By RICHARD CHEEKS
Ladies and gentlemen of the Big Blue Nation, and with all due respect to each of you, the answer for UK football does not start with hiring another coach this year, next year or any year unless and until the UK administration becomes committed to building a SEC quality football program. We have had good coaches come in here over the years, and while some of them have experienced more success at UK than others, none of them have enjoyed as much success at UK as they experienced at their stops prior to UK. Coach Claiborne was the envy of the Big Blue Nation while he worked at Maryland and Virginia Tech over the course of several years.
Claiborne came here as his last coaching stop, a favor to his alma mater, and he put the best defenses on the field over the course of his tenure that we have seen in these parts since, but he was hounded by the fan base for his outdated wide tackle 6 defense. What could Claiborne have accomplished at his alma mater, if he had the UK administration taking the steps necessary to move this program into the real SEC world? Ditto for Brooks. What could he have accomplished here if he had the UK administration commitment to SEC level success? Clearly, Coach Brooks did not believe he had that level of commitment, given his parting advice to the administration.
Joker is stumbling, and as some say, bumbling his way through what is now his third year. I see improvement on the offensive side of the ball. I see improvement on the special teams. I see potential for improvement on defense in the next 1 to 3 seasons (probably not this season).
Unless the UK administration steps to the plate with a serious plan for football success, I oppose another senseless swing of the revolving coaching door, and I oppose that coaching change until Coach Phillips has had a legitimate opportunity to move this program up with the administrative support that is now lacking. With that UK administration commitment, I believe Joker can build a competitive football program here, and he bleeds blue more than anyone else I can see out there who would be willing to come here and step into his shoes. The long term interests of this program will be best served by giving Joker, and not some yet to be named, coach the benefit of that institutional commitment.
I believe the problem is not fixed by changing the name of the head coach.
I realize that making this argument begs the question, what commitment from the Administration is required? I know that is an honest question, and my honest answer is that I do not know. If I did know, I would be qualified to serve as an Athletic Director at an SEC school. I have wrestled with this very question since I reached this conclusion in 2000.
I had six season tickets at that time. I sat through all the heat of September, rains of October, and cold of November for decades. I traveled to one to three road games each season from the late 1970s (Curci) through 2000. My fall seasons were completely committed to my favorite activity, UK football. In 2000, I finally concluded that the array of head coaches I had supported for those years was not the cause of the languishing program. I stopped spending my time and money on the activity, and promised that I would not resume until I saw commitment to UK football.
Lastly, let me say that my conclusion has not made me happy. I have not celebrated that conclusion, because fixing a bad coaching hire is relatively easy to fix, as we saw in basketball, and as Louisville has shown us again in football. However, fixing an institutional resistance, overcoming an institutional negative inertia, does not have an easy fix.
Nevertheless, I remain convinced that an institutional level solution is required. Let me give you two examples that may at least point to the nature of the Institutional issues.
Some fans point to facilities holding this program back. I don’t know if that is the principal issue, but when I learn that the Commonwealth of Kentucky has bonding restrictions in place that limit UK Football’s ability to improve facilities, I see an institutional barrier to success. Some fans argue that Mitch Barnhart is the most football friendly athletic director at UK since Bernie Shively back in the dark ages of Bear Bryant, and before when he actually served as the head coach. I agree with that argument about Mitch Barnhart, yet when Coach Brooks was walking out that door, his parting advice was to begin to spend the money on the football program if UK wants to sustain the program’s improvement under his watch. Yet, I still see the same old same old, and I see it as institutional, and probably above the Athletic Director’s office.
It is time for a candid public debate about the institutional support or lack thereof for the UK football program.
20 Responses to Guest Post: Real problem is not the head coach but the commitment to SEC football by Kentucky
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Richard:
You are very correct. And, it’s the same reason I gave up my seats.
I made the point in another post a day or two ago. The basketball-centric UK athletic program goes back at least to the days of Rupp and Bryant. It will not get better until the powers that be decide that UK football is worth a similar investment of resources (monetary and otherwise) as basketball. For at least the last last four or five DECADES, that has not been the case.
I will continue to support the football program in every possible way. If there is no demand, there will be no supply.
I agree! Any quality new Head Coach, if he is smart, would require a significant financial commitment by UK Admin to invest in the football program (primarily the facilities) in order to consider coming to UK. My recommendation would be to make the financial commitment now and see what Joker & staff could do over the next couple of years (i.e. Joker’s current contract term). If Joker and staff succeeds, we all win. If Joker and staff are not able to develop a winning program, UK Admin will have to spend less money on investing in the facilities (since it would have already been done) for the new coach.
If Joker were to be let go, UK would have to pay him at least $2M and STILL make the investiments in the facilities in order to hire a new coach.
I believe everyone agrees Joker is a great guy that Bleeds Blue. However, he is also a great coach that is doing the right things right with the limited resources he has. UK Admin needs to give him the resources he needs to succeed in the SEC. The football program made $18M profit last year (fyi. UK basketball made only $8M in profit last year!). As a businessman, it only makes common sense to me to invest in the business segments that generate the most profit. Football is it! Invest & UK will profit by way of wins & SEC titles with the right man…Joker.
You are right. I followed this path before to try and understand what or who was blocking this commitment. The path leads directly to Frankfort and to a committee where further consideration on the issue was tabled or deferred … political talk for “blocked” so it will die from lack of attention. No need to look at the UK administration, AD, or athletic committees at UK. It will change when enough voters demand that it change.
I agree 100% with all comments by the writer and people who have replied. However, I will not give up my 6 season tix nor can I give up on UK football because of the kids. For any business to be successful a certain amount of the profit needs to be re-invested in the business. It’s time for UK football to come first. I don’t care if Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, Les Miles or whoever were to come to UK it would not make a difference unless they demanded that the administration show more (financial) support to the football program. KEEP JOKER and give him a chance with more support.
I think it needs to be more than financial support, too. They need to not be treated like an outcast. There needs to be more respect for the sport that makes the most money. Not giving up our tickets either!
Great point Suzanne. Saw story today where UK spent $9 million on football last year out of $29 million it took in. Spent $12 million on basketball, took in about 21 millions. LSU spent $21 million on football, Alabama about $31 million and Auburn $39 mill. Even Ole Miss spent $18 million.
Great job by Professor with this column and generating this discussion
UK football fortunes will improve when a top flight coach is hired and he brings in top flight assistants.It seems that many are caught in a time warp going back to the days of Bryant and Rupp.This is tunnel vision at its’ worst.Uk has made facilitiy improvements over the years.Clayborn got the Nutter Center.Brooks got renovated practice fields,and Joker got improved locker facilities at Commonwealth and improvements at Nutter.
Cal said it best in referrence to his basketball program when he said “it’s not about brick and mortar,but about the kids you bring into the program and how they are treated.A lot of top flight football programs have a lot less in facilities than Uk.
So when you talk about commitment by the administartion,it has to be about bringing in a top flight staff,and paying the salaries required .Joker and his staff are Mid Major at best and are nowhere near the likes of Saban,Spurrier,Miles,amd others in the top echelon of D-1 coaching.
What is wrong with the facilities? The stadium is nice, the weight room has actual weights and the indoor practice facility has a…well…a roof.
Are the facilities at the other SEC and top programs THAT much better/nicer than UK’s?
Or are the COACHES that much better? Obviously the players are…
@UKFAN, it’s not that Commonwealth Stadium is that bad if we were in say, the Sun Belt, or even the Big East if you want to stick to bcs conferences, it’s that our facilities don’t even come close to comparing to other big BCS schools and are 14/14 in the SEC (yes, Vandy’s newest renovations will put them ahead of us) which are the schools we compete with for recruits. It makes it difficult. I heard KSR the other day and they equated it to having a brand new Avalon driving around in Pikeville and you look awesome and all the ladies are loving you but if you take that Avalon to Hollywood (the SEC) then suddenly we don’t look as good next to Jags, Audi, Ferrari’s, BMW’s, etc.
I agree with the other posters though, facilities are only a part of the problem, it’s the entire structure of their funding, support, opinion, facilities, etc. The problems run much deeper than any one coach or simply getting new lockers from time to time.
Great analogies and obviously, I haven’t been to every SEC stadium, but I guess it’s more than one thing.
It surely is nice to read something that’s not simply saying to fire Joker. Too, I tend to agree that a big problem for Kentucky football right now is Frankfort. Also, I do know that our athletics director himself cares greatly about Kentucky football. Beyond that, honestly, I don’t know — or don’t really see it.
Further, I’m certainly with Suzanne and Lori in regard to not giving up our Kentucky football tickets, though, regardless of an unfilled desire for more support and enthusiasm for our football program, and, instead, continuing to pull with all my heart for these kids (well, that is unless we were to hire Bobby Petrino, for winning would have then lost its meaning for me after our “selling our soul” for it — but, thankfully, I feel sure we would not have to worry about that happening with Barnhart as AD). Then, too, I, too, am hanging on to hope that Joker Phillips will remain head coach and attain the success and respect he deserves. I so agree with the OP that the problem is not magically fixed “by changing the name of the head coach.” Too, indeed, this third season both the offense and special teams have most obviously improved (first in the SEC in passing offense and third-down conversions), and, yes, the defense should seemingly be improved by next season when talented youngsters have gained experience.
Looking at still other comments within the thread, I repeat that Joker, who bleeds the bluest of blue, is, indeed, doing things the right way with limited resources. May he now have the opportunity to get that third unit also improved and to have a real chance of raising the level of the program with better resources. Good thread, guys and gals.
GO CATS!!!
I wish somone would identify the limited resources that Joker has,and how this impacts the teams perfrmance on the field.I’m sure his recruiting budget lets he and his staff travel as much as they like,and i’m sure the team is not being shortchanged when it comes to equipment and scholarship needs.
Make that, instead, an “unfulfilled” desire for more support and enthusiasm for our football program (and I should have proofread the post).
Ohio State has always been able to field competitive and exceptional teams in both basketball and football. Florida has been able to do so in recent years, as have other schools. Mississippi State and Boise State are competitive in football and even Vandy is showing signs of recruiting success. The common point for all these programs and other successful ones is exactly as described by the author herein, SERIOUS RECRUITING. As Mr. Cheeks said, Joker can do nothing if he doesn’t have support behind him for recruiting. But it’s simply not going to happen.
I have heard no one talk about one of the real reasons we cannot recruit top talent players. There are very few top talent players that are produced in Kentucky. And there are 3 Div 1 teams in the state. So the travel budget must include monies to travel out of state. Yes Commonwealth Stadium is sorely outdated – every seat should be backed as one improvement – but until the Ky legislature gets behind Ky football with bonding authority – nothing will happen. Kentucky is one of the few states left that will not let Universities float their own revenue bonds – Politics plays a great role in whether UK football ever will be improved. Having observed this for 45 years I have my doubts.
Several points.
1) Kids in Kentucky want (or maybe wanted) to play at UK, but UK’s recruiting truly stinks.
2) Ticket sales are down 10,000 seats now, and will be another 5,000-10,000 or more at the beginning of next season. UK will get hurt in the pocket book, as more and more season ticket holders will cancel their season tickets, and buy a ticket for $10 outside the gate as they come more readily available this year, and next if change does not occur. A bigger issue will be the lose of the K fund of $100-$250 per season ticket, as people throw in the towel, and be able to buy the same ticket walking up to the ticket window. The ticket problem is growing by each lose and after the game tomorrow will increase more, then after the South Carolina game, etc.
3) Allowing pot smokers that smoked dope on Thursday, missed the WKU game as their reprimanding, then allowed to practice the next Monday (3 days after the incident), shows very poor authority by a head coach.
4) 100% closed practices to media and fans is a joke. I think the media should simply quit writing about the team.
Arnie, Coach Phillips has generally been known as a strict disciplinarian. Yes, the one-game suspensions seems small for the misbehavior of illegally smoking pot. Having said that, such is the punishment at many other programs, and, further, some athletes never sit out a single game (and I still well remember such being the case for a Louisville player during the John L. Smith era — Jonta Woodward — who had been caught with traficking amounts of marijuana and steroids and then convicted of a felony). In contrast, Phillips has even sat our players for being late to team meetings. Most honestly, I think the punishment here may be related to the circumstances for Raymond Sanders, plus his previously stellar reputation (and reading Larry’s piece here on that is recommended). One of the other two involved is academically ineligible, and the third is not on the depth chart and will surely not be participating tomorrow. Anyway, the one-game suspension is seemingly not typical for Joker — just saying, FWIW.
Tana, as always, your comments are on point and powerful. I fail to see any basis to criticize Coach Phillips for a failure to hold his players accountable. As I recall, his first season was complicated by players who tested Coach Phillips’ resolve in this regard, to the detriment of the team and their teammates.
This topic is a very strange diversion for the central debate I encourage big blue fans to engage at this time. Can this program be advanced up the SEC food chain with another coaching change if the institutional commitment to football within the University hierarchy and the political structure of this state?
My thesis is that the change necessary to allow the program to advance up that food chain must start at the institutional level before any decision about Coach Phillips’ coaching ability can be made in the interests of this program. Proof of my thesis lies in the litany of prior coaching changes; Bradshaw, Ray, Curci, Claiborne, Curry, Mumme, Brooks, and now Phillips have not effected the necessary programmatic changes, and the only constant over those 50 years in my view has been that lack of institutional commitment.