Tim Couch can still remember meeting with quarterbacks coach Chris Hatcher for the first time after he was named quarterbacks coach on new coach Hal Mumme’s staff at Kentucky.
Couch was ready to transfer when his freshman year ended because of then coach Bill Curry’s offense that had him running the option. But he stayed at UK when Curry was fired and Mumme came.
“I met Chris, who had just finished his career at Valdosta, at Hooter’s for lunch. I was talking to him about a playbook and he said, ‘We really don’t have one.’ He took napkins and was drawing basic plays of the offense,” Couch said.
“No one really knew Hal at the time. No one knew Mike Leach. Hal had a lot of great offensive coaches — Chris, Leach, Sonny Dykes, Tony Franklin. Hal heard that he couldn’t run his offense in the SEC because it just wouldn’t work. He said we could and we took the SEC by storm.
“Now you look across the country and basically a lot of teams are running a version of what we started in 1997. The offense has changed but it is still basically what we did. It was pretty cool to be part of that innovative time because those guys all had great offensive minds.”
Count Couch among those offensive minds. He went on to become the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft by the Cleveland Browns. He got the Browns into the playoffs — they have not been back since — and thought he could lift a team that didn’t know how to win. However, the Cleveland offense line could not keep him from taking a beating — broken leg, broken foot, broken thumb, two shoulder surgeries. He only had one healthy season. He was sacked 56 times in his rookie season.
Couch had some good memories from being with Cleveland. He has many more from his three years at UK, including getting Kentucky to the Outback Bowl in his final game.
Those UK memories are as much about his teammates as the wins.
One of his friends/teammates was Troy coach Neal Brown. It was Couch who helped push for Brown to be Mark Stoops’ offensive coordinator when Stoops got the UK job.
“We are great friends. I remember taking him to the big city of Hyden (Couch’s home town). He was a great guy and you knew he would be a coach. Very intelligent. He knew the system better than anyone. He was a good, intelligent player and I am not surprised by the success he’s had coaching. When the opportunity came up to maybe get him here, I was talking to Stoops all I could and telling him about Neal. I couldn’t be happier for what he’s doing at Troy. Guys just respond to him. He’s a great motivator. He helped me a lot at Kentucky.”
So did receiver Craig Yeast, who also remains friends with Couch. Yeast remains one of the best receivers ever to play at UK and he turned many short Couch throws into long gains or touchdowns.
“He was a phenomenal player,” Couch said. “He always wanted the ball of course. Craig when he wasn’t getting the ball enough he would look up at me in the huddle and tell me. We were losing at Indiana one year after we had beat them bad the year before and Craig had not caught a pass. He said to me, ‘Do you want to win? Throw me the ball.’ We came back and won.
“He was one of those lightning quick guys. That’s why he was the leading receiver in the history of the SEC when he graduated. Craig would not always give you a whole lot in practice, but he would go full speed and make plays when it counted. He was so small even in offseason passing drills Craig would not play offense. He would play defensive back. But at game time there was not a better teammate or playmaker.”
Then there was running back Anthony White, perhaps the most underrated player ever to play at Kentucky. He could produce yards running or passing and was one of Couch’s top targets.
“He may be the favorite teammate I ever had,” Couch said. “He never got enough credit for what he did. He was so versatile. He could run with anybody but he had a knack for getting open and catching passes. He was one of the first true dual threat guys in the SEC. He was like a receiver playing running back. He was such a hard matchup for defenses. He was also an awesome guy and such a hard worker. He was everything you wanted in a teammate.”
(STORY BY LARRY VAUGHT)
