nice to have another knowledgeable contributor. I no longer have answers for this team other than the facts that injuries and one-dimensional play calling have crippled us. The kids are putting up decent effort, but honestly, our inability to handle teams like MSU and USC defy logic (IMHO). Hartline hurt us, but not near as much as the fact that the coaches seem intent on using good players in every position fathomable, and we wonder why we have injuries when players pulling double and sometimes triple and quadruple duty. Just doesnt seem smart to me. We have some really great kids on this team, I just think they are not getting the best support that they could be getting form the staff.

I wish we would quit assigning blame, myself. Building a football team is a process. If all it took was a head coach, South Carolina should have several national championships, as they have had two coaches there who won NC’s at other schools, but have yet to produce a consistent competitor even for the SEC championship. This at a school that has a much better recruiting base from which to pull from than Kentucky.

At the end of the day, Kentucky just needs to continue to move forward – improve recruiting, continue developing players, continue the things that have moved Kentucky out of the basement and onto the stairs that lead up. Traversing those stairs without taking a step or two back is really hard, but hopefully, we will all live to see it happen.

Interesting points on both sides of every question you ask. I voted for the coaches because I feel they’ve done a terrible job this season in game plannning and making adjustments during games.

I go back to the end of the first half in the UofL game..no points. Frankly, IMHO the staff didn’t do very good jobs in game planning for either FL or AL but that doesn’t mean we should have beat either, just played them closer. Won’t even address the SC game or the Miss St game….they’re both too obvious.

The fans. Well I’ve not run into anyone that expected us to have double digit wins but I don’t think it was unreasonable to expect 7-8 wins just based on the schedule. I think the fans are the biggest asset the UK program has. They almost always come close to filling Commonwealth regardless of how well the teams doing in the season. Living in Louisville and seeing less than 25,000 show up for last Saturday’s U0fL’s game shows what kind of fans UK has.

The players. Well don’t see how we can blame the players when they’re doing the best they can. There are injuries that have us playing at less than full strength and we’re young at several positions. Would we all like Newton’s interception back? Sure but can you really blame a freshman playing in his 3rd game for that? The DB who got burned on the long play action for the touchdown?? To me that’s back to coaching.

Maybe blame isn’t the best term for your question but I think responsible surely is and I think this staff is responsible and owe these kids and the fans much better.

While I think everyone is to blame for letting the program come to the state it has been in, at least since Bryant left; I beleive simple discipline-type stuff, like pre-snap penalties(see the Florida and Alabam games) goes directly to coaching. In the Florida game, we were down in the first quarter almost solely due to pre-snap penalties. When we have had clean play we have won.

a genius to figure out who put the blame on the coaches. A very good write up there sportsinlex. Brooks has always been a straight shooter, I don’t think anybody can argue that point, and he wasn’t happy with the effort the players put out. I tend to think not going black, kind of disappointed some of these guys and it might of actually helped to wear the black. Normally I think uniform colors do not matter. If Brooks had surprised them, it might have mattered this time.

but how they accept the blame makes a difference. Everyone respects Brooks because he takes the blame for losses (with increasing frequency!) and goes on about his business. I’m just getting a little disenchanted with his “buck stops here, move on” attitude. Apologies are great but not if accompanied by actions to rectify the reason for the apology.

 The two glaring problems have been offensive playcalling and defensive adjustments. The only specific playcalling apology was Brooks “that was a dumb call” after the fake field goal attempt at South Carolina. On a scale of 1 to 10 of the bizarre/bad/poor/regretful whatever playcalls that one barely registers a mention. I wish Brooks was a little more specific on what he apologizes for so we know he’s on the same subject. When my kids apologize I have them explain what they’re apologizing for so they know what they did wrong. That way they know, for instance, the apology is for hitting their brother NOT for getting caught hitting their brother.

If Brooks could verbalize the specifics of the apology I’d feel better. It also might help bring into focus that our playcalling at times really sucks and our defensive coaching is a more than a little suspect. Great quote by Coach Brown after the South Carolina loss ""It was a learning experience, and the thing we can build upon is that they were in great position. It’s not like they were beat. Now we just have to teach them to look for the ball and have the confidence to try and make a play." Practice should be the learning experience. If you haven’t been teaching the cover guys to look for the ball, I’m shocked. My Pee Wee team knows that much and there’s rarely 5 passes a game. Secondly, Coach Brown have you heard of in-game adjustments. The defense starts the game in one mode and stays in that formation/scheme until halftime, come hell or high water. Adjustments are made at halftime and once again they stay in that mode until the end of the game, come hell or high water. I’d just like a little less hell and high water.

I wish to propose the administration for making the schedule that we have. I know that our administration does not control the conference part of the schedule, the SEC does. Our athletic department does control the non-conference part of the schedule though. How would our season look if we had already played an EKU level opponent and got the win and then have this week off to heal and get ready for those last three games. I know that I would be more hopeful than I am now. It was simply insane to set this team’s schedule up with 11 games in a row with no off week. Who does that to themself in this conference especially? Yeah, I woould much rather be entering this week at 5-4 and resting for the final stretch as opposed to 4-4, with no break to heal or rest and needing two wins for a bowl and three for a decent bowl.

I like that no one’s opted to ‘blame’ (probably should have used different wording… thanks to UKlvrJM and Truzenzuzex) the players so far. Maybe there’s something to UK’s schedule this year; with the 11 games in a row and all, it’s pretty easy to deduce that the guys are fatigued. Also hard to put the burden of a disappointing loss on a coaching staff that’s taken UK to where it is, but if Brooks says they’re to blame, then it’s hard to argue with that. Don’t be surprised if you see an article soon featuring an in-depth look at how the other schools in the SEC have set up their schedules…

I don’t think you’’ll see anyone, well very few, blaming the players here. Not from me, ever.
They didn’t just show up on campus and announce they were going to be on the team. Coaches recruited them, coach and prepare what they reaped to play the game.
Coaches and athletic director? Open season for me. They make the big bucks and they are responsible for what we have (recruiting) and the way we preform (their recruits and their coaching). If we don’t have a program that’s attractive to the recruits then maybe its time to find someone they might want to play for.