The House of Blue

Man, I hope we don't go winless in SEC play next year! Sorry, but I just dont see that happening.

I think the most surprising comments came in what they thought of Joker and the future of Kentucky. Sure they didn't think much of next season (which even the biggest sunshine pumpers believe we won't be great next yr), but both analysts seem to think that given enough time Joker can win games at Kentucky. It's good to hear from people who are more objective than the posters on these boards.

There is way more riding on 2012 than you (and many others) are anticipating. A poor season and the termination of Joker Phillips will result in the following:

A coaching search with the very likely hire of someone far down most fans' "wish list"
A new philosophy/coaching style
A (probable) new offense
A (probable) new defense
Three years of recruiting classes who lost their recruiting, position, and head coaches

You think going 5-7 was bad? Or even a 3-5 win season in '12?

Wait until you see the floundering the program will experience if a new coaching staff with entirely new philosophies comes in with players that are not only at an athletic disadvantage (comparatively and generally speaking), but who are completely unsuited for the new schemes, have no familiarity with them, and who are potentially disillusioned with the firing of the men who recruited and coached them. Add this is a slavering and impatient fanbase who want instant results ("B-b-b-b-but Caaaaaaal did it with them freshmen!") and an administration that is (publicly) disinterested in promoting the program. Mix in a sprinkle of facility, bonding, and financial challenges and what do you get?

You and I and everyone else will be wishing that we were losing bowl games to Pittsburgh in Birmingham.

Which is not to say that the only option is keeping Phillips forever. Mainly to say that if the team is really that bad in 2012 and Phillips has to take "the symbolic axe" there won't be much of a silver lining at all.

I keep reading about better recruits and young talent. Now if joker gets fired our athletes are at an athletic disadvantage. Give me a break. If we're recruiting better football players we will get better. No matter what the scheme is. If we go 0-8 in conference like we're predicted to then jokers a bum and deserves to get fired. Franklin had no trouble turning things around in year 1. I believe urban Meyer won a championship in year 1. Sometimes change is a good thing. It brings excitement. Like the other Guy said I don't like UK being a laughing stock. This program should at the least be competitive and respected. I also think you'd be surprised at the coaches that would be interested in the job.

Yet another example of an astounding lack of reading comprehension.

Franklin had no trouble turning what around? Going from 0 SEC wins to 2 SEC wins, including those marquee wins over a terrible UK and an even worse Ole Miss, while Vandy had three senior NFL draft picks on defense? That's a turnaround?

Your standards for Franklin are exceedingly low.

Back to your reading comprehension. You'll notice the last part of my post specifies that my post wasn't a "keep Phillips forever" post. It was an observation that 2012 may have much more at stake than just Phillips' job security.

My comment about the athleticism of the team, if you'll notice, specifically noted "comparatively and generally speaking." Meaning that we need to rely on kids becoming students of the system, executing at a very high level, and buying in 100% to the concept to beat a team with freak athletes lining up across from them.

While recruiting appears to be improving, it's foolishness to think we've reached the level of athlete where we can just plug another system in and win immediately.

I am not happy with the losing like everyone else, but Uk had one of the worst offense's in the nation last year and somehow won 5 games.

I think this season they have 3 games they will win but the games against:

Louisville - I game that will set the tone
Missouri - seen a bunch of them and they can be beat
Vandy - the day when vandy is a guaranteed loss........ Will be depressing
Tenn- have talent but something is missing there
Mississippi St - always a tough fought game and usually depends on who makes mistakes
Florida- If they cant play with them now, no telling when

are these games they should be in to win.

I loved hearing what warford was saying " Talk is Cheap " ....... No one is going to respect you or pay attention to you until you make them and the only way in doing that is getting it done on the field. I LOVE FOOTBALL SEASON. I LOVE MY WILDCATS ... KEEP WORKING

I can tell you this much: most people in NOLA and along the gulf coast don't even know the SEC plays basketball. The few people who will even discuss it with me fall into one of two categories:

1.) They like UK basketball to the extent they know anything about it, because we're typically the only school that is any good at it from the SEC, and they want the SEC to be champions in every sport. Now, they do all seem to hate Calipari, but I think they want us to win just from a conference prestige point of view. or,

2.) They say we are a basketball school and should move to the ACC or Big East because we can't compete in the SEC's real sport and and somebody better could take our place (this makes me so mad i could strangle somebody).

I also had to cringe time and time again when the BBN was in town for the SECT and the F4 (as much as I loved seeing my stomping ground painted blue & white instead of LSU, Bama, or Ole Miss colors) when we would get taunted by fans from other schools and the reply was "well we beat yall in basketball." I know UK fans think that's a good comeback, and it is to fan bases that care about basketball.. but those fan bases aren't in the SEC, save maybe Vandy. They laugh at us when we say wait for basketball season, because that's about as relevant to them as field hockey season. Down here, it's football, football, baseball, spring football, and football. All that said, all my LSU buddies were very quick to give us props on our baseball team this year, which I appreciated coming from them.

Nonetheless, all of this becomes moot if Joker comes out and coaches his tail off. I hope he can make it happen!

Devil's Advocate:

Let's chalk up 2012 as the "reset" button year for a whopping 3 wins. Going into 2013, Joker's 4th yr on the 5-year deal AND Joker will be recruiting for his final contract year....

my question: will Mitch need to extend Joker after a 3-win campaign to not create a lame duck coaching scenario?

It is never easy to pull up the stakes, unplug and move the tents to another camp. Divorce ain't easy.

As much as we are looking for improvement in our young players, I think Mitch will be evaluating this staff with a keen eye on improvement. If he sees what he likes, I would not be surprised to see Mitch extend Joker with a symbolic 2-yr contract with rip cord language prior to THIS season's kickoff. Avoid all of the hotseat, negative recruiting bullcrap now.

Additionally, IF Joker is not our NEO, it depends who the next coach is to determine the doomsday scenario you painted. If we landed a gold-standard dude with uber juice, we'd be sailing in no time.

Lots on Mitch's plate now that the potential cash windfall, stage and spotlight of SEC football has grown exponentially.

This year's team has a lot more potential than last year's did, but last year's team had some potential too, and frankly, they just failed miserably to getting close enough to achieve it. On defense we have a bit of depth and they're in the 2nd full season of Minter's tutelage. I think we're gonna be much better on "D" than anyone thinks.
On offense, everything hinges on whether the damn WR's will catch a stinkin' pass. A lot of you who saw them in the spring have said they'll be better at doing so, so I will roll with that opinion, as you've seen them & I have not. Max Smith is demonstrably better @ QB than Newton, from what I saw last season. The "O" line is young, but will have some experience, size, and a bit of depth to it, so in the end, barring mass injuries, I think we'll be okay there. But where we have to succeed is with the WR's catching the ball and making yards after a catch. That happens, and we're going to win some games this year, and probably a game or two that nobody gives us a chance in right now. But the damn WR's have to do their jobs, there's no other way around it. They have to start producing.
If they do not catch passes, run their routes correctly, or block downfield after a catch for each other, then we may not even win 5 games. They do perform well, I can see Kentucky winning 6 or 7 games.

You lost me when you started trying to compare Florida and Kentucky's football programs. (And Meyer didn't win the title his first year. He won two more games and finished only one spot higher in the SEC East - 2nd - than Zook with a loaded roster).

I never back pedaled. I'm still not. I question your reading comprehension. Let me quote myself for you:

"...with players that are not only at an athletic disadvantage (comparatively and generally speaking)..."

Comparatively speaking meaning comparing our athletes (in general) to the SEC (in general). Generally speaking meaning that while we might have some guys who are as athletic as anyone, that is not the case across the board.

I don't need to make up my mind because I've never contradicted myself.

The only thing you said that I agree with is that "if you have the athletes you can run any scheme you want and they'll be good." It is my position that (in general and in comparison to the SEC) we do not have the athletes to run any scheme we want, and that changing schemes will be worse before it gets better.

Which is, again, not to say that we have to keep Phillips no matter what. If he goes winless in the SEC, he will be terminated and rightfully so. It just won't be the cause for celebration some are making it out to be.

Btw, only the very first part of that was directed at you Jeffries123. The rest just kinda morphed into a rant n ramble all in one...apologies