Friday, August 05, 2005

Quote of the Day

There was a good article in today's Herald-Leader by Mark Story (who else?) about UK's current effort to move the annual UK-UL season opener to a date later in the season in hopes that it will improve UK's chances against the Cards. The biggest supporter of this move has been UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhardt, who has seen his football team continue it's downward spiral over the past few years. Many, including Barnhardt, say that one of the biggest reasons that this pattern of losing has been due to the fact that UK's morale is annualy shattered by a much better UL team at the onset of the season. Therefore, many wish to move the game to a later date in the schedule, hoping that UK will have improved enough by that point to be competitive.
Story points out several problems with this idea, which I will list shortly:

1) By giving UK time to improve, won't UL also improve at the same rate? Will it really even matter?
2) Doesn't the underdog have a better chance on the first game of the season due as a result of the uncertainty factor, or the favorite possibly having low expectations?
3) Does it make sense to move your biggest rivalry game to the middle of the SEC schedule?
4) In the past few seasons, has UK even really improved as the season progressed? (i.e. the Ohio game last year)


These are all good points, and I agree that UK should keep the UL game as the season opener. Yet this issue is not what stuck out to me when I read this article. What I liked most was a quote that UL Athletics Director Tom Jurich made concerning the whole situation. Said Jurich "When Tim Couch came to our place and threw for 498 yards and had 68 points on the board with a quarter to go, we didn't complain about the schedule. We got better."

You're exactly right, Tom. You got a heck of a lot better. And it started with good administrative decisions, something that UK has lacked for a while now. Now, UL is poised for a BCS bowl birth this season.

So what's the story with UK, then? Why can't we win? Why can't we be consistant? Why can't we be competitive? It all starts with accoutability and responsibility. It seems that everyone likes to blame everyone else when UK puts up another pathetic performance. Rich Brooks blames it on his teams lack of physical talent. Mitch Barnhardt blames it on the scheduling. And the players, well, they are the only ones who actually take reponsibility for their actions on the field. Funny, isn't it?

I know several of the UK football players,and have talked with a few of them about this dilemma. I was able to work with one player in particular for about 5 months at my former job. I asked him several questions about what the real deal was with the team. He told me that there was plenty of talent on the team, enough to be very competitive in the SEC. But he also told me that the biggest problem was that there was a lack fo leadership. Hmmm......interesting.

So where does this leave us? We have a 60 year-old coach who likes to blame his team's failure on his players lack of talent, (This argument is bogus. These are many of the same players who almost beat Florida 2 years ago, who hung with Florida last year, and who nearly beat Tennessee last year.), who likes to blame his failures on the mistakes of past coaches, who likes to yell at the referees about bad calls when his team is losing to Ohio (see picture) and who never seems to get excited about his team when it really matters. We have an AD who wants to blame it on the schedule (Another bogus statement. UL managed to improve when playing a much better UK team first game of the season.) And we have players who have talent, who want to win, and who truly believe they can win. It is quite a situation we have developed.

However, there is hope. I have spoken to a couple of UK players who have said that this season has been an entirely different experience for them. They say the team looks ten times better this year, and that morale is way up. And, if NCAA Football '06 is any indication of how UK will perform, UK will have the #2 offense in the nation next year (that's the computer putting up those numbers, by the way, and not me. My dynasty team is Wake Forest.)

So I will go to the season opener this year with low expectations. That way, I will be pleasently surprised if UK is at least competive and can make a game of it. However, a part of me wants them to go 0-11 just so we can get a new coach. That is what we truly need, a great coach. A young one with passion for the game, say, someone like Urban Meyer. One with a vision for the program. One who knows the modern game first-hand, and who realizes that defenses today are too good and too fast for 1980's offenses (sorry, Rich Brooks, but it's true.) And most importantly, one who will take responsibility for his team's performance, one who will not publicly criticize his players about their lack of talent, and one who will learn from his mistakes and do whatever it takes fix them in order to get his team ready for the next game. Does this sound like someone we already have at UK? That's right, good ole' Tubby. What we need is a football version of Tubby. Then we will see images like these on not only the basketball sidelines but the football ones as well.......

posted by Wes @ 2:09 PM

1 Comments:

At 8/05/2005 09:44:00 PM, Blogger JTapp said...

I totally agreed with the Story article.
Remember when Curry was coach and we beat Louisville in game 1, and then lost EVERY other game that season? We didn't improve a bit, we got worse.

The team will be better than last year, just because more of them will now buy into Brooks' leadership because he recruited them.
I was reading a Sporting News SEC preview today, and "An SEC coach" called Brooks a "dinosaur" compared to other coaches in the league.
My favorite part of the scouting report.
Kentucky recruits
5 Star: None
4 Star: None
3 Star: several

We'll only get so good.

Urban Meyer isn't walking through the door. No one will ever come to Kentucky and risk their entire career. A Hal Mumme type is about the best we could get.

I don't want a Tubby Smith either. He has only gotten to the Final 4 with someone else's recruits, not his own. Give him this scrappy pack of redneck 3-star guys and it'll be Team Turmoil all over again.

We need a coach to come in and instill Dominator philosophies. A refuse to lose attitude. Someone who won't rest until every player is a trained killer. Someone who will say "Sound off like you've got a pair!!"

Yes, we should hire Gunnery Sergeant Hartman. We might not win many games, but we'll beat the crap out of our opponents.

 

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