The Perfect Pass: American Genius and the Reinvention of Football by S. C. Gwynne (review)

S. C. Gwynne, a bestselling author and journalist by trade, has written two previous history books, and this venture is equally successful. Although not a conventional academic history, the work is based on extensive research, a multitude of interviews, and largely secondary sources, as the author intertwines biography with the evolution of the passing game in American football. This review is based on page proofs provided by the publisher, which had no index. Occasional footnotes provided clarification and explanation of football strategy in the absence of formal endnotes.

In twenty-one short and brisk chapters Gwynne follows the early years and subsequent careers of two optimistic coaches, Hal Mumme and Mike Leach, who transformed the way in which offensive football strategy was/is conceived. Along the way, readers are informed of the brutal, nineteenth-century version of football mired in mass plays. Innovators such as Lorin Deland, Glenn "Pop" Warner, Amos Alonzo Stagg, Clark Shaughnessy, and others created new formations over the course of several decades thereafter but largely reinforced the emphasis on the running game. Wynne judiciously claims that Mumme and Leach, his brilliant assistant and later head coach in his own right, revolutionized the game by reconceptualizing space on the field of play and placing greatest emphasis on the aerial game rather than size and strength. Mumme began such reconceptualization at the high school level after a lack of success as a collegiate coach. By the late 1980s, Mumme's epiphany gained national attention by defeating nationally ranked opponents with inferior players, producing astronomical statistical marks (that is, better than 70 percent pass-completion rates, among others), and running up big scores against foes.

Although the book title suggests the revolutionary influence of Mumme's and Leach's scheme, Gwynne acknowledges the influences of earlier thinkers and systems in their development, such as LaVell Edwards at Brigham Young University; Glenn "Tiger" Ellison, an Ohio high school coach; Darrel "Mouse" Davis at Portland State; and Bill Walsh in the NFL.

Mumme landed a job as head coach of Iowa Wesleyan College in 1989 and transformed a perennial loser into a national threat as the school's enrollment doubled within three years. Along the way, readers learn of the travails of the small-college football coach: road trips, recruiting, faculty opposition, loss of family time, and culture shock. The peripatetic life of a coach brought Mumme and Leach to Valdosta State, where Wynne asserts that they successfully confronted the Southern perception of masculinity that is tied to football, meaning "real" football consisted of bone-crunching blocks and tackles and the time-honored running game that bowled over opponents. Mumme then took his magic to Kentucky in 1997 to win over the vaunted Southeast Conference rivals, while Leach brought the fast-paced, no-huddle attack to Oklahoma, Texas Tech, and Washington State. Both Mumme and Leach have trained assistants who have moved on and established coaching trees throughout the country to further their influence at both the collegiate and professional levels.

Gwynne substantiates his contentions with supporting statistics and simplified diagrams that explain complex passing routes in simplified ways for even the casual football fan. The passing "revolution" was not, however, an immediate transformation but one rooted in the past. While Gwynne acknowledges predecessors, his support for his thesis is selective, disregarding the fact that Chicago high school teams ran a hurry-up offense at the turn of the century that produced a hundred plays per game or that St. Louis University led the nation in scoring by passing as early as 1906, the initial year of legalization. Despite such lapses, the book will provide an entertaining read for sport historians, fans, and coaches in search of answers.