Air Raid, The Spread, Franklin, Leach, Mumme, Chow

Without divulging too much info. I think Franklin's formation system is not intuitive and makes little to no sense; however, the concepts and series of plays, not just playbook, are extraordinary.

I wrote about this in another thread but can't seem to find it. The "offense" came from BYU, and the original setup (including mesh, all-curl, Y-cross, etc) was really developed by Doug Scovil which he brought with him from the Pros. The philosophy was throwing the ball short, using your skill players, and putting your kids in position to score. This was the early 80s. Chow didn't really invent the system, but he eventually took over as OC and became an excellent OC and, really his strength has been developing QBs, as shown by how many of them have gone on to the Pros and won Heisman trophies.

Leach was a graduate assistant at BYU, Mumme a follower/fan. They took the plays but more importantly took the philosophy - throw the ball. The term "philosophy" is thrown around a lot, and I think most "spread" coaches say their philosophy is about spreading the D, creating matchups, creating lanes, etc. But I think the Airraid guys are telling the truth when they say their philosophy is to "throw the ball short to people who score." To them throwing the ball is an end of itself. For other spread coaches they don't care whether it is runs or passes. Not these guys.

So is it a playbook or a philosophy? It's both. The plays have actually developed over time: I'm not sure when Y-stick or Y-corner came into the offense, and I really don't think "shallow" came into being until that squad was already at Kentucky. I had a lot of film of the 1997 team and I can't say i ever saw them run it. They got the concept from Mike Shanahan. It is probably the play they call the most.

I'd say Franklin is less a true believer but he coaches what he learned from those guys, has been around the system now for over 10 years, and through his clinics/etc he has benefited from a two-way dialogue with his disciples, who go back and forth with him on what works and what can be developed.

Insofar as it is a playbook it is like the R&S or wing-t is that the playbook, in this mature phase for the offense, manifests what the Airraid guys hope to do: which is spread the ball around to lots of skill guys and throw it a ton. To get weird about it, one could imagine a parallel universe where a different set of plays made up the airraid offense, but what would be the same would be how they practice is, along with the philosophy of throwing the ball lots.

Are you referring to the terminology?

Ok, thanks. Any comment on the run game part of the offense?

How would I go about getting more info on Leach and Mumme?

brophy,

I agree, but don't you think it is interesting that the Airraid guys going back to when they were at Valdosta and UK, didn't even have shallow - one of the most central concepts - in the playbook? They didn't start running that until later, when they got it from Shanahan. Remember Mumme was basically a straight 2-back guy. It was Leach who was all about going to 4-wides all the time, and shallow is a 2x2 combo.

Mumme did it for protection reasons (among others), and when Leach went to OU and his first couple years at TTech they struggled at times with so much 4-wide. They had a bowl game vs. Iowa where the blitzes caused them problems. They slowly evolved the wide-splits over that time period.

If you watch cutups of the 99 OU team they ran a lot of 4-wide but a lot of the wrinkles and things hadn't really developed, and they did not do the wide splits. Teams that blitzed them creatively they struggled with at times, though others like A&M who thought they could man blitz got decimated.

Tech runs shallow plenty. It's a go to route of theirs (along with mesh) when they aren't getting good defensive keys. (By the way how can it be a T. Franklin thing if you say Troy only runs it 3 times a game?)

And like I said, when they FIRST got to UK, in 1997. I broke down several of their games that year, and shallow was not in the package. Whether or not that was because they didn't trust Couch to be ready (unlikely) or they didn't feel they had the receivers, I'm not sure. Yes it was in the 1998 book, they got it that offseason. Remember too, shallow was unequivocally not in the BYU/old-Chow playbooks.

My point is that the Airraid is both a philosophy and a playbook. The plays are the tools by which the picture gets painted. But there are other tools they could have chosen. There's only so much of what you can do on a football field.

And there's nothing magic about the plays. What makes Leach good if not that he calls stick a lot. If it wasn't stick it'd be something else. It's the practices, the repetition, the commitment to throwing the ball, the freedom he gives the QB. The places are the final piece of a rather comprehensive puzzle.

I just watched 9 Texas Tech and 8 Troy games from last season.
Tech doesn't run the shallow concept alot, they tags guys on the shallow routes alot.


I dont go by philosophy,clinics or hearsay. I get the film and watch for myself.

The running plays are simple lead, traps and draws what formation and what you teach is up to you. The pass plays mesh,y-stick,y-cross, all curl quick outs and screens are able to be put into any formation as well. The names of the formations have some meaning to a point otherwise you could rename them as well and do whatever you want. It is a guideline not a complete stick it in and everything works program.

[gvid]3593131429205985707[/gvid][gvid]3366867533103786457[/gvid]
[gvid]3815224086511270526[/gvid][gvid]4287888764833044037[/gvid]
[gvid]-5298352809273396565[/gvid][gvid]-7333174677521754145[/gvid]
[gvid]2248279454131246531[/gvid][gvid]3614761306422400443[/gvid]