BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer

MADISON, Wis. – Phil Longo was a budding, impressionable high school coach, still seeking affirmation of his offensive theories, when Mike Leach entered his life. Leach was then the offensive coordinator at Kentucky where his quarterback Tim Couch was setting all kinds of passing records.

"It was just an incredibly impactful couple of days that I had in Kentucky with him," said Longo, reflecting on his skull session with Leach. "At that point, I was still searching for what I wanted to do offensively. I was really young then. I thought I knew everything, and I didn't know anything.

"I had a mentor in (O-line coach) George DeLeone, who was at Syracuse. He really taught me what it was like to grind, and I thought he was the standard. I came to find out that he was one of the biggest grinders in the business. And then, I meet Mike and Mike is on the other end of the spectrum."

DeLeone was more conservative, a conformist, old school. Leach was quite the opposite.

"He (Leach) was just a super intelligent guy, a super real person. He very much believed in allowing really, really good athletes their freedom in football to be really, really good athletes. I learned at a very early stage in my coaching career that this was what made the most sense to me.

"It allowed skill guys to be skill guys. It kept the game simple, and it let them be really, really good at what they do. I really adopted that philosophy as far back as when I first met him (Leach). In trying to pick his brain every year about different things, I wound up spending a lot of time with him.

"Later on, he became a very good friend and confidant – somebody I traded ideas with on a weekly basis. He was as big of an impact on my football life moreso than anybody. And there's been a lot of great influences and coaches that have helped teach me and helped guide me along the way."

Longo had texted with Leach no more than five hours before the Mississippi State head coach was airlifted from his home in Starkville to a Jackson hospital with what the school called a "personal health issue." He passed away on December 12 from complications to a heart condition. He was 61.

Longo had spoken with Leach the previous week.

"He was super excited that I was headed to Wisconsin," he said softly.

Leach had a major influence on Longo and the Air Raid offense – which Leach developed with Hal Mumme and popularized as the head coach at Texas Tech, Washington State and Mississippi State – a version of which Longo is bringing to Madison as Luke Fickell's offensive coordinator and QB coach.

A New York Times obituary labeled Leach's offense as audacious, high-powered, pass-happy.

Probed on whether he would be running the Air Raid with the Badgers, he said, "That's what it is, from head to toe, philosophically, that's how I run it. I think some people let those words affect their perception, which becomes, 'Hey, we're going to throw it 100 times. We don't run the ball at all.'

"That's not it all. The philosophy of the Air Raid is to throw the ball to space or open grass. And all that we've done in our form of the Air Raid is to apply that same philosophy to the run game."

Over the last four seasons as North Carolina's offensive coordinator, Longo said, "We were one of the top two or three teams in the country creating a six-man box to run the football against. So by throwing the ball effectively and by spreading the field, you can't load the box with nine and 10 people.

"I have a tremendous amount of respect for the way that Wisconsin has won football games. Luke brought me here to put in an offense that is diverse and balanced. And we are by no means ever going to stop running the football here. We're just probably going to get to it in a different way.

"I'd like to throw the ball as effectively as we run the ball."

Longo's aim for the Badgers is to be a "more multi-dimensional offense to have to defend."

Here's the diversity that Longo has in mind. In 2020, North Carolina beat Wake Forest, 59-53, behind quarterback Sam Howell, who threw for 550 yards and six scores. Three games later, the Tar Heels whipped Miami, 62-26. Michael Carter and Javonte Williams combined for 544 rushing yards.

They had 742 total yards against the Demon Deacons, 778 against the Hurricanes.

"Wake Forest came in and decided to out-number the box and not let us run the football," said Longo, citing how both Carter and Williams rushed for over 1,000 yards that season. "Fast-forward to Miami and they were not going to let us throw RPO's or downfield and they played coverage.

"That was the same offense in the same season."

The same offense, he noted, "That is, without fail, a take-what-they-give-you system."

In 2020, Howell completed 68 percent of his passes and threw for 3,586 yards and 30 touchdowns with seven interceptions. In 2022, Drake Maye completed 66 percent and passed for 4,321 yards (308.6) and 38 touchdowns with seven interceptions. What do these two QB's share?

"They both think very well, they're both exceptionally intelligent and obsessed with the game and they're both incredibly accurate," Longo said, adding that Howell was "very good north-south in running the football and Drake was really good laterally in terms of extending plays and running."

If Longo could build the ideal quarterback for his Badger offense, what would he look like?

"He's got to be able to think and throw first," said the 54-year-old Longo, a native of Red Bank, New Jersey. "And then, we don't want an immobile guy. He doesn't have to be a great runner to be in this offense. But we want him to move around enough to extend plays.

"He's got to be able to make good decisions, which is why we try to keep the game really, really simple. It's very hard as a human being in any walk of life to make 75-80 good decisions in a row. Human beings get distracted. We get tired. We don't make good decisions when we are fatigued.

"It's a very hard job to ask anybody, especially a quarterback when he's under duress, to make good decisions 75 straight times in a ballgame. The great ones have to do that and they do. So you try to make life as simple as possible.

"But we've got to be able to think and make good decisions. We've got to be super accurate and then we have to be able to extend the play long enough to distribute the ball. The job for a quarterback in this offense is to distribute to all of the weapons that we have in the system."

Speaking of weapons, after watching tape of Wisconsin's tailback tandem of Braelon Allen and Chez Mellusi, Longo came away impressed. "They're probably one of the better one-two combinations in the country," he said. "And we plan to take full advantage of both of those guys."

As far as the UW's best-known commodity, XXXL offensive linemen, a long-time recruiting resource, Longo said, "The O-line will not look any different. They grow them really big here and those type of boys like coming here to play football. We're not going to change that at all.

"I just want to prioritize maybe a more diverse approach."

Longo is confident the Badgers can do both. Run and pass. "Shhhh, don't tell anybody," he kidded. "Let them all defend the passing game and Air Raid and that will allow us to keep running the football. The emphasis to the run game in practice will be equal to that in the pass game."

Prior to the interviewing process, Longo had been in Madison only a couple of times. Once to watch a Bret Bielema-coached team play. Another to visit with assistants during a spring practice. But he recruited the state while coaching at Minnesota-Duluth. And his wife Tanya is from Durand, Wis.

Longo's coaching resume confirms that he has paid his dues in the profession. His stops have included La Salle (where he was the head coach), Duluth, Southern Illinois, Youngstown State, Slippery Rock, and Sam Houston State before reaching the Power 5 (Mississippi, North Carolina, Wisconsin).

"I was talking with Mike Tressel yesterday," he said of the UW's defensive coordinator, "and I told him that I had been reading over his bio and I just found that to be interesting. It's not all together different than my track. I tried to make every place that I was at the place to be.

"When you're coaching at a lower level, you learn how to do everything. I've lined the field. I've done laundry. You do that stuff at the lower level when you don't have the same staffing and the same money. I know for me it gave me an appreciation for having the manpower we have at bigger schools."

So, what brought Longo to Wisconsin? Why here? Why now in his coaching journey?

"Number one because of Luke Fickell," he said emphatically. "I told Mack Brown (the current North Carolina head coach) four years ago – when he asked, 'What would I leave North Carolina for?' – I told him a good head coaching job, but not any job.

"And I told him the only other guy that I would work for right now that I have a relationship with would be Luke Fickell. Here we are four years later. And that has come to pass. I passed up an opportunity to work with him in 2017 (Longo accepted an offer to coach at Mississippi instead).

"I had a great run, a great time. But I didn't want to pass on the opportunity a second time around and it's a double-positive. We're at Wisconsin, we're in the Big Ten, we're in one of the best conferences in college football. And we're at a tradition-rich and very successful program like Wisconsin.

"I'm really excited about Chris McIntosh, our AD, who seems like his No. 1 desire is to take this program to another level. It's exciting to be a part of that. And hopefully I can do my part to help get that done."

If so, Longo's Air Raid offense will come to pass in a new locale. And pass. And run, too.