The House of Blue

The fan in me wants to think thats possible so the rest of the season will still be interesting but its hard to see it happening. Anything is possible but we need impressive wins and I don't see them happening.

For all the good, if not great things Mitch has done for UKs athletic department - it seems that he has not grown into the role as a full-blown, big time AD. His administrative skills and managment are impeccable. The hires of coaches for the non-revenue sports have been nothing short of excellent.... Budgets are kept in the black... ALL of theses skills he honed as an Asst AD at Tennessee.

The skillset clubs he is admittedly missing in the golfbag are fundraising/relationship building and being a shmoozy appeasing personality to the big time sports' diva coaches. It seems that Mitch doesn't have a front-of-house personality or he just prefers to stay in his comfort zone : back of house operations.

Right now, he should be assembling an interview conga-line of football coaching candidates from the list of behind the scenes buddies. That list should have been drafted 1 1/2 years ago. However, this is NOT a reality. There is no plan. There is no direction other than faith in the course taken 3 years ago.

So, no major facility upgrade plans, 60% stadium capacity during great weather games you're supposed to win, a coach who can't tell you why there are craters deep of worthless talent in the upperclass / inexperience on the roster... Total institutional failure.

I pray Mitch realizes his outward deficiencies and assembles a competent committee to assist him to not only prepare a comprehensive list of coaching candidates, but a honeypot plan to reel in the great white whale this program so desperately needs and DESERVES.

That's just stupid and you guys know it. Ever AD makes mistakes. Makes bad hires. It's how he HANDLES THOSE MISTAKES that gleens light on how effective they are. How did he handle it? He bit the bullet, admited the mistake and fired his ass. Then he turned around and hit a homerun.

And for those who think we should have hired Cal two years before... Turns out it was a great decision to not hire him. Why? Because teh Derek rose situation would have followed him to UK.

I disagree. Of the two major sports he's made four hires. One he had to have a team led by Mike Pratt basically make the hire for him. BCG was a disaster and the coach in waiting has been a disaster so far. So he's one good hire vs. two bad.

I guess we can just agree to disagree Hop.

You have the luxury of hindsight. Every major AD has made mistakes. At the time the BCG hiring was very popular. If we had hired Cal at the time and the rose situation had followed him we would have been in AWFUL shape.

At the time, the joker move was very popular. The book on Joker is not finished. We'll know within 4 weeks. If it doesn't work out then it doesn't work out. IT doesn't mean a "mistake" was made. Barnhart oversaw the most success in football in the last 50 years. If you're going to hold him accountable for one coach you have to give him credit for the other.

All of those points are mute at this point. The agenda item at hand is hiring the brightest football mind possible that can bring back some excitement to the Cats football season. UK needs about $100 million in improvments to get to the middle of the pack in the SEC as far as facilities and that is agenda item 1A. The past is the past.

We have Cal in basketball. Let's find his match for football.

Actualy, Mitch told myself and a few others that he needs 200-250 million just to get CWS up to where it needs to be.

And he really doesn't deserve full credit for Brooks! He got lucky with Brooks, because his efforts failed and Brooks came in to save him. I often wonder what might have happened if Brooks hadn't offered to take over? Where would Mitch have gone? He obviously had found himself stuck in a bad place with knowhere to go. Anyone who tries to argue that Mitch has done a compitent job of making big hires is just not looking at the facts!

And no HOP, the CIW thing was not very popular. The fanbase was actually quite divided on it, and I'd say more were against it. Any given Sat at Commonwealth, you could hear a large portion of the fanbase cursing at Joker for his play calling as a coordinator throughout the game. Many felt he was in over his head as a coordinator, and thought it would get even worse when he became a HC. If Brooks had not "recomended" him, I don't think hardly anyone would have gone for it.

I think the ONLY thing that matters is empty seats. If we only have one win at midseason, I don't see how MB cannot pull the trigger, and I think he will, maybe sooner if he gets heat from the right boosters.

Thanks for making my point. You hold him accountable for mistakes but don't give credit for succes.

In terms of people being mad at Joker. I heard somebody complaining during the kent state game about play calling. You can't please everybody.
Again. Hindsight. It's a luxury.

Read Chris's post.

this team will be lucky to win 3.

I didn't really make your point at all. Mitch never approached Brooks to ask if he was interested. Brooks inquired, and because Mitch had nobody else, he went with him. That is not success. That is luck.