That headline may be a bit misleading, but it speaks to what some of us have been saying all along. The numbers are in, and they don't lie. Kyle Tucker over at The Courier-Journal got back the reciepts numbers from UK for the last three seasons, and the picture isn't pretty. Follow along and see for yourself.



Overall revenues for the last three years are telling the tale:

UK FOOTBALL CONCESSION SALES 2009 – Total concessions sales: $1,646,955.59. Average per-game concessions sales: $235,566.51. 2010 – Total concessions sales: $1,554,037.54. Average per-game concessions sales: $222,005.36. 2011 – Total concessions sales: $1,239,116.79. Average per-game concessions sales: $177,016.68.

And just so no one sweats the math:

UK FOOTBALL REVENUE (from tickets, parking, K-Fund donations) 2010 – $22.7 million 2011 – $22.0 million 2012 – $17.8 million* * Still one home game left in 2012.

That's a 5M hit since 2010. And when you add it to last season's 2.7M hit, that is almost 8M in lost revenue for UK since Joker took over. Those kinds of numbers will get even John Calipari fired.

Tucker talked to Kirk Herbstreit and got his take on the UK job and what it will take to turn this program into a winner. Herbstreit uses Vanderbilt's James Franklin as an example:

“And I think it’s his background as an offensive guy, but really more than anything as you get to know James Franklin, it’s his energy – overall drive and personality. He’s a recruiter. He’s relentless in recruiting. I think that’s what Kentucky needs to find. Instead of apologizing for, ‘Oh, gosh, we’re Kentucky,’ and , ‘We’re in the SEC and it’s challenge; it’s a grind,’ you’ve got to find somebody who believes. You’ve got to find somebody who makes that into a positive. You’ve got to find somebody who’s young and aggressive and eager and wants to go out and hit the recruiting trails and sell Kentucky and sell Lexington , sell Keeneland, sell everything! Get excited about what you have to offer there. “To me, you can’t look at it like, ‘Man, we’re at the bottom looking up with our tradition.’ You have to look at it like, ‘Why not Kentucky? Why not? Let’s go win.’ And I think that having a guy that’s got some ties to the region, whether it’s through the SEC or down in the southeastern part of the country, I think probably would be beneficial. But to me it’s more about finding somebody who’s enthusiastic and excited about being the head coach at Kentucky and excited about turning negatives into positives and going out and recruiting and beating some people for good players. I don’t care how good a coach you are; you cannot win if you can’t recruit. And you’ve got to go out and recruit.”

Herbstreit is not 100% familiar with the circumstances at UK though, and I know there are intangibles that he may have overlooked, but Herbstreit does point out one very obvious thing when he says that the next UK Head Coach is going to have to look at this as "Why Not Kentucky?".

One thing is for sure and for certain though. One thing you must do as the next UK Head Coach is keep the money rolling in. If you can't do that, well, just ask Joker Phillips.