The Air Raid offense, or at least concepts of it, are common for defenses to see and prepare for on the highest level of the college football landscape these days.
That wasn’t the case in the middle to late 1990s. All of that changed when Kentucky shook things up atop its football program at the end of 1996, going against the grain of the traditional SEC offenses by luring Hal Mumme, known now as the Godfather of the Air Raid Offense, from Division II Valdosta State.
Unless you were near south Georgia and followed the fortunes of the Blazers, Mumme’s offense, referred to as “basketball on grass” was not common. Mumme brought early success to Kentucky, notably beating Alabama for the first time in 75 years in 1997. The 23-13 loss to Georgia that year was marked on-field by a very Mumme-like gamble that didn’t work on a failed fourth down deep in the Wildcats own territory.
At some point for teams playing Kentucky, offensive shootouts were likely to come.
That’s exactly how it all happened in 1998 in a classic duel between two future NFL quarterbacks – Kentucky’s Tim Couch and Georgia’s Quincy Carter.
Georgia won a wild one that day in Lexington, holding on 28-26 on a missed field goal with 10 seconds to go. That came after the Dawgs nearly put the game away, only to give UK new life on a fumble with two minutes left. Couch got Kentucky in position for a second win in a row on a last-second field goal, a week after the Wildcats beat LSU 39-36.
This time, Lady Luck smiled on the Dawgs as a muffed snap sealed the win.
Couch hit up Georgia for 324 passing yards and two touchdowns, but the bigger story was the fourth quarter, when the Dawgs’ defense held Kentucky scoreless. Carter, meanwhile, passed for 147 yards, helping Georgia lead 21-17 after being down 10-0 in the second quarter. Georgia would go up 28-20 in the third before a run-heavy scoring drive got UK within 28-26. The two-point try missed, looming large in the end as well as the Wildcats’ next drive that ended on a pass breakup from a defensive back named Kirby Smart.
Go Dawgs!