This book follows Hal Mumme and his raise to head football coach and then the raise of “Air Raid” in college football and pro football. Along with Mike Leech, they changed per the author football from a run dominated sport to a passing sport. One might want to also look at this past college football season when Mike Leech was looking at winning the Pac-12 football but the last game of the season was played in a snow storm. His Washington Cougars could not pass the ball, and they could not run the ball because they were a pass orientated team. They also could not last on defense because the opposing team could run the ball and kept their defense out on the field for most of the game and the Cougars lost. So yes I did like parts of this book and yes he and Leech and others change the game because of the rules have given the offense the advantage. I still did not like how the author dismissed Sid Gillman, and Don Coryell as having nothing to do with the passing game. The game has evolved over the years and if people are going to dismiss the history of the game one has to remember the rules since the ’70s and on have changed a lot when it comes to pass interference and how the defensive back can only touch a receiver five yards from the line of scrimmage, back then they could put hands on them all the time and also roughing the quarterback was very rarely called if at all. So overall an okay book. I received this book from Netgalley.com I gave it 3 stars. Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com

No matter what level of football a fan follows, it has become very clear that the forward pass is now an integral part of the game. To many, this has made the game more exciting and to others, it simply brings more variation to the offense than the smash-mouth type of game that was espoused by coaches and players alike for the first several decades the game was played.

However, it wasn’t an easy time to get the game to where it is today as many who wanted to make passing a bigger part of the game were rebuffed time and time again. One of those coaches who saw the benefits of a pass-first offense was Hal Mumme, a college football coach whose life was pretty much like any other coach – always working, wondering when the next pink slip would come and trying to convince players and athletic directors that this way would work.

Mumme’s offense, dubbed the “Air Raid”, was given the opportunity to be put into effect at a tiny school in the Midwest, Iowa Wesleyan, that had been a losing program for years. Along with assistant coach Mike Leach (who developed his own air game and is the subject of the excellent first chapter of the book), Mumme turned the program around and not only brought winning football to the campus, but an entire new atmosphere.

It is here where there is some fuzziness in the book, as Gwynne never gives a reason as to why Mumme was asked to leave Iowa Wesleyan, but that doesn’t stop him. Eventually landing in Kentucky, Mumme does the same thing to a football program at a basketball-first university. The Air Raid becomes a hit in Lexington, enough so that the Wildcats did the unthinkable at the time – they defeated the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Equal parts biography and history, “The Perfect Pass” is a terrific book that all football fans should read to gain a better understanding of the history of the forward pass in the game and how the innovation of one relatively obscure coach help change the game for good.

I wish to thank Scribner for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.