I didn't find that it took away from my overall enjoyment of listening to it. (Gwynne also narrates the Afterword himself, which is a nice touch-- talking about how the genesis for this book came from that famous Texas Tech victory over Texas and that he just kept coming back to it again and again until he finally wrote the book.)
I genuinely did not know just how revolutionary the Air Raid was for the game of football itself, so this made for a fascinating experience to learn about it-- but in the bigger picture, it's a fascinating story of one man knowing that he's got the germ of an idea and is an exploration of the process of developing that idea and growing and refining that idea until it finally comes into full bloom. It would be a compelling story in any number of fields/contexts but it works brilliantly here. The tagline for the book is: American Genius and the Reinvention of Football and that's an absolutely perfect description.
I would call this a must-read for any serious football fan, but I'd call it a good read for just about anyone full stop. My Grade: **** out of ****
June 23, 2017
Very good book. Listened on audible. Good for sports fans and anyone interested in innovation cycles too.
February 12, 2017
No matter what level of football a fan follows, it has become very clear that the forward pass is now an integral part of the game. To many, this has made the game more exciting and to others, it simply brings more variation to the offense than the smash-mouth type of game that was espoused by coaches and players alike for the first several decades the game was played.
However, it wasn’t an easy time to get the game to where it is today as many who wanted to make passing a bigger part of the game were rebuffed time and time again. One of those coaches who saw the benefits of a pass-first offense was Hal Mumme, a college football coach whose life was pretty much like any other coach – always working, wondering when the next pink slip would come and trying to convince players and athletic directors that this way would work.
Mumme’s offense, dubbed the “Air Raid”, was given the opportunity to be put into effect at a tiny school in the Midwest, Iowa Wesleyan, that had been a losing program for years. Along with assistant coach Mike Leach (who developed his own air game and is the subject of the excellent first chapter of the book), Mumme turned the program around and not only brought winning football to the campus, but an entire new atmosphere.
It is here where there is some fuzziness in the book, as Gwynne never gives a reason as to why Mumme was asked to leave Iowa Wesleyan, but that doesn’t stop him. Eventually landing in Kentucky, Mumme does the same thing to a football program at a basketball-first university. The Air Raid becomes a hit in Lexington, enough so that the Wildcats did the unthinkable at the time – they defeated the Alabama Crimson Tide.
Equal parts biography and history, “The Perfect Pass” is a terrific book that all football fans should read to gain a better understanding of the history of the forward pass in the game and how the innovation of one relatively obscure coach help change the game for good.
I wish to thank Scribner for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
http://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/201...
However, it wasn’t an easy time to get the game to where it is today as many who wanted to make passing a bigger part of the game were rebuffed time and time again. One of those coaches who saw the benefits of a pass-first offense was Hal Mumme, a college football coach whose life was pretty much like any other coach – always working, wondering when the next pink slip would come and trying to convince players and athletic directors that this way would work.
Mumme’s offense, dubbed the “Air Raid”, was given the opportunity to be put into effect at a tiny school in the Midwest, Iowa Wesleyan, that had been a losing program for years. Along with assistant coach Mike Leach (who developed his own air game and is the subject of the excellent first chapter of the book), Mumme turned the program around and not only brought winning football to the campus, but an entire new atmosphere.
It is here where there is some fuzziness in the book, as Gwynne never gives a reason as to why Mumme was asked to leave Iowa Wesleyan, but that doesn’t stop him. Eventually landing in Kentucky, Mumme does the same thing to a football program at a basketball-first university. The Air Raid becomes a hit in Lexington, enough so that the Wildcats did the unthinkable at the time – they defeated the Alabama Crimson Tide.
Equal parts biography and history, “The Perfect Pass” is a terrific book that all football fans should read to gain a better understanding of the history of the forward pass in the game and how the innovation of one relatively obscure coach help change the game for good.
I wish to thank Scribner for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
http://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/201...
November 16, 2016
Maybe its a four star book, but I'll stretch to a 5 for covering an obscure subject in an entertaining and engaging way.
It helps to enjoy the thinking side of football to get into this book, but it was equally interesting from the viewpoint of creative disruption. The book is about Hal Mumme, a coach I, and perhaps you, was unfamiliar with. The author makes the case that more than any other person, Hal Mumme is responsible for changing how football is played. Before Mumme began coaching in the late 1980's, the focus of football for decades was running, with passing playing a secondary role. Mumme's approached to the game changed everything. Thanks to him, passing now the rule and running is secondary.
Mumme wanted to focus on passing because he recognized that it made the game more fun. He also recognized that coaching lesser schools meant he couldn't match the talent of better funded schools playing traditional football. He developed a system where the skills of the players were less important than a system that would give them an advantage over the defense, regardless of their talent.
The system he invented is called Air Raid. It was able to increase the completion percentage of passes while at the same time decreasing the interception rate. He also sped up play so that it gave his team about 25% more plays each game, meaning more chances to score. Now, pretty much every college or pro team uses at least some elements of his creation.
If you like sports or football books, put this on your reading list.
It helps to enjoy the thinking side of football to get into this book, but it was equally interesting from the viewpoint of creative disruption. The book is about Hal Mumme, a coach I, and perhaps you, was unfamiliar with. The author makes the case that more than any other person, Hal Mumme is responsible for changing how football is played. Before Mumme began coaching in the late 1980's, the focus of football for decades was running, with passing playing a secondary role. Mumme's approached to the game changed everything. Thanks to him, passing now the rule and running is secondary.
Mumme wanted to focus on passing because he recognized that it made the game more fun. He also recognized that coaching lesser schools meant he couldn't match the talent of better funded schools playing traditional football. He developed a system where the skills of the players were less important than a system that would give them an advantage over the defense, regardless of their talent.
The system he invented is called Air Raid. It was able to increase the completion percentage of passes while at the same time decreasing the interception rate. He also sped up play so that it gave his team about 25% more plays each game, meaning more chances to score. Now, pretty much every college or pro team uses at least some elements of his creation.
If you like sports or football books, put this on your reading list.
September 22, 2016
THE PERFECT PASS by SC Gwynne is the story of a man, Hal Mumme, with a vision of how football should be played, not how football was stuck in the "if it works, don't change it" approach. Gwynne chronicles Hal's rise from a tiny school where his radical ideas are forming, all the way to his short stay in Division 1-A football at University of Kentucky.
Hal Mumme's theory of pass first, pass a lot, and then pass some more was a hard concept for the sports world to understand at first. Gwynne does a good job of explaining that Mumme's vision, coupled with the near constant job he had of taking a nothing and/or a joke football program and turning them around. Along the way, Gwynne diagrams and educates the reader on Mumme's theories while not making it overwhelming or complicated. Gwynne also made clear that while the new way Mumme coaches football is different and rather successful and changed football on all levels, that is still was always getting tweaks and always could get better. The name of the book, THE PERFECT PASS, really is what Mumme and all of football was and is trying to achieve, but while Mumme got close, I felt like this book indicated that perhaps that isn't possible.
Any football fan would enjoy this book. It's well balanced between education on process and the narrative on Mumme and it was a pleasure to read.
Thank you to Scribner, S.C. Gwynne, and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for a honest review!
Hal Mumme's theory of pass first, pass a lot, and then pass some more was a hard concept for the sports world to understand at first. Gwynne does a good job of explaining that Mumme's vision, coupled with the near constant job he had of taking a nothing and/or a joke football program and turning them around. Along the way, Gwynne diagrams and educates the reader on Mumme's theories while not making it overwhelming or complicated. Gwynne also made clear that while the new way Mumme coaches football is different and rather successful and changed football on all levels, that is still was always getting tweaks and always could get better. The name of the book, THE PERFECT PASS, really is what Mumme and all of football was and is trying to achieve, but while Mumme got close, I felt like this book indicated that perhaps that isn't possible.
Any football fan would enjoy this book. It's well balanced between education on process and the narrative on Mumme and it was a pleasure to read.
Thank you to Scribner, S.C. Gwynne, and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for a honest review!
December 24, 2016
This is a hard topic to write about because the evolution of the passing game in American football happened across a wide expanse of time, geography and level of play. Gwynne's approach is to follow the career of Hal Munne and his apostle, Mark Leach. It's a good story, but keeping much of the story in lower NCAA divisions in Iowa leaves some holes in understanding how the changes took hold.
Still, Gwynne does a good job of understanding the game, the personality of Hal Munne, and the coaches he worked with. He makes a solid effort at explaining the technical components of the evolving passing game without drowning the reader in jargon. Most of all, he has a good feel for the itinerant, temporal life of the small-college coach.
The author would certainly benefit from having a more knowledgeable editor (example, Monmouth College may not be a familiar college program to the Time Magazine/ESPN/assured popularity crowd, but they are NOT a "Division III" program). Most readers of this book will cringe at a few of the obvious "misses" like this. If you're a fan of the game today, this is a fun book.
Still, Gwynne does a good job of understanding the game, the personality of Hal Munne, and the coaches he worked with. He makes a solid effort at explaining the technical components of the evolving passing game without drowning the reader in jargon. Most of all, he has a good feel for the itinerant, temporal life of the small-college coach.
The author would certainly benefit from having a more knowledgeable editor (example, Monmouth College may not be a familiar college program to the Time Magazine/ESPN/assured popularity crowd, but they are NOT a "Division III" program). Most readers of this book will cringe at a few of the obvious "misses" like this. If you're a fan of the game today, this is a fun book.
May 13, 2017
Gwynne argued in this popular narrative that Mumme’s Air Raid offense, a simplified pass heavy offense with spread offensive linemen, helped push the passing revolution that has fundamentally altered football from high school to the NFL. The narrative traced how Mumme rose from small high school to small colleges to big time Kentucky before falling from grace. While he himself has floundered in middling college ranks, his protégé Mike Leach has gone onto to push the Air Raid offense at Texas Tech and Washington State, and has made the Air Raid offense influential across football ranks in the United States
Key Themes and Concepts
-Mumme challenged the conservative run and grind football establishment by a simple passing offense, where the quarterback had much freedom to choose a quick pass to an open receiver and receivers can break any which way in crossing patterns. It is a variant of the Run and Shoot offense, with much more passing. It has led the game at large to become much more pass heavy as it is an offense which has no real weaknesses.
Key Themes and Concepts
-Mumme challenged the conservative run and grind football establishment by a simple passing offense, where the quarterback had much freedom to choose a quick pass to an open receiver and receivers can break any which way in crossing patterns. It is a variant of the Run and Shoot offense, with much more passing. It has led the game at large to become much more pass heavy as it is an offense which has no real weaknesses.
January 31, 2017
I enjoyed this book quite a bit. It's a story of how passing offenses evolved and came to the forefront of football over the past few decades, but really the story of Hal Mumme (and his assistant Mike Leach), and their innovations. The recent years of this story are a post-script in the book, but it makes up for that with its historical facts and details and storytelling of the early years of Mumme's career. In particular, the juxtaposition of how football was played then with what Mumme (and others) was trying to do is startling. In an era where seemingly everyone runs some sort of shotgun/spread offense at least some of the time, this book is a reminder of how radical those ideas once were and how much the game has changed over the past few decades. A worthwhile book to read for any football fan.
July 27, 2017
An outstanding portrait of how the Air Raid offense came to be, and of the long and arduous journey Hal Mumme and Mike Leach took in their quest to change the game.
Fair warning: While I found this fascinating and exceptionally well constructed, I don't recommend it for football novices and casual fans. The book assumes a fair amount of knowledge of the game and would likely be difficult to follow and thus an unappealing read for those who don't already possess significant institutional memory of the history of football and a good grasp of its Xs and Os.
One final note: I'm clearly in disagreement with most other reviewers on this point, but no, this did not remind me at all of Moneyball.
Fair warning: While I found this fascinating and exceptionally well constructed, I don't recommend it for football novices and casual fans. The book assumes a fair amount of knowledge of the game and would likely be difficult to follow and thus an unappealing read for those who don't already possess significant institutional memory of the history of football and a good grasp of its Xs and Os.
One final note: I'm clearly in disagreement with most other reviewers on this point, but no, this did not remind me at all of Moneyball.
December 11, 2016
I love this book both because I love college football and because I love biography. As I write this, the college coaches' carousel is just slowing and having a look inside the life is fascinating. We rarely notice coaches until they reach the top and then decide if they're worth their salaries. We less often see their paths. It is inspiring to see the details of one such trajectory in its whole, if not its completion. I am so grateful this book was written and these histories, both of football and some of its coaches, has been documented.
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