This excerpt from my book ‘Little Things That Win Big Games” is a book review of Mike Leach’s Book “Swing Your Sword” This chapter of my book could have labeled “The Wit & Wisdom of Mike Leach” Mike along with Hal Mumme had an unbelievable impact on offensive football. Their Air Raid system gave underdogs a chance to move the ball vs superior talent. Here’s a portion of the book review

“swing Your Sword” by Mike Leach

Mike Leach has to have one of the most creative, innovative offensive minds in college football.

“Swing Your Sword” is one of the most entertaining and informative sports autobiographies that I have read. In the age of political correctness Mike Leach is a breath of fresh air.

The first part of the book deals with Mike growing up and how even at an early age he was an outside the box thinker. What I found very interesting was his law school experience. Mike took some acting
classes and he later used those acting classes in coaching. I also found it interesting that Gerry Spence gave Mike the advice that “you must be consumed by what you are doing.” Mike was consumed by football and chose to coach.

Mike relates about his climb up the proverbial coaching ladder starting with Iowa Wesleyan. It was here where Mike Leach and Hal Mumme started putting together the “Air Raid Offense”. Mumme & Leach took over a team that was 0-10 the previous year and had to develop a system that could give them a chance against their opponents. Mumme loved making pilgrimages to BYU & made the Cougar Offense the core of the Air Raid. They also took Montana’s screen game to use as a run game to wear down and demoralize the defensive line. After year one, they decided to pare down their playbook and simplify their attack. They also widen their offensive line splits to eliminate line twists and create passing lanes
for the QB. The tweaks worked and Iowa Wesleyan went to the NAIA Play Offs in year three.

In 1992 Mumme and Leach were off to Valdosta State which was a .500 team. They tried to do too much in their first year and struggled. The lesson Mike learned is that technique is more important than
scheme and that the success of a play lies in the details. Their new objective was to out execute not out scheme their opponents. In 1992 they averaged 25 points per game but that number jumped to 41 points
per game in ’93 and ’94. In 1994 Valdosta went to the DII playoffs. Three days after losing to Carson Newman in the Playoffs; Hal Mumme was hired at the University of Kentucky!

The Mumme/Leach Air Raid continued to evolve at UK and the lesson of keeping it simple and being detailed oriented paid off in a bowl appearance in their second season with the Wildcats. I really believe
this is one of the most important lessons a young coach can learn. The detail of a play and the amount of reps the play is practiced is key to its effectiveness.

Mike Leach left Hal and hooked up with Bob Stoops at Oklahoma in 1999. Mike talks about evaluating a Quarterback and lists these key ingredients:
1. Is he accurate?
2. Does he make good decisions?
3. Is he tough?
4. Is he a leader?
5. Does he have good feet?

Being an option coach, you would think my evaluation would be much different but it really is pretty close. The most important ingredient for a QB is – Can he move the team. The quarterbacks that can
move the ball do it by making good decisions and executing those decisions. I always felt decision making is important but the execution after the decision was also important.
Another interesting note was while at OU; Mike studied the Wishbone! Barry Switzer likened the Air Raid Offense to the Wishbone except throwing the ball.

https://amzn.to/3UGqdFE