High Powered Passing Offenses: Why Are They Really Successful?

More and More Schools Are Using the Aerial Offense Than Ever Before
by: Terry Jacoby
© More from this issue

          
High-powered, spread-’em-out, throw- the-ball-on-every-position offenses come and go. Or do they? Are aerial offenses that treat a running back with limited respect fads and gimmicks? Or are these offenses formulas for success that can win on a consistent basis over the long term?

Keith Simons is one coach with an answer. All he has to do is point to his record. Simons’ Santa Rosa Junior College Bears won the Mid-Empire Conference Championship with an 11-0 record and finished fourth in the nation in 2003.

“Basketball on grass,” Simons calls his offensive attack. “It’s a fast-break system in which we don’t huddle and often times have five wideouts spread out over the line of scrimmage. The key is to execute the right play against what we are seeing.”

The numbers indicate they’ve been running the right plays for a number of years. The Bears have finished No. 1 in the nation in junior college passing four of the last six years. If that’s not “long term” enough for you, Simons’ offense also flourished while he was offensive coordinator at Wayne State University in Nebraska.

“In 1993, we had a 3,000-yard passer, two 1,000-yard receivers and a 1,000-yard running back,” said Simons, who was named the 1995 National Coordinator of the Year by American Football Monthly. “We could beat you any way you wanted.” Pick your poison, in other words.

Simons’ offense, like most high-powered attacks, isn’t a throw it as far as you can and hope your guy out jumps the other guy approach. It’s a mix of short, medium and long-range passes where most defenses scramble to keep pace.

“Routes change based on the coverage and the quarterback reads change based on the coverage we face,” Simons said. “It does require some time to learn the system and run it the way it should be run.” One of the keys to running it the way it should be run is by adjusting to the defense.

“What we do depends on if a defense is in man-to-man or zone coverage or if we see a blitz coming,” Simons explained. “We can change the entire play at the line based on the defense or just run what was called and make the smart decision with that particular play.”

Hal Mumme helped resurrect a dormant football program at Southeastern Louisiana University. The former University of Kentucky head coach guided the Lions to an impressive 7-4 mark in just their second year back after the program folded because of financial problems. Mumme is now being asked to bring back another program, although not from scratch. Mumme takes over at New Mexico State where he plans to continue his offensive style of airing it out.

“People call it the air-raid offense,” said Mumme, who patterns his attack after the offense made famous at Brigham Young University. “We just try to throw it as many times as we can and get it in the hands of people who know how to score.”

While an assistant coach at the University of Texas El Paso in the early 1980s, Mumme studied the BYU system and his version of it has been successful at his various coaching stops along the way. The attack, which will have fans at New Mexico State on their collective feet, basically uses the pass to set up the run.

“We like to spread things out and develop players who have the talent to do certain things,” Mumme said. “We use all kinds of sets and will use up to five wideouts if we feel it will be successful. My approach has always been to do one thing really well.” What Mumme has been able to do very well is throw the football. He describes it more like basketball than a rugby scrum where “fans can see the ball and people tend to get excited.”

In his four years at Kentucky, Mumme led the Wildcats to back-to-back bowl games (1998-99) and coached quarterback Tim Couch, the NFL’s No. 1 draft pick by the Browns in 1999. Mumme’s team at Southeastern Louisiana University led all I-AA in total offense with 537 yards (408 yards passing) last year. He will serve as his own offensive coordinator at NMS and fans and opponents should expect to see the ball in the air quite often. But that also will depend on the defense.

“Our quarterback has many options when he steps to the line of scrimmage,” Mumme said. “He can check off the line or adjust the play that’s called to give us the best chance for success. The offense isn’t really that complicated. There really aren’t as many plays as people think. The key is to execute.”

Tim Hatten and his Pearl River Community College team has been executing quite well over the past four seasons. Located in Poplarville, Mississippi, Pearl River capped a 12-0 season by beating Butler County (Kan.) Community College, 35-14, in the national JC championship game. Hatten has racked up a 29-4 record during his stay and most of his success has come through the air.

“We throw it whenever we get the chance,” said Hatten, whose system is a spread offense run out of a shotgun with four wideouts and a running back or five wideouts and an empty backfield. “I like to challenge defenses vertically and challenge them with speed.”

Hatten, a 1987 graduate of Southern Mississippi, doesn’t even recruit fullbacks or tight ends. He wants speed in his lineup, not bulk. “If I don’t have the personnel to fit into my system, then it’s my fault because I didn’t get the players needed to run my offense,” he said.

While intelligence is on his recruiting check list, Hatten insists you don’t have to be a road scholar to run his offense. “Our spread offense really is player-friendly and it’s easy to run,” he said. “I keep it real simple and will tweak it from time to time, but the system works and the players pick it up quickly.”

Hatten said his offensive scheme isn’t totally against running the ball, especially when “forced” to. “If they drop six in the box, we will run the ball,” he said. “We will play around with different routes against different coverages and see what works best and then plug that into our scheme. The problem for us is if the defense can stop us with five in the box. If they can stop our passing attack that way, we will have some problems.”

But that doesn’t happen very often. Quarterback Jimmy Oliver threw for 40 touchdowns and more than 3,800 yards last season for the Wildcats.

Coaches admit that these offenses are usually parts of other schemes and approaches that have worked for others in the past. “Very few things are original ideas anymore,” Simons said. “What usually happens is a coach takes bits and pieces from other systems and creates his own offense that works best for him. I’ve worked for some really good coaches and have learned a lot over the years. You get to know their philosophies and systems and make it work for what you want to do.”

In five seasons as head coach at Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado, Bob Stitt is 34-22, including an 11-0 mark last year in the regular season and a trip to the NCAA Division II playoffs. Like Simons, Stitt’s system has evolved over time.

“What we run here is based on the West Coast Offense with some variation,” said Stitt, who was offensive coordinator at Harvard University when the team set school records in passing yards in a game (405) and total offense in a game (640 yards). “Most of the offense developed out of necessity because we couldn’t protect our quarterback when I first got here. So we had to use the shotgun to buy him some time.” The shotgun must have worked because Mines hasn’t taken a snap under center in three years.

But while passing has been the piston in this engine, Stitt has been trying to create more balance in his offense. Last year, Mines passed the ball 53 percent of the time, while running it 47 percent of the time. And even with this balance, they led Division II schools in passing.

Stitt’s quarterback, Chad Friehauf, won the 19th annual Harlon Hill Trophy as the top player in Division II. Friehauf, who was invited to the Denver Broncos training camp, threw for more than 4,700 yards and rushed for 870 yards.

During the last four seasons, Mines has averaged 36 points a game. “Everything starts up front,” Stitt said. “It’s important to focus on that offensive line when you want to start a passing offense. You need that protection to make it all work. Take as much responsibility as you can off the quarterback and put it on the offensive line. The quarterback has enough things to worry about.”

Gus Malzahn, who has a 39-11 record in three years at Springdale High School in Arkansas, won back-to-back state titles with Shiloh Christian in 1998 and 1999 and had a 46-game winning streak.

How did Malzahn do it? Threw the air, of course. “Springdale always has had a rich football tradition, but they used to be a running school,” Malzahn said. “We changed to a passing team because that’s what I do best.”

Teaching high school kids the ins and outs of an “air-raid” offense isn’t always easy. The solution is to start the learning process as early as possible. “Our eighth-graders are running this offense so they can learn the fundamentals and work on that first step and release points and do the weight-lifting drills,” said Malzahn, whose offense is a hurry-up no-huddle attack where high school defenses struggle to keep up.

“The key at this level is to not turn the ball over,” he said. “The quarterback can’t throw a lot of interceptions and has to avoid taking a lot of sacks. Last year we threw it over 300 times and only got sacked twice and only had six interceptions.”

Preparation also is key at the high school level. “We will take what the defense gives us, but we will scout for a team’s strengths and weaknesses,” Malzahn said. “I’m not really concerned with a team’s schemes because we can beat anything they throw at us.”

The Perfect Quarterback Running an aerial offense requires a solid quarterback calling the shots. The following is a list of qualities coaches look for in a quarterback asked to run an offense that throws more than runs.

Leadership. A guy who can step in the huddle and take charge. Also, someone other players on the team will respect and follow. Smart. Someone leading this offense should be a good student. Vision. Must be able to see the field. Hard worker. Must be someone willing to do extra film study and put in the time to not only learn the system but master it. Passion. Must be someone who loves football. Arm. Surprisingly, this wasn’t at the top of any coaches wish list. But arm strength is obviously important. An “average arm is OK if he can deliver the ball on time,” said one coach. Toughness. Must be a player who can take a hit. Savvy. Must know how to feel the pressure and get out of trouble. Footwork. Must have good balance, weight distribution and rhythm. And it all starts with the feet. Mental toughness. Many of these offenses are high-pressured and coaches will push the quarterback harder than anyone else on the team.

How Do You Stop an Aerial Assault?

Many defensive coordinators and head coaches suffer through plenty of sleepless nights before facing a high-powered, spread-it-out-and-throw-on-every-down offense. But Head Coach Merle Masonholder of Central Methodist University wasn’t one of them. He would sleep quite well, thank you. His team led the NAIA in turnovers gained, which included an amazing 39 interceptions. It was almost as if the CMU defense was in the opponent’s huddle. “We were fortunate to have a very good defense led by four exceptional athletes who worked hard and had great knowledge of the game,” Masonholder said. “We also spent a good deal of time watching film and looking at tendencies and how teams set up.” Masonholder said that it’s especially important when preparing against a high-powered offense to have the team prepared for what’s coming.” You have to have your defense ready to make the right adjustments based on what the offense is doing,” he said. “Teams have a varied set of offensive formations and you have to match what they’re doing.” And with these kind of hurry-up offenses there isn’t any time for coaches to send in the defensive alignments. “The changes have to be made on the field and they have to be made in a split second, so you need your defensive signal caller to be able to make the right adjustments,” Masonholder said. “We prepare in practice with a lot of walk-throughs and simulations. The days of teams coming out in a 4-3 defense and staying in it are gone.” The key is having a defensive signal caller you can trust. Preparing this player is important, but he also has to be a student of the game. “You need a player who is smart, can see the full field and then make the right call about what defense to switch into,” Masonholder said. “This type of player usually stands out.”

NEW BOOK!

Digital Download - 304 Pages of Football Forms for the Winning Coach