The House of Blue

You don’t get this deep down the list for nothing. Phillips was lucky to survive after last season, and is fortunate the Kentucky men’s basketball team dwarfs everything at the school. He probably saved his job—or at least made it more difficult for the UK brass to make the decision—by beating Tennessee for the first time since 1984. Other than that, there hasn’t been much positive from Phillips’ two seasons. The one postseason game was an ugly loss to a Pittsburgh team led by an interim coach.

Ouch.

I hope Joker succeeds, but there are a lot of highly ranked guys that I think we could land with the right packages for them and their staff as well as a commitment to move forward.

Look who came out of hiding.

Not bashing your post, but can anyone tell me what James Franklin has done to get the 25th ranking. I'm not saying whether he is good or not good. It's too early to tell and he definitely doesn't deserve the 25th ranking..

I love homies as much as anyone. And I appreciate what he's contributed in recruiting and assistant roles. However, it's been most apparent from day one that Joker is in way over his head in his current position.

The merciful thing to do, for Joker as well as the fans, is cut our losses and start thinking in the hallowed halls (and back rooms) about where we go after Joker. Uk can easily pay half as much as we pay Cal, and at that salary could attract some very good coaches. But any coach worth his salt would demand commitments other than money, commitments that UK wouldn't make. So, as our AD says, we get the same conversation for ten years and nothing changes. Some people in UK's upper echelon of staffing and/or financial backers simply don't want a strong football program---and don't mind that our coach is ranked 90th in a league that has a whole slew of top coaches. Never mind that our stadium and other facilities just don't measure up to SEC standards either. Now with the additions of A&M and Missouri, we just drop down to 13th or 14th in the league. Yeah, I'm pretty fed up as I see us heading into a season that will be "successful" if we get 4 wins!

I'm surprised they managed to get the #1 pick correct.

Les Miles should be the #2 overall HC. He is batshit crazy and I'm no fan of his but you can't argue with his accomplishments.

Chris Peterson and Gary Patterson are great coaches, but neither are top 10 coaches nor is the Old Ball Coach anymore.

Mark Richt at #14 seems too high for my liking also. All that talent at UGA and what has he done other than squander it?

Mike Leach at #17? WTF? Really? Look, I like the guy and wouldn't mind him being the HC here one day IF Joker doesn't work out but he isn't the #17 coach.

Looking at that list tells me one glaring thing.... There are very few elite coaches in the game today!

I think he is borderline top 10. I'd love to see them play a real schedule week in and week out and not just one good team to start and end the year with a long time to game plan for. Let's see what their depth looks like and how well he can coach then. That's the problem with these lists, they are looking too much at W's and L's and not giving any credence to schedule or conference.

hell, they have a couple coaches that have NEVER been a HC before ranked in the top 70 and top 60 even... How the crap can they rank them that high when they haven't proven anything?

You can take a mediocre coach from the SEC and stick them in a weak conference like the Big East, Mountain West, MAC, CUSA, SunBelt, etc... and they could look like freaking geniuses.

It's far easier to build a program in other conferences than it is in the SEC, B10, B12, or even the PAC...

Dirk Koetter started them off by winning the Big West in 2 of his 3 years as HC for Boise. He was followed by Dan Hawkins who went on to lead them to 4 WAC titles in 5 years before Petterson took over. Petterson has done a great job but you can't discount the winning tradition that was already developed(16 conference titles), the weak schedule, and the FACT that under Petterson Boise State is currently under PROBATION.

I love homies as much as anyone. And I appreciate what he's contributed in recruiting and assistant roles. However, it's been most apparent from day one that Joker is in way over his head in his current position.

The merciful thing to do, for Joker as well as the fans, is cut our losses and start thinking in the hallowed halls (and back rooms) about where we go after Joker. Uk can easily pay half as much as we pay Cal, and at that salary could attract some very good coaches. But any coach worth his salt would demand commitments other than money, commitments that UK wouldn't make. So, as our AD says, we get the same conversation for ten years and nothing changes. Some people in UK's upper echelon of staffing and/or financial backers simply don't want a strong football program---and don't mind that our coach is ranked 90th in a league that has a whole slew of top coaches. Never mind that our stadium and other facilities just don't measure up to SEC standards either. Now with the additions of A&M and Missouri, we just drop down to 13th or 14th in the league. Yeah, I'm pretty fed up as I see us heading into a season that will be "successful" if we get 4 wins!

True. I hope he flops at Washington St., I really do. He was talking on ESPNU the other day about how he was forced out at Texas Tech due to the actions of others. He doesn't seem very smart to me. Offensive football idiot savant.

What do you mean when you say "homies" and that you like them as much as anyone? Please tell me this isn't a comment on Joker's race.

You might be fed up, but no one will consider the season successful if it only contains 4 wins.

The writer of this "piece" ( I can't stand list articles - you listening Bozich? ) may be an anti-UK guy, but I don't disagree with The assessment on Joker.

He's got to show juice this year, if not 6 wins. The offense last year was atrocious and marked improvement will be the bellweather.