What does the ‘Air Raid’ offense mean if it really comes to Wisconsin?

by Arthur · December 8, 2022

The reported hiring of Phil Longo as the University of Wisconsin’s new offensive coordinator represents a dramatic shift in offensive philosophy.

UW, a team for decades defined by its running game, would transition to an offense far more reliant on the pass (though not necessarily exclusively) in the “Air Raid” system Longo picked up in the late 1990s from current Mississippi State coach Mike Leach. According to Bruce Feldman of The Athletic, Longo developed a relationship with new Badgers coach Luke Fickell when Longo interviewed for the Cincinnati offensive coordinator job before taking the job at Ole Miss in late 2016.

So what is meant by the “Air Raid” offense?

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The first ‘air attack’ dates back to the 1980s in Texas

Mississippi State coach Mike Leach confers with quarterback Will Rogers during a Nov. 24 game against Mississippi.

In the traditional sense, the origins of the ‘Air Raid’ go back to the 1980s with East Texas high school coach Hal Mumme, who eventually became the head coach at Kentucky and passed his concepts on to assistant Mike Leach, today Mississippi State’s head coach and the offense’s modern champion.

While there are some transient concepts being associated with Air Raid — mesh and four hosts, for example — Ralph D. Russo of the Associated Press pointed out earlier this year that aspects of it can be implemented and have been implemented on a somewhat a la carte basis.

“The Air Raid is more of a process than a playbook these days,” Russo wrote. “Keeping things simple, emphasizing execution over matchups and seemingly endless repetition of a relatively small number of plays in practice is what connects Air Raid’s past and present.”

Head coach Hal Mumme of the Kentucky Wildcats in 1998.

Plays are run out of the shotgun with four receivers on the field, and quarterbacks often have the freedom to change the play at the line of scrimmage based on what the defense is showing. Teams often go out of their way to prevent defenses from replacing personnel.

With offensive linemen spread out across the line of scrimmage, the quarterback is expected to get the ball out quickly (or decide to run) to offset blitzes that may try to exploit the wider openings up front. So, despite the name, that doesn’t mean quarterbacks will throw deep passes regularly, but they must throw the ball to all parts of the field.

Longo has cited Leach as his biggest coaching influence, but he also uses a running game to supplement what happens through the air.

“I’m just very convinced that the best odds in the house are to take what the defense gives you,” he said in 2016 before starting as Ole Miss’ offensive coordinator. “There are games where we run the ball 70 times to win it and games where we throw 70 times to win it. I’m totally willing to do that, but it’s never made up my mind going into the game. It’s decided by what the defense takes away.

“The offense is designed to be simpler,” Longo added. “It’s designed to be more flexible so that regardless of our talent base, we have the flexibility in attack to promote the more talented players.”

What types of players will teams recruit in this offense?

Yes, it’s often far more passing than running, and traditional Air Raid calls for a deep collection of speedy receivers and offensive linemen who are quick and nimble (and not necessarily gigantic), which would theoretically require a recruiting shift in Wisconsin. Mismatches are often generated from talented third and fourth receivers matching up against a defense’s third and fourth cornerbacks.

It also puts a lot on the quarterback, as you might imagine, both in terms of decision-making and accuracy. Air Raid quarterbacks were once stigmatized as system players who couldn’t hack it in the NFL, but today the league is littered with Air Raid quarterbacks like Patrick Mahomes, although there are counterexamples to quarterbacks that haven’t translated to the NFL game.

“It allows athletes to be athletes,” Longo said in 2019. “They’re not limited by the drawing of a mail route in a playbook, they’re given the opportunity to — I always use this example: If you’re a mail route runner, who just is a cut-in, and the safety hoops and gives off a lot of grass underneath, you can run the post route just like someone might draw it up in a playbook. If the safety comes down in the box, that post can be more vertical and he can chase the grass behind the safety.

“The angle on that post is going to change, it’s a decision made by the receiver and he does it athletically and he does it on the run. And he really does it without having to think, it reacts instinctively to where the grass is.

“And the quarterback always throws to the guy who’s in space. We don’t have a lot of contested catches for throws in this offense because of the nature of allowing receivers to run routes.

“The philosophy is to be simple, spread teams out, horizontally pre-snap, vertically post-snap, and really displace 11 defenders all over the field as much as we can.”

If there are downsides, it’s that teams with elite corners can defend a “run to where the grass is” concept, and the lack of structured route running can present a challenge for certain types of receivers. Additionally, the run game doesn’t get the benefit of blocking from its wideouts, which theoretically inhibits the potential for long runs. Third, that stigma against air raid athletes can discourage top-end quarterback talent in recruiting.

So why hasn’t air strikes become more popular as a general offense in the NFL? There’s more than one reason, but oddly enough, the hash marks — which are much closer together in the NFL than in college — may have a decent amount to do with it. With the college hashes so much closer to the sideline, it creates a more skewed field and more room on one side for offenses to operate and receivers to win 1-on-1 matchups.

What kind of success has Phil Longo had?

Drake Maye, the quarterback of the year at North Carolina and one of the top quarterback prospects in college football, threw for 4,115 yards and 35 touchdowns with seven interceptions and also ran for a team-leading 653 yards and seven scores.

Before that, Sam Howell (who was a fifth-round pick of the Washington Commanders in 2022) threw for 3,056 in 2021 and 3,586 in 2020, with a combined 54 touchdowns and 16 interceptions. The quarterback also ran for 828 yards last year, and Longo’s offense led the league in yards per carry in 2020 and was second in 2021.