The House of Blue

The day he was named HCIW. Joker was never meant to be a headcoach. He's a prime example of the Peter Principle - he rose to the level of his incompetence. Not everyone is built to be a headcoach - a lot very fine cooridnators take the next step and fail. It takes a very special makeup to be a winning head coach. Hopefully, Joker hooks up with a successful NFL HC and is a pro position coach and eventually a pro offensive coordinator for a long time to come.

He is not doing a good job. I understand that. But to make this comment this early in his career is completely false and unfair to him. There are several coaches that have started out and moved on to learn from past mistakes after failing at their first go around. With his approach and likeability factor I think gaining experience will be great for him and he will be successful in the future. I wish he had left us to take a job somewhere else before the hand was forced to make him head coach in waiting. Maybe he would have ended up here at the right time someday. But this is the wrong time for him to be coaching in the SEC unfortunately. I wish him the best of luck and hope to goodness he is successful moving forward.

I will say "DITTO".

I'd have to go with the TN game of 2010 also. I think those coaching decisions on the punt and not having the ball in Cobb's hands late cost us that game. We should have won that one. Also, and perhaps most crucial was his decision to bench Hartline for the bowl game. He went overboard with that decision and should have just sat him for one QTR or maybe the half. That loss and losing season was the start of the end in hindsight.

The not putting the ball on Cobb's hands at end of Tennessee game is one of those things that's grown more and more as time passes but the reality is they did put the ball in his hands. It doesn't really matter now but if you go back and look at that drive it made sense why they called what they called. It's just an easy one to point to. Not to mention, he wasn't even the head coach in 2009.

To me, the Ole Miss game was a massively deflating game and maybe the first sign of issues. So was the 2010 Tennessee game where they had a chance to go up 14-0 at end of first quarter, fumble going into end zone and 3 plays later the game is tied at 7 on the way to a 24-14 loss. Follow that up with the awful effort in the Compass Bowl against a interim coached team and that's where the train really jumped the tracks. They never got it back after that.

Just so many things that all added up for me since he has been coach and long before that as OC...

Basically an overall fear of success when its staring you in the face, and the subsequent pathological need to sabotage that potential for success.....a trait I used to always attach to Bill Curry and hoped would never have to use again.

The previously mentioned Tennessee game with the way he pulled Cobb out at the end to feature his favorite Morgan Newton....of which it took almost the full four years for Joker to finally get it that this kid just doesnt have it.

which mirrored what he had done in 2009 against South Carolina when Cobb alone lead us down the field to potentially win the game, only to be used as a 'decoy' (jokers word) at the end and handed the reins on the goal line to Wil Fidler .

The entire Compass Bowl offensive gameplan against Pitt, featuring Morgan Newton in a Cam Newton type role....only their last names were similar.

The game at Tennessee in 06 where we had the ball, late 4th quarter, goal to go down 5 and he calls the same inside handoff 3 straight plays to Rafael Little, never letting Woodson put the ball in the air until a futile rushed throw on 4th down.

The punt against Tennessee in 2010, where his true "Bill Curry-ness" was on display.

Lets put it this way, when we were basically handed the 2010 game against South Carolina at home 6 games into Jokers first year....I wanted to be happy for finally beating Spurrier but all I could do is shake my head cause I knew that was fools gold and the fool on the sideline was going to be with us longer than he should.

Just think....Had we completed the comeback against Auburn the week before, its possible not even this trainwreck of a season wouldve been enough to be rid of him.

I don't look to a specific play or even game. I would say it was when neither Newton nor Mossakowski turned out to be SEC-caliber QBs. The commitments of these two were high points for UK football and signaled a bright future. The fact that UK had two guys who could be viewed as potential future NFL QBs and neither one panned out set the team back. When the same thing happened with their WR corps it was a nail in Joker's coffin.

Player personnel decisions and key in game decisions have proven to be the downfall. Both have led to fans, players and coaches not fully respecting his authority and decision making as a head coach much both earn and demand.

Just to cite one example - we will never know what might have happened had Mossakowski been selected ahead of Newton. It was a very difficult decision and one that arguably at the time may have appeared right. But what if he had went the other way?

I could cite numerous player personnel decisions like that which have proven over time to likely not have been the best decision.

The same can be said of key in game decisions. Already mentioned is the lack of use of Cobb in the Tenn game. Not going for it on 4th down in some key situations, but going for it on other occasions when he shouldn't have. Play calling, defensive alignment to the situation, on and on ... it ultimately all boils down to decision making.

A lot of it is a gut call. Other times it is wisdom to discern what is the best between two good options.

There is a fine line between those that succeed at a high level, a good level, and those who don't do well. Unfortunately, for Joker, he has been on the wrong side of that fine line too many times.

Much of this is due to mismanagement by the head football coach and staff.

Example: In summer camp 2011, UK went to camp with basically two quarterbacks......junior Morgan Newton and true freshman Max Smith (who had greyshirted and gone through spring practice). The other eligible quarterback was Bookie Cobbins who, contrary to what you might have read in some media outlets, could not have been an effective quarterback at Lindsey Wilson college. A speedy athlete....maybe.....a quarterback....no way. The fourth quarterback who went to camp was Jacob Russell who had transfered from EKU and was not eligible.

Two capable walk-on quarterbacks were not taken to camp and ultimately, one transferred to West Virginia University and one gave up his football dreams.

Injuries happen at the college level and as you may recall, wide receiver Matt Roark quarterbacked the Cats to victory in the Tennessee game. Roark won the game for UK and we all celebrated, but the situation was the result and created by mismanagement by CJP and/or Randy Sanders.

Ryan Mossakowski was a very capable quarterback who I really believe would have had a productive career at UK had he not been deceived and not shot straight. It has happened to many players and that is why we are playing so many young players and have perceived unproductive junior and senior classes.

Exactly what I have stated many times. The blame is not solely on the players. And yes, we are playing alot of youth due the junior/senior class being "perceived" as unproductive. Thus playing 26 freshman. That is not something anyone at UK (staff/players/fans) should be excited about. Recipe for diaster in the SEC and it has proven to be so.