… Brown has been both praised and derided at various times. Last year’s run defense was truly bad, but the reality is, that was more personnel driven than coaching driven. This year’s group plus the matriculation of better talent that could not play for various reasons last year will give a better read on just how much.

I would say a plurality of Kentucky football fans wanted Brown fired this year, but I wasn’t among them. We had so many talented defensive players go down with injury, academics, and lost so much from the year before, that a tough defensive year was expected.

Brown has only been DC for three years now. Kentucky’s SEC position in total defense (admittedly a deceptive statistic) has improved every single one of those years. The problem for Brown has been rushing defense, where UK has languished near the bottom of the league every year he has been DC. In the SEC, if you can’t defend the run, winning is really hard, and since Brown, a former DB, took over, the run has been the biggest defensive bugaboo. Obviously, one reason our pass defense is so good is because teams rarely have to throw against us.

In the end, I cannot give you a particularly confident review of his performance. There has been a lot of static surrounding his advancement, a bunch of good lineman graduating in back-to back years, an unexpected loss Corey Peters to an unfortunate zero-tolerance NCAA policy, a head coaching change, and a few other factors make it hard to judge him accurately. Next season should provide some clarity, though, if he remains, even though he’ll have to share the credit at best.

I think Steve is a good DC, although I was often calling for his head, or arse, depending on the situation! kydamcat below has some good points, most of which I’d agree with. When Steve was here, on his own, he played a conservative type D, which I think is more a reflection of the talent level we had as opposed to a mental mindset. You can only do so much with what you’ve got, right??

UCLA draws from a different talent pool than we do, and this is strictly a guess, but I’d guess that on average you’re a star above us in the recruiting process. With more talent, I think he’d do you a good job. He’s a hold-over from the Brook’s era, so I’m sure this is a “clean-house” situation from Joker’s perspective. My nickel’s worth…