Air Raid evolution: Pioneering offense passes test of time

Mike Leach settles into a leather chair in his office overlooking Mississippi State’s practice field after a routine spring session with his team and is asked to give a status report on the Air Raid offense, which has been carving up major-college defenses for the last 25 years. Other Air Raid descendants who are currently FBS head coaches include USC’s Lincoln Riley, Houston’s Dana Holgorsen, TCU’s Sonny Dykes, West Virginia’s Neal Brown and Louisiana Tech’s Sonny Cumbie. “I think what kind of elevated the offense at that time was their ability to run the football and run it effectively,” said TCU offensive coordinator Garrett Riley, Lincoln’s 32-year-old younger brother. After a successful stint at Houston Baptist, Western Kentucky’s Tyson Helton brought Kittley and his HBU quarterback, Bailey Zappe, to Conference USA last season and yet another branch of the Air Raid tree sprouted. “We were able to mesh some of the different pass-protection rules and put in some of the gap-scheme run games that you’re not going to see from your traditional Air Raid attack.” Zappe broke the major-college record for passing yards in a season with 5,967 last year, topping the record of 5,833 set in 2003 by Texas Tech’s B.J.