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  • What is Your Tastes in Air Raids?

    by
    LonnyDemaree
    Published on 04-30-2013 07:29 AM
    3 Comments Comments
    By: LONNY DEMAREE



    It is good that the Air Raid is coming back to Commonwealth Stadium and it will generate lots of excitement. The fans remember the Hal Mumme days when the air was full of footballs. But air-raid’s, cannon-boom’s, steam and or smoke, or smoking-mirrors excite fans but do not win football games.

    The average fan may want to see the ball in the air seventy-percent of the time but Mark Stoops said you can’t win in the SEC with that kind of percentage. “You have to be more balance in our offensive approach,” the coach explained. Coach Stoops and offensive coordinator Neal Brown did not come to Kentucky with the mind set of strictly just entertaining the fan base, alone. Stoops said to win in the SEC you have it have more of a balanced offensive attack. Aside from the sirens let’s define the Air Raid attack.

    1) There was Hal Mumme’s version, who was arguably the author of the air-raid attack. He had the ball in the air 70-percent of the time.
    2) Then there was the Tony Franklin version who coached under Mumme. The two of them coached James Whalen to records for receptions as a tight end.

    Wait a minute, let’s pause right there for a brief moment. The head coach Ray Goff era of Georgia Bulldog football was not considered the spread offense but with Eric Zier (’92-’95) they passed the football may times upwards of fifty time in games. Ironically both he a Hal Mumme got released from their jobs. At the time Goff had running back’s Terrell Davis and Olandis Gary on the squad both of who went on to become thousand-yard backs in the NFL. Goff told his fan base he didn’t have adequate backs to run the football.

    3) There is the Sonny Dykes version of the spread offense.
    4) The Cliff Kingsbury version.
    5) The Mike Leach version

    Except for Leach and Mumme who at periods in their careers have thrown 70-percent of the time, all of the other aforementioned coaches were closer to 60-percent pass. Last year at Texas Tech Neal Brown threw 59-percent to 41-percent running the ball.

    Dykes coached Green Bay Packer tight end Ron Gronkowski at Texas Tech and that position is an integral part of the spread offense. The way UK intends to make what they do effective is the high-tempo to keep defenses off balance.

    We hearken back to 1997 when UK was at LSU Tiger stadium. I was a night game and UK a heavy underdog in the game. The tigers had a nose-tackle named Anthony “Bugger” McFarland that was terrorizing the SEC. And having to rush the quarterback continuously by mid-third quarter Bugger was perspiring profusely and winded. By the end of the game he was render harmless and UK won the game 39-36 on a last second field goal by Seth Hanson. McFarland went to on play nine years in the NFL including a Super-Bowl win with the Indianapolis Colts.

    So what is your taste in air-raids? I say the one that puts more emphasis on the running game and defense. Without those ingredients UK is going to continue to spin its wheels in the SEC.
    1. Categories:
    2. Football
    Comments 3 Comments
    1. CitizenBBN's Avatar
      CitizenBBN - 04-30-2013, 12:36 AM
      We don't have, and may never have, the raw depth and talent to just line up against the best and dare them to stop us with no inventiveness in the coaching. We're going to have to use some guile, and I like the mix Brown will bring. Not so pass happy as to be a gimmick but different enough we can show some things our opponent may not see every week and practice against every day.

      I'd say my favorite Air Raid though is the Doolittle Raid. True it wasn't strategically significant, and daytime bombing of Germany and any number of other infamous raids were more critical to success of various wars, but for sheer audacity launching land bound bombers off an aircraft carrier that couldn't land back on the carrier has to get some votes. Would have loved to have been in that pitch meeting.
    1. kybobcat's Avatar
      kybobcat - 04-30-2013, 12:21 PM




    1. suncat05's Avatar
      suncat05 - 04-30-2013, 01:12 PM
      Quote Originally Posted by CitizenBBN View Post
      We don't have, and may never have, the raw depth and talent to just line up against the best and dare them to stop us with no inventiveness in the coaching. We're going to have to use some guile, and I like the mix Brown will bring. Not so pass happy as to be a gimmick but different enough we can show some things our opponent may not see every week and practice against every day.

      I'd say my favorite Air Raid though is the Doolittle Raid. True it wasn't strategically significant, and daytime bombing of Germany and any number of other infamous raids were more critical to success of various wars, but for sheer audacity launching land bound bombers off an aircraft carrier that couldn't land back on the carrier has to get some votes. Would have loved to have been in that pitch meeting.
      In all of the annals of warfare, the Doolittle raid over Tokyo was not only brilliant and daring, it gave the U.S. & its allies a much needed shot-in-the-arm at a time when it was most needed, and it told the Japanese that hell was coming to them.
      Given the time in history, the technology available, and who controlled what strategically on that day, it was an amazing feat of daring & courage in the face of a foe that thought it was invincible and predestined to án overwhelming victory. And although you never want to see valuable wartime resources wasted, this was clearly an exception to that rule due to the boost in morale that the attack gave everyone in the U.S.

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