1999 Kentucky Wildcats football team

1999 Kentucky Wildcats football
Music City Bowl, L 13–20 vs. Syracuse
Conference	Southeastern Conference
Division	Eastern Division
Record	6–6 (4–4 SEC)
Head coach	Hal Mumme (3rd season)
Offensive coordinator	Tony Franklin (1st as OC, 3rd overall season)
Offensive scheme	Air raid
Defensive coordinator	Mike Major (3rd season)
Home stadium	Commonwealth Stadium (Capacity: 67,530)

1999 Southeastern Conference football standings

	Conf							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
Eastern Division
No. 12 Florida x		7	–	1					9	–	4
No. 9 Tennessee		6	–	2					9	–	3
No. 16 Georgia		5	–	3					8	–	4
Kentucky		4	–	4					6	–	6
Vanderbilt		2	–	6					5	–	6
South Carolina		0	–	8					0	–	11
Western Division
No. 8 Alabama x$		7	–	1					10	–	3
No. 13 Mississippi State		6	–	2					10	–	2
No. 22 Ole Miss		4	–	4					8	–	4
No. 17 Arkansas		4	–	4					8	–	4
Auburn		2	–	6					5	–	6
LSU		1	–	7					3	–	8
Championship: Alabama 34, Florida 7
$ – BCS representative as conference champion x – Division champion/co-champions Rankings from AP Poll

The 1999 Kentucky Wildcats football team represented the University of Kentucky during the 1999 NCAA Division I-A football season. They participated as members of the Southeastern Conference in the Eastern Division. They played their home games at Commonwealth Stadium in Lexington, Kentucky. The team was coached by Hal Mumme.

Stadium Expansion

During the 1999 season, the beginning of the renovation to Commonwealth Stadium began. With very little seating, the stadium was in desperate need of a renovation that would allow more fans into the stadium to watch the Air Raid offense that was largely started by head coach, Hal Mumme. The renovation of the stadium allowed for forty new suites and approximately 68,000 new seats, costing around 24 million dollars. The new stadium expansion allowed the eager University of Kentucky fans to come watch more games. The fan base had just previously broken a record of attendance in the previous season by selling out the Outback Bowl for the first time in Tampa, Florida.

Hal Mumme

Every great team is led by a great head coach. For the University of Kentucky, it was Hal Mumme. He had an impressive coaching career working with many different schools during his time of coaching. He coached at schools such as the University of Kentucky, Iowa Wesleyan College, Valdosta College, Southeastern Louisiana College, New Mexico State University, and McMurry University. Throughout his college coaching career, he finished with a record of 142-152-1. He became known for spreading and making the “Air Raid Offense” popular in college football. He was able to persuade college football into this new and creative offensive scheme because of his large coaching tree. A coaching tree begins when an assistant coach from one team leaves and joins another team, and then implements what he/she learned on the previous team.

Before Mumme and the 1999 Season

Before Mumme, the University of Kentucky football team was run by Bill Curry. Once Hal Mumme took over the football program in 1996, he was able to lead the Wildcats to multiple school records, as well as NCAA and SEC records. The program also had a hard time making it to their qualifiers, but with the addition of Hal Mumme, they were able to immediately make it to their qualifiers. Coming into the 1999 football season, the program only had one returning senior wide receiver, Jimmie Johnson. They were also coming into a season where they had just lost Tim Couch to the NFL draft after he had a standout career at the University of Kentucky and was drafted as the first overall pick.

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 4	3:30 pm	Louisville*	Commonwealth Stadium Lexington, Kentucky (Battle for the Governor's Cup)	FSN	L 28–56	70,692
September 11	1:30 pm	Connecticut*	Commonwealth Stadium Lexington, Kentucky		W 45–14	63,879
September 18	12:00 pm	at Indiana*	Memorial Stadium Bloomington, Indiana	ESPN	W 44–35	39,146
September 25	7:30 pm	No. 3 Florida	Commonwealth Stadium Lexington, Kentucky	ESPN	L 10–38	70,971
October 2	1:30 pm	No. 20 Arkansas	Commonwealth Stadium Lexington, Kentucky	PPV	W 31–20	62,602
October 9	1:00 pm	at South Carolina	Williams-Brice Stadium Columbia, South Carolina	PPV	W 30–10	73,150
October 16	12:30 pm	LSU	Commonwealth Stadium Lexington, Kentucky	JPS	W 31–5	67,370
October 23	12:30 pm	at No. 14 Georgia	Sanford Stadium Athens, Georgia	JPS	L 34–49	86,117
November 4	8:00 pm	at No. 8 Mississippi State	Scott Field Starkville, Mississippi	ESPN	L 22–23	39,149
November 13	9:00 pm	at Vanderbilt	Vanderbilt Stadium Nashville, Tennessee (rivalry)	ESPN2	W 19–17	41,000
November 20	12:30 pm	No. 7 Tennessee	Commonwealth Stadium Lexington, Kentucky (Battle for the Barrel)	JPS	L 21–56	71,022
December 29	4:00 pm	vs. Syracuse*	Adelphia Coliseum Nashville, Tennessee (Music City Bowl)	ESPN	L 13–20	59,221
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game All times are in Eastern time