1999 Kentucky Wildcats football team
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 lead 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.