In American football, the air raid offense is an offensive scheme popularized by such coaches as Earnest Wilson, Hal Mumme, Mike Leach, Sonny Dykes, and Tony Franklin during their respective tenures at Iowa Wesleyan University, Valdosta State, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Louisiana Tech, and Washington State.
[1] The modern air raid offense first made its appearance when Mumme and Leach took over at Iowa Wesleyan College and Valdosta State University and had success there during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Leach then served as offensive coordinator at the University of Oklahoma in 1999 before landing the head coaching job at Texas Tech.
Shortly into the early 2000s, assistant coaches started landing head coaching jobs such as Chris Hatcher at Valdosta State, Art Briles (first at Houston then Baylor), Sonny Dykes (first at Louisiana Tech, then at California), Ruffin McNeill at East Carolina, Dana Holgorsen at West Virginia, and Kevin Sumlin (first at Houston, then Texas A&M).
The quarterback has the freedom to change the play based on what the defensive team shows him at the line of scrimmage, using a vocal signal called an "audible".