Bluff City may soon be renamed Air Raid City as Hal Mumme, known as one of the founders of the high-octane Air Raid offense, has joined the football coaching staff at Sullivan East.
His newest stop in Bluff City comes after spending over 30 years in the college football coaching space, two years coaching in the Alliance of American Football league and a season coaching in the Spring League.
Mumme joins Sullivan East coach J.C. Simmons as an offensive analyst while Stan Bedwell remains as the offensive coordinator. Bedwell and Mumme have a long-standing relationship, which played a part in Mumme landing with the Patriots.
“(Bedwell) played and coached for (Mumme) in this offense for years, so there was a connection there. Move forward to the end of the season and we find out he had a break from coaching at the pro level and I had a spot open on staff," Simmons said. "We called Coach and pitched the idea of him coming to help us out, and honestly to our surprise, he ended up saying yes."
Sullivan East adopted the Air Raid offense in 2020, when Simmons became the program's coach.. Having both Mumme and Bedwell, who both have knowledge on the fast-paced offensive style, on staff will allow for the entire program to take a step forward after finishing last season 6-5.
“Our expectations for our program is to soak up every bit of information we can and put in the work to compete,” Simmons said. “We graduated several key guys last year, so having not only Coach Bedwell here, but also Coach Mumme puts our guys in an unbelievable position to grow in the game.”
Mumme will be going to San Antonio to be the head coach and general manager of the new International Football Alliance franchise after this season at Sullivan East. Knowing that he’d be back at the helm of a team next year served as an inspiration for his comeback to coaching at the high school level.
“I just wanted to get back on the field and practice my craft,” Mumme said. “At the high school level you have to really teach the fundamentals and the higher you go on the ladder with older players you don’t have as much time to work on that, so you tend to forget… So, I wanted to do it at (the high school) level to remind myself of all of those things that you have to do.”
Being the Patriots offensive analyst will allow Mumme to oversee and help both coaches and players, where he can serve as a walking dictionary and guide on the ins-and-outs of running the Air Raid offense.
“I’m able to explain why we do certain things in the offense and being able to concentrate on the fundamentals, because people tend to overlook them. It’s not about the plays as much as the fundamentals and the way you practice,” Mumme said.
Sullivan East opens up its season against Johnson County on Aug. 23.
Lawrence Goss is The Tennessean's sports intern with the Sports Journalism Institute. Contact Lawrence at lgoss@gannett.com. Follow Lawrence on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @iamlgoss.
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