Kentucky Football: Rags to riches is a fairy tale for kids

by Truzenzuzex on Oct 21, 2008 12:20 AM EDT in Football Comment 7 comments

I originally wrote this as a comment on Chris Diggs' blog at the Courier Journal, but I thought it just might make a decent post over here, so I have revised and extended it a bit.

So why all the recent brouhaha with Rich Brooks lashing out a bit at Kentucky fans? I think it has a lot to do with the fact that Brooks has built a winning program from scratch before, and he knows what it takes. It's hard to put up with some fan behavior that doesn't respect that process, not due to bad intentions or poor character, but out of a lack of understanding of what it really takes to do what he and the coaching staff are trying to do.

I think the big question here is expectations. We have had a couple of great seasons, and it is the tendency of Kentucky fans to understand that in basketball terms. Football is different.

A good basketball team (not a dynasty, mind you but a good team) can be built in four or five years by the right guy, but it takes much longer to build a football program. The biggest reason is quality depth, and I think that is something schools trying to develop a football tradition fail to understand. UK has often had some good athletes and skill players over the years, but we have usually had inferior lines that were as thin as parchment, and the lines are where the Great Powers of the SEC differ from the Kentuckys and the Vanderbilts. Developing great lines with quality depth that can succeed season after season takes years and years of gradually improving recruiting and hard-won experience.

Kentucky fans have to learn how to be great football fans, just as they are great basketball fans. It isn't just winning games, it is about a gradual progression to a winning program, a winning attitude and winning expectations not just in the fan base, but in the recruits and current players and even in our SEC peers. Kentucky, even now, recruits at a level far below that of the successful teams in the SEC. That matters -- a lot. It will get better (hopefully), but it is very difficult in this conference. Very difficult. We are still stuck with the leavings and scrapings of Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Tennessee, LSU, Florida, and yes, even South Carolina.

It took Louisville 15 years to build up a good program in the much weaker Conference USA. It took Brooks 13 years to develop Oregon into a consistent winner in the much more top-heavy Pac-10. This project he has helped start at Kentucky will not be realized for at least a decade, and maybe longer. It's a sure bet that Brooks will not be head coach when and if our fledgling effort becomes a full-blown reality.

We have to learn to be fans of a successful SEC football team, and that is way different than suffering through year after year of beatings. It looks like it would be easier, but it isn't -- you get a taste of real, long-term success and any step backward causes flashbacks to the misery of years gone by. It's like becoming addicted to a drug -- at the first hint of withdrawal, the addict becomes outraged or despondent.

UK fans need to embrace the fact that we are embarking on a great journey, one that will not be fully realized for many years yet. Anything worth doing is worth taking all the time it takes to do well, and if we are ever to compete year in and year out with the likes of Florida, Alabama and Georgia, we must earn that right through many trials and failures. There is no quick and easy path to a successful SEC football program, only painful and protracted ones, if such a path exists at all. From what I can tell, we are trying to become the first SEC program in modern history to rise from the cellar into genuine respectability. It is a novel concept in the SEC with no example I can think of to emulate.

UK fans should keep this in mind next time we go to the game. A broader perspective will help ease the pain of the inevitable epic failure, and give us the confidence to look upon the ugly and regrettable that will sometimes happen en route. But if we keep an eye on the future, and learn to act like winners even when we lose instead of petulant children who's toy is suddenly broken, we just may find a way to prevail.

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Good Point

Thats a very good point but in practicality its much harder to keep that perspective with 8minutes to go in the fourth quarter and you down by 14. I think what the post is very accurate but its asking a lot for an enitire fan base to think like this.

DEEETROIT BASKETBALLL!!!

by davw83 on Oct 21, 2008 9:10 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Thanks.

I know it is asking a lot, particularly of fans who are used to a winning tradition in basketball.

But reality is what it is. If we want to be the best fans we can be, we have to gird our loins and demand that of ourselves. Otherwise, we have to live with what we have, and that would be too bad.

A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan

by Truzenzuzex on Oct 21, 2008 12:25 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Nice read...

but i’d like to see it happen in my lifetime..wishful thinking i guess. I also dont like the broad based use of the word “Kentucky fans”. We all know there are jerks, idiots and just plain fools who wear a jersey of any and every school. For Brooks to berate “the fans” is class-less. I can’t blame anyone for walking out of a bad movie (even though its got your favorite actor) and you missed the “best ending”, or throwing your dinner to the dogs when it just doesnt taste right, even though you love steak and its usually satisfying. I guess its like the old saying…if it wasnt for the fans..would there be a game? Play on..take the heat…acknowledge fans frustrations and go try and get better.

" I believe in pipedreams"

by Magnoliacat on Oct 21, 2008 12:44 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

100% agree

Well said.

C! A! T! S! CATS! CATS! CATS!

by NYCCats on Oct 21, 2008 2:12 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Rich Brooks has, in many ways, done an admirable job. But in many ways he’s Jerry Claiborne without the Kentucky ties.

Maddeningly wedded to coaches, players and systems that don’t seem to be good fits for us, his self-righteous act would play better after a convincing, rather than miraculous, victory over the worst team in the league.

I think the reason for the seemingly-out-of-context fan displeasure this year is not so much the inconsistent play, but the very real fear that he’ll go Nurse Rached on Joker given half a chance. Dark visions of Terry Henry and Antonio O’Ferral one-hopping our receivers on the seven pass plays per game revisited like the harpies of mythological lit.

It was a scant two years ago that he was going to the wall with Hamburger Hudson when nobler heads prevailed and Joker started calling plays that actually best fit our limited gifts.

Brooks has earned our respect. Trust still has a few successful years to go.

by I. Melvin on Oct 21, 2008 2:59 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Coach Brooks

Good read – the road to the top of the SEC will be slow and painful as you stated – the competition is stiff with years of tradition.
If the Average Kentucky Joe can’t grind it out – then I’m sad for him.

by deWildcats on Oct 21, 2008 4:03 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Here is a response ...

… to my post which I received via email from ukfastcat:

I do have to disagree with you on one point. I read your post today on the subject and you said it every bit as well as I. So well, I composed a specific detailed response, but I somehow pressed the eject seat button and my text went flying off into cyberspace.

I responded from the blue blood of a UK scholarship athlete and a guy who got to be courted by several schools including OSU, UC, UK and others. The prospects are looking for anything bad to eliminate a school and anything special to make it feel like a good home.

If we want to compete with the elite, we need to be elite in every single aspect of the UK experience. We have the platform now, we have the coaches and staff and we are getting the athletes. As you said so very well, a dynamo recruiter like Pitino or Billy G can build a basketball team around a Mashburn or a Patterson and add some solid support. It takes dozens upon dozens of three star football players to form a decent nucleus. It then takes a well-defined strategy and a commitment to a long-term plan. Brooks has shown even the most dubious that he is a man with the plan. But, the very second our lingering weaknesses cause us to stumble on the field, the Fairweathers hit the bourbon and then the exits.

We had an SEC offense last season. This year we have an SEC defense. Last year they both came together and we beat the mighty LSU. This year, we played a top-ranked Alabama team nearly to a draw. I don’t know what UK fans expect, but that is damn good football, folks. There is not one player dogging it in practice or on the field. That IS the New Kentucky. Underachievement and lack of dedication will not be tolerated. From anyone, right Curtis?

And, have you noticed how many of the recruits are listed as "athlete" or "quarterback". We are trying to get the smartest, fastest all-around athletes and "coach ‘em up" to SEC speed and ability. That is the one and only way to go. Take a bow, Randall and take a bow, Joker for bringing him and others like him to Lexington.

I grew up in northern Ohio. I have lived in California for most of my adult life. The perception is that UK is composed of cheaters and whiners who are a step away from sleeping with their sisters. The fanbase has the power to change that. Do they have the same desire as the athletes they pretend to support? I doubt it. But, I would love to be proven wrong.

Leaving the facility when there is ANY chance to win is weak as branch water, but booing your team as they head in for the halftime break? Pure bushleague behavior. There is no excuse and no room for it when striving for excellence.

For Mark Story or anyone associated with our program to criticize Brooks’ musings on the subject is to show how truly ignorant of the sport they are. It takes understanding of the plan and patience to let it unfold.

The joy, for a TRUE fan, is in the unfolding.

That is one of the reasons we so love our Unforgettables.

We have a lot of young men in the Brooks era doing unforgettable things for football that need to be recognized and appreciated.

Leaving your seat because your ass is cold or you’re flask is empty demonstrates that you had no real business occupying that coveted seat in the first place.

GO BLUE, onward and upward.