



Twenty years ago, Dana Holgorsen was an underwhelming wide receiver at an undersized school (Iowa Wesleyan), playing for a man with an oversized imagination.

That man was Hal Mumme, the unlikely progenitor of an offensive style that has outgrown its inventor and become the most powerful weapon in college football. The offense is the Air Raid, built on the BYU notion that throwing the ball all over the yard can equalize a talent deficit. Like most revolutionaries, Mumme started small: He nurtured his project amid the tumbleweeds of Texas on the high-school level, then got his break in college coaching at Iowa Wesleyan in the late 1980s. That's where Holgorsen came under his wing.

An unabashed contrarian and certified know-it-all, Mumme would ultimately ride his offensive scheme to the Southeastern Conference, where he made perennial punching bag Kentucky respectable. Then it would all crash down amid an NCAA scandal that helped return him to the small-school level from which he came. But his colorful colony of True Believers would continue to spread the word and the style, tweaking it along the way, with the scoreboard rewarding their faith in a counter-culture approach.

Mike Leach was a True Believer, implementing the offense as a coordinator at Oklahoma and then as head coach at Texas Tech. So were Sonny Dykes and Tony Franklin, on the staff at Kentucky and now the head coach and offensive coordinator at high-octane, undefeated Louisiana Tech. So was Chris Hatcher, whose FCS Murray State team put 70 on the board last weekend against Tennessee Tech.

Hatcher played for Mumme at Valdosta State. His position coach there was Holgorsen, whose West Virginia team scored 70 last weekend as well – a considerably more noticeable 70 – against Baylor.

"If I'd known they were going to score 70," Hatcher said, "I probably would have tacked one more on at the end to beat him."

[Related: Watch recruiting footage of West Virginia's Geno Smith]

Right now, all the True Believers are watching Holgorsen coach what may be the apotheosis of the Air Raid at West Virginia. The separating factor is the guy doing the throwing.

In a lineage that includes an NFL No. 1 pick (Tim Couch), a Heisman Trophy winner (Jason White), the all-time passing yardage leader (Case Keenum) and a current NFL starter (Brandon Weeden), Geno Smith might be the best Air Raid quarterback yet.









After every West Virginia practice, Geno Smith drops off an iPad for the Mountaineers video staff to download video. He gets all the cut-ups of the offense and takes them home to study.

"He's already watched it three or four times before I've even met with him," said quarterbacks coach Jake Spavital. "He's been that way since day one when we got here."

The Air Raid offense does not work from an inches-thick playbook. But it requires a quarterback who can think on his own, and quickly – probably the biggest difference between what Holgorsen and others are doing today from what Mumme was doing in the 1990s is tempo. Huddles are for stallers in today's Air Raid.

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So a quarterback like Smith, who has a perfectionist streak and a penchant for preparedness, suits the system well. Especially if he also has abundant physical gifts.

"He loves the game of football," Holgorsen said. "I've never been around a guy who has just developed his entire game like him. His confidence is at an all-time high. Physically he's better, he's bigger, he's faster, he's stronger. Escapability in the pocket is unbelievable, arm strength, accuracy.

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