January 2010

Building a Foundation
January 7, 2010:
After seven years, UK Football Coach Rich Brooks decided to hang it up this week. Some people still complain about the level of competitiveness with our football team. I look at it like this, nature has a way of balancing things out. With Kentucky basketball being what it is, and what it has been since the 1940s, the sporting gods have to justify all of it. Very few athletic programs in the country have multiple programs that contend for national championships each year. It's not scientific, but that's just how it works out. A few programs have done it, most recently the University of Florida, but none ever sustain it over time.

I'm happy with what Brooks has done. No, he didn't beat Florida or Tennessee, although he got close several times, but Kentucky had some great moments under his tenure. The win against Brian Brohm and Louisville when they were ranked 9th in 2007, and the big overtime stop against LSU when they were ranked #1 in the country, later that year, were big feathers in his hat. And big road wins at Geaorgia and Auburn this year were all signs that we we're making the turn. It's just going to take time.

But the thing that I'll remember most about Rich Brooks, is that he built a program that gave us a chance to win every game....even against the Tennessee's and Florida's. Other than the Alabama and Florida losses this year, Kentucky shoulda, coulda, woulda, or did, beat everybody else on their schedule.

We've come a long way from the embarrassing days of Bill Curry, when the Double Q DJ (I think his call sign was Road Kill) camped out on a Nicholasville Road billboard until we got a win. Back then, a field goal was considered progressive offense!

Hal Mumme made football fun again at Kentucky, with Tim Couch, but Rich Brooks was the one who actually built a defense and kept the ball moving.

Kentucky football still has a long way to go, but Rich Brooks has laid a very solid foundation. I just hope now, that Joker Phillips can start laying the bricks and mortar to a bigger house that can beat Tennessee and Florida, at least every now and then.

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