Hal Mumme on Kentucky, Air Raid, underdogs, and cancer

Wed Jun 27 11:02am EDT

Hal Mumme on Kentucky, Air Raid, underdogs, and cancer

Say what you will about Hal Mumme, but he's always been interesting.

The former Kentucky coach who was instrumental in introducing the 'Air Raid' offense found around the country now has had a fascinating career. He took Kentucky to the Outback Bowl in 1998 before an NCAA investigation brought him down after four seasons in Lexington.

He hasn't recaptured the same magic since, bouncing around the country. He spent four years at New Mexico State and is now the head coach at McMurry, a Division III school in Abilene, Texas. He was also diagnosed with cancer in 2009.

He talks about receiving chemotherapy treatments during last season, when McMurry went 9-3, in an interview with SBnation.com. There's lots more, too, but I thought his philosophy on what it takes to win as an underdog was most interesting:

"I have this mentality that if you're at a place that isn't supposed to win, you have to live on the edge or you'll have no chance of winning," Mumme said. "If you do something in the extreme, and you do it really, really well, and you rep it all the time and that's what you do well, when teams play you they're going to have to play in the extreme. And you're good at it because you do it all the time, and they only practice it for that one game."

You can read the full interview here.