“These kids just don’t want to tackle these days,” grumbles your grandfather from his recliner.
Across the country at all levels, football has consistently been trending in an offensive direction over the last couple decades. Teams are spreading the field, utilizing motion and manufacturing space to create explosive plays through the air and on the ground. Hal Mumme, Mike Leach and the other disciples of the Air Raid offense are major characters in that story, but it couldn’t be written without high school football in Arkansas.
Gus Malzahn’s adaptation of the smashmouth spread offense took the sport by storm at Springdale High in the 2000s, pioneering a system that delivered a national title to Auburn and spawned an extensive coaching tree.