This era of home-grown Kentucky quarterbacks has been a long one.
It has produced a No. 1 NFL Draft pick, a Super Bowl ring winner, bowl game winners, and college football record breakers. We have been through the worst of times and the best of times with our own taking the snaps.
Bill Curry’s successful option offense was brought in to help a struggling UK team succeed. However, it almost ruined a legacy before it even took off. If not for the love of his home state Cats and the program bringing in an Air Raid-minded coach in Hal Mumme, Tim Couch’s legendary UK career may not have come to be.
Having to be the quarterback to follow the Tim Couch era would have scared most before they even took a snap, but not Jared Lorenzen. The "Hefty Lefty" came in and delivered right where Couch left off with the offensive arsenal developed by Mumme and staff.
Breaking many of Couch’s records, Lorenzen put his own stamp on the program. Many forget that he had to endure coaching changes at UK that would have setback many quarterbacks at other programs, but he kept slinging deep passes and 3rd down bombs until his time at Kentucky had passed.
Despite his known struggles with his weight on and off the field, there are things that people can never deny about Lorenzen. He did it his way. He made his own mark, and he has a Super Bowl ring. Even to this day fans still see Lorenzen at many UK games and other sporting events because he genuinely loves his program.
Another unforgettable Kentucky-made product who left his mark was Andre Woodson. Who can forget the 2006 and 2007 seasons when Woodson led Kentucky to back-to-back Music City Bowl wins while earning MVP honors in both games? One can even argue that Woodson is the best QB to ever step on Kentucky’s campus.
Leading UK to a win over archrival Louisville and #1 LSU in the same season makes for the stuff of legends. I would also argue that after breaking Trent Dilfer’s record of consecutive passes without an interception (271) and breaking Danny Wuerrfel’s SEC record for passing touchdowns in a season (40), Woodson probably does not get the credit he deserves from the Kentucky faithful and SEC brethren.
Patrick Towles just ended his turbulent career at Kentucky by announcing his transfer to Boston College. Towles’ career at UK was up and down. A product of the "social media era" of sports, many armchair quarterbacks nitpicked every decision the Ft. Thomas product made on a game-to-game basis. But one can’t deny the Kentucky kid’s love of the Wildcat program and his home state.
And that brings us to Towles’ successor, and another state-born QB who will be the starter when the 2016 season begins for Kentucky in Drew Barker.
The Conner High School legend came to Kentucky with the hype of a 4-star recruiting ranking and a big blue gorilla on his back called the Big Blue Nation. Even before he signed with UK, football fans around the Bluegrass State were looking up his YouTube highlight videos and live streaming his Conner High games to get a glimpse of the "next big thing" in Kentucky football.
No quarterback from the state had this much pressure in signing with UK since Tim Couch. But Barker took the challenge and signed with the Cats. Immediately fans created a competition between Barker and Towles. When Towles threw an interception or aimed too high on a pass, the pro-Barker fans came out with the pitchforks, ready to see the phenom take the field.
Coach Mark Stoops handled it the best way he knew how. He stuck with the veteran Towles as long as he could, much to the ire of the Big Blue Barker faithful. But after a forgetful 2015 campaign for the program, Towles announced he was heading to the BC Eagles.
Now here we are. Stoops has named his starter for the season opener already and it is Drew Barker. His time is here. His time is now. It is time for the Big Blue Nation to get behind Drew Barker and rally for him. Why wouldn’t we? We are a proud state. We love our own. Drew Barker is our own.
The Blue leads the White 17-13 at half of the @UKFootball Drew Barker has 2 TD passes including this one to Timmons pic.twitter.com/KhEaCdUdRV
— KYwildcatsTV (@KYwildcatsTV) April 16, 2016
Forget the legacy that Couch left. Forget the heroic nature of Lorenzen. Forget the record-breaking career of Woodson. No one knew what those players were going to be before they took the field for Kentucky. Sure, we had an idea of what we wanted them to be and they went out and accomplished a lot and I dare to say in Woodson’s case, maybe even more than what we expected.
But in this day and age where anyone can jump on Twitter and other social media outlets and demolish a kid’s psyche without the bat of an eye, we need to remember that while they are playing to further their career to maybe earning money one day, they are also playing with a whole state across the chest of their jersey and a whole fanbase on their back.
With a new multi-million dollar facility and additions being made to the program, the pressure for Mark Stoops to win and win now is at an all-time high. That pressure then falls greatly onto the shoulder pads of Drew Barker as well. We, as adults, face pressure every day.
As parents, at our jobs, economically, and socially. But most of us that get on Twitter to critique these youngsters are not youngsters ourselves. And yes, many of you lay down plenty of your hard-earned money to buy season tickets to Kentucky football games and you want to see positives on the field.
But remember this season that those expectations fall a lot on the back and in the head of a young kid from Kentucky that wants to make his coach, his family, his school, and his state proud.
While the University of Kentucky puts money into the football program to keep up with the status quo of a monstrous SEC football conference, most Kentucky fans do not expect the program to become the national power that John Calipari and the basketball program is.
It would be nice, and that is something the team itself should strive for, but Kentucky fans just want to consistently put together winning seasons and make bowl games. Our fans also want to go to games and have fun watching our teams play, compete, and win.
Tailgating at Commonwealth Stadium before games is a great atmosphere. The faithful fans that you see tailgating before the games deserve a winning football team. We don’t expect to win every game, but we do expect to be competitive every game, with the possibility of pulling off wins against the SEC’s top teams like Woodson and company did in 2007. We want to take back the state in football.
So when the Wildcats take the field and Drew Barker takes his first snap as the University of Kentucky’s undisputed starter at quarterback, forget the high school hype, the legacies before him, and what your expectations are of the program. He is one of us. He wants success on the field as bad as we do. He is a Kentucky kid.