An offense that transformed college football had an inauspicious beginning.
Courtesy: University of Pennsylvania
I always taught my grad students that significant change comes from the margins, the fringe, never from the mainstream. On the fringe, there’s freedom to innovate, experiment, and try all kinds of crazy things.
The advice applies to a lot of things in life, including sports. For proof, here’s an example from an article I read some time ago, written in (of all places) The Wall Street Journal. Two of the best national writers in the sports business work there—Andrew Beaton and Jason Gay, and Beaton published one of the most incredible sports stories I’ve ever read. To be fair, though, Beaton didn’t break the story. Initial credit goes to S.C. Gynne and his 2016 book, The Perfect Pass, and good reporting (in 2017) by Mike Killen of The Des Moines Register.
Iowa Wesleyan University (photo, IWU)
What’s the story? It’s about how today’s most wide-open college football offense (AKA “The Air Raid” offense) came from an experiment at … (drumroll, please) … Iowa Wesleyan, a small school of 600 students in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. The time frame was the late ’80s and early ’90s, and the architects were Hal Mumme, who later became Kentucky’s head coach, and Mike Leach, formerly at Texas Tech and Washington State, who then migrated to Mississippi State, where he sadly passed away in December 2022.
Beaton tells the story much better than I might, but I’ll do my best to summarize the narrative here.
Leach (left) and Mumme at Iowa Wesleyan (photo, Des Moines Register)
Mumme was the head crafter of what was to transpire. A Texas high school coach, Mumme settled at Iowa Wesleyan for a good reason—he couldn’t land another college coaching gig. Beggars can’t be choosers, as they say, and Mumme inherited a winless team (0-10) that had been shut out thrice and outscored 316-66 (average score, 32-7).
That record changed quickly. Over three years at Iowa Wesleyan, Mumme went 24-11, winning seven games his first year, and his teams averaged 40 points a game.
One of his first decisions was one of his best–hiring Mike Leach, an unlikely pick at the time. Leach, an attorney by profession, came directly to Iowa Wesleyan from (no kidding) a job he had in Finland. He served as Mumme’s chief assistant.
Both coaches were fascinated with Brigham Young’s wide-open offense. BYU thrived in the 1980s with outstanding quarterbacks, including Steve Young. The Cougars won the national championship in 1984, and the intent was to borrow from BYU and then go one better.
Bottom line? The Air Raid Offense was about to be born.
The theory was great, but the big challenge was getting a quarterback who could run the offense. For that, Mumme turned to a guy who had played for him in high school, Dustin Dewald. But Dewald had given up football to play golf at a Texas-based state university. Again, it was a genius personnel decision, but — as with Leach — Dewald was an unlikely pick.
Mumme got Dewald to transfer and reconnect with football. Then, it was about performing on the field, which he did in spades. Dewald was an IWU record-breaking QB–most passing yards, most pass completions, most passing attempts, best passing percentage, most TDs, and offensive plays. Dewald broke nine school passing and scoring records for his career, and they all stand today.
Holgorsen (right) at Iowa Wesleyan (photo, Post-Gazette)
But, of course, Dewald couldn’t do it by himself. He had to throw to receivers. One receiver was a guy named Dana Holgorsen, who later took what he learned at IWU to Oklahoma State as O-Coordinator before leaving Stillwater to become head coach of the West Virginia Mountaineers and later the Houston Cougars, where he’s the head coach today.
The very first game under Mumme told the tale. After losing 24-7 at the half, Mumme unleashed the Air Raid offense. Iowa Wesleyan came back to win, 34-31.
Well, that was then. Where is Mumme today? I think he’s retired, but you never know for sure with Hal. His last known gig was in 2021 with a developmental program in Texas. Immediately before that, he was with the XFL for a time and made earlier stops (before and after UK) at Jackson State, Valdosta State, Southeastern Louisiana, NM State, McMurry, and Belhaven–all as head coach. Leach followed Mumme on two stops—at Valdosta and UK. Then Leach went out on his own—to Oklahoma as OC and, later, as head coach at Texas Tech, Washington State, and Mississippi State.
While Mumme has faded from the spotlight, the offense he helped perfect has not. Widely copied, adapted, and played, it all started at Iowa Wesleyan in Mount Pleasant, Iowa.
From the fringe to the mainstream … remember that, students!
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POSTSCRIPT: Iowa Wesleyan had experienced serious financial difficulties for a number of years. After pursuing multiple options without success, IWU closed its doors in May 2023. In its 181st year (founded in 1842), IWU was the oldest school of its kind west of the Mississippi, founded before the State of Iowa was admitted to the Union (1846) and before the University of Iowa came to be (1847).
