AIR RAID PRACTICE SCHEDULE FOR HAL MUMME AND

MIKE LEACH
Chris Brown, November 2005

AIR RAID PRACTICE PLAN:

Practicing the Multiple Receiver Offense

Practice schedules and drills for the pass offense are not a lot different than those for the
conventional offense but I believe a great deal of thought and preparation must be done to
achieve success. In the “Air Raid” offense I have used for many years at several different levels
certain nuisances have lent themselves to practicing well. I will detail these things in the article
with hope it will help you.

Make Practice Consistent

The pass offense depends much on timing and chemistry between players i.e. QB and WR on
route, this makes consistent practice a must. I always tried to erase doubt in the players’ minds as
to what would be done in practice on any given day. I endeavored to make all the Mondays the
same, all the Tuesdays the same, etc. By keeping a consistent practice schedule through each
game week of the season our players could gear up mentally for the tasks to be accomplished in
each segment of practice. To give an example, our individual drills were all done the same way
and same segment of each day's work out. Consistent practice makes for consistent reps, which
make for great reps, which makes for great play.

Practice Success
That old saying about you play like you practice is true. It was always my belief that five great
reps of anything were worth more than ten mediocre reps. With this in mind, I encouraged our
players to slow down their reps but to do them great. For example, if you have a QB and two WR
working on the curl route don’t rush through the drill just so you can say you got ten reps. It will
be a lot more productive to have the WR walk back between reps, take there time, and have five
great curl routes each one perfect. Hustle is fine but is not the only ingredient. Practice successful
reps even if it means fewer reps.

I never wanted to practice anything that a player could not visualize doing in a game. The
successful coach should look at every drill - be it individual, group, or team type - and ask
himself if this will happen in a game. If this answer is no, throw it out, it is wasted motion, which
means lost time. The only resource that cannot be replaced is time. Knowing you can eliminate
poor drills, look at the fruitful drills. Take each one and study how you can make them more
game-like. For example, our “Air Raid” offense depended greatly on multiple sets, player
groupings, and the no huddle attack. With those parameters, I decided to make all of our team
offense drills more game-like by having the sideline coaches and players box painted on our
practice field and requiring all our coaches and players to work and sub from where they would
in the game on Saturday. This greatly enhanced the efficient use of subs and made delay of game
penalties unheard of in our offense. I believe players will perform better in games if they can
visualize what it will be like therefore practice game-like events.
Practice for the Unplanned Event
Every coach loves that play which happened just the way he drew it up. To be honest about it
though, those are more rare than ordinary. This is particularly true in the pass offense. Practicing
contingency football is very important. I would take each of our pass plays and draw up what
would happen if our QB were forced to scramble to his right and then repeat the process with a
scramble left. I would drill this about ten minutes per a week to make sure everyone knew where
to go on the field if the QB scrambled right or left. I had landmarks for each receiver and the
offense of line and running backs had specific duties. Our teams often made spectacular plays
when the opponent’s defense played its best and forced our QB from the pocket. We turned our
lemons into lemonade so to speak because we practiced the unplanned event.

Practice Organization is crucial to having an effective multiple receiver pass attack.

Practice Making the Big Play

Scores happen because players expect them to take place. I have certain things I want
accomplished on each play from each player but the bottom line is to score. With that in mind, I
made it mandatory that whomever ended up with the ball on any play had to cross the goal. In
other words, our players scored on every play in practice, from individual drill right through
team. I wanted all of the players to expect to score on every play. This takes some patience since
the coach has to give the ball carrier time to return from the sprint to the goal. The results are
worthwhile, as big plays can become habit.

Plan Success
All the practice habits described can be planned into workouts. The best time to plan workouts
for the season is in the summer when the pressure is off. For this reason all of the workouts for
the entire fall including bowl games or playoffs I planned in July. They were organized by day of
the week and placed in a large binder to be used as needed on a daily basis. It was always
amazing how few changes had to be made and how consistent our offense would become due to
this planning. The most important time during the game week are the moments coaches spend
with their players. By not having to devote daily time to planning practice schedules the coach
has more time to spend with the players. Success can be planned well in advance.

Basic “Air Raid” Weekly Schedule-Season

Monday:
90 min. view previous game
30 min. dress-warm-up
40 min. special teams review
20 min. individual drills
30 min. walk through game plan
30 min. watch video of upcoming opponent

Tuesday:
30 min. watch video of upcoming opponent
15 min. warm-up
15 min. special teams/individual time for uninvolved
20 min. individual drills
10 min. group routes on air/OL individual drills
10 min. one on one DB-WR/inside drill
10 min. team screens
5 min. special teams
20 min. pass skelly
25 min. team offense: coming off goal, open field, third and short, FGS
30 min. individual meet watch days work-out

Wednesday:
30 min. watch video of upcoming opponent
15 min. warm-up
15 min. special teams/individual time for uninvolved
20 min. individual
10 min. one on one DB-WR/inside drill
20 min. pass skelly
55 min. team: goal line, red zone, third and long, open field, punt
30 min. individual meet watch days work-out

Thursday:
20 min. team meet watch previous days team video
10 min. individual meet study opponents
15 min. warm-up
35 min. special teams/individual for uninvolved
10 min. individual
10 min. team scramble drill
55 min. team game plan
10 min. sideline sub special teams
No meetings after practice

Friday:
Travel and meetings

Saturday:
Game

Sunday:
Off