The Latest Breaking News from Hal Mumme

The state of Texas producing great quarterbacks is commonplace, but even by already high historical standards, the current group is remarkable.

BALTIMORE — In the football coaching firmament, there are wizards — Mouse Davis with his run-and-shoot offense, Hal Mumme and Mike Leach with the “Air Raid” — celebrated more for their schematic innovations than for the games they won. Then, there are adapters: coaches who do not invent the tools…

They were both part of Hal Mumme’s first staff as football coach at the University of Kentucky. Guy Morriss was the former NFL offensive lineman from Texas. Mike Leach was the quirky law school graduate from California. Both are now gone, both way too soon.

“Mike’s keen intellect and unvarnished candor made him one of the nation’s true coaching legends,” Mississippi State President Mark Keenum said. “His passing brings great sadness to our university, to the Southeastern Conference, and to all who loved college football.”

Leach broke the mold both on the field and off, and his death leaves a sport without one of its unique figures.

Leach was hospitalized following a medical emergency at his home over the weekend.

The ideas that would one day inspire a football revolution had been rattling around in Hal Mumme's head for a few years before he finally had the chance to use them. It was 1986, and Mumme had just lost his job as Texas El Paso's offensive coordinator. With nowhere to…