Let's talk Air Raid

[GeauxGleaux]

Thinking of changing up my usual Split-Back offense and trying out the Air Raid.

I've been reading a lot about the history of the offense (and I offer this link for you to do the same)

Any other Disciples of Leach willing to impart some knowledge on me? I'd definitely appreciate it.

[SpartyParty11]

I love the Air Raid offense because it allows me to throw to more than 2 receivers. I throw to close to 5-6 receivers a game and I involve my tight ends a lot, especially on third downs and goal line situations. Also the Air Raid will allow for a good halfback draw now and again. It really keeps the defense on their toes.

I also love it because it doesn't involve many deep passes. A lot of curl routes, slants and crossing patterns. So instead of running 6-7 plays a series like Oregon, you will run close to 12-13 plays. Wears down the defense. I wish they had the play that tore up Clemson in the 2012 Orange Bowl. That might be more of a Spread play than Air Raid. Either way, counts as a pass.

[JLoco11]

With the horrible pass coverage AI and pinpoint accurate QBs, the best thing to have is quick slot receivers (think Wes Welker type players).

If you get matchups with LB's and 3rd and 4th string corner backs, you'll be able to tear up a defense in the 5-10 yard passing range.

If you change formations and get star receivers in slot positions, you can take advantage even more if they can get across the middle of the field in front of the safeties.

Only challenge with the air raid is you get very few pass setups. You'll get run setups where you can give the ball to a HB for a decent gain, but you won't get too many homerun setup plays for deep passes.

[Eagle34]

Well, you're obviously going to pass a lot, but similarly to the option, there's only a few plays that it uses. There's the X,Y,Z and H Shallow Cross plays, various Stick plays, Mesh, screens and the occasional 4 Verts, all of which are commonly run in 4-WR sets. The opponent dictates who you throw to. If you use Leach's Air Raid, there's going to be <15 runs. His philosophy is that balance isn't run/pass, but that balance is actually distributing passes across each area of the field. Sumlin's is far more balanced, primarily because he has a running QB in Manziel. Nevertheless, in 82 plays last week against us, he ran 42 times and threw 40. Hope that helps.

[GeauxGleaux]

Eagle, thanks for a quality post.

I've started digging around the 2x2 and 1x3 sets and adding the routes into a custom play book. Looks like a lot of fun. Shallow/dig combo routes seem impossible stop, especially against the majority of people that run 100% man/man blitz.

[killakam5545]

Air Raid is probably one of, if not the, simplest offenses you'll ever utilize. There are stories (true stories) of when Mike Leach was at his height at TTU, his "playbook" consisted of a note card.

As Mumme / Leach coaching tree has grown, so has the offense, with his coordinators taking bits and pieces of the offense to where teams runs variations of the offense with their own little nuances to it (Holgorsen loves the Pistol sets with combination plays like stick draw, or read option w/ smoke screen/bubble screen combo)

If you want to get into the offense, learn the main series behind it (Shallow series, stick series, 6/All verts, Deep crossing series, screen series) and then combine it with whatever game you want to run. If you want to be a fast paced, no huddle like Kingsbury or Sonny ****s who will screen you to death while using stick and completely throwing out the shallow series, do it. If you want to disregard all the series outside of stick and deep crossing like Holgorsen, do it. If you want to use read option, shallow, and a whole lot of play action off it like Art Briles, do it. Its up to you.


Air Raid is more than an offense, its a philosophy to put the ball in the air while putting your best players in space to make plays.

[SonOfEd]

Still not happy about them taking out the option to give on PA Read plays. Love the packaged plays concept.

[cbutler0509]

For one of the dynasties I am doing I use a modified Texas Tech playbook. I cant remember what all I added (at work now) I am pretty sure it was some option runs. Any-who, I find I have a very balanced attack with that playbook. I am a big proponent of spreading the field to run the ball. As mentioned earlier, I am able to get the ball to multiple receivers, including my TE. So it is a fun offense to give a go.

The little I know about Mike Leach is that they ran a play called "6". I have been trying to get a better explanation on it so if I miss-speak please be gentle. From what I understand 6 is all option routes. The WR & QB read the defense, WR run routes based on the coverage they see, and the QB throws the ball trusting that his WR's are seeing the same thing he is. I know when Texas Tech beat Texas the game winning TD to Crabtree was the play 6. Leach said after the game he regretted not calling it more often.

Curious, can you go into detail about your split back playbook. I would like to try that at some point.