With the UK win today over Vandy they are now bowl eligible. Does this get the critics off his back for the rest of the year? I think yes...

 

 

I still don't think he is all that great of a coach or right for the UK program.

I will give him a little bit of credit.

Im happy for the program and the players. Looking forward to seeing UK in a bowl game. This is a major step for the program. I think he has earned his keep for this year and the right to start next year. Lets see what he does next year?? I have been surprised at the victories this year. My hats off to them. Lets see how this year finishes off.

 

Looking forward => Hopefully a W over La-Monroe. Lets hope for a w at Tennessee yet, take a 21 point defeat. Go to a bowl game, (it really does not matter) and win that game. All said and done 8 - 5... wow, that would be very difficult to cut up and chew on regardless of who you are or were you come from. That would be a major step for this program. Good Luck to the Cats. Hope to go bowling in Nashville...........

I have said for the last couple of years that I did not dislike nor was I a major fan of Brooks hiring, but given the state of the program at the time he may have been all we could get. I did believe that his hands were tied ( as far as the number of scholarships and level of talent present ) and he did deserve a chance to get to this and next year before he would be able to be fairly evaluated. And now I think that there has been progress made in this program and he deserves a contract extension. How long that would be would be debatable.

Well I wouldn't know a bad football coach from a good one but I have always felt that Rich Brooks should be given a fair opprotunity. He took over a program that was considered by most to be one of the worst in the country. To this day they are still short on scholarship players.

 

I feel somewhat vindicated because I have defended him on this board on several occasions. Also, I appreciate that fact that Mark Story has shown class and humility in his praise of Brooks. Story has been a Brooks basher from day 1 but as of now is finally giving Brooks a fair shake. :thumb:

I read something in a local paper today that really made me scream. Understand, that this same sports writer has bashed Brooks for quite some time. He started off with "This is going to hurt, so I will make it fast. Rich Brooks has done a good job this season. I am impressed with the way Kentucky has turned things around." Okay, I am with him so far. But, of course, we can't give a compliment without a followup quote "I am not saying that I am jumping on the bandwagon and I'm not even sure the Cats recent success is because of Brooks. The fact may be the players have developed a little pride and decided to play the way they are capable.

 

If we are going to give someone all the blame for not succeeding, ... should we not give them credit when they do succeed? I believe that Brooks and his staff are at least partially responsible for guiding this young team (73 frosh/sophs) to a better than anticipated season. Maybe the coaches instilled some pride in these young Cats. If we going to hold a coach responsible for the performance of his team then we have to give credit for the good as well as criticism for the bad. Backhanded compliments or the "Yeah, but" comments don't do that for me. Anyway, had to vent and I feel much better now! :thumb:

I believe the Cats are second in the East...Maybe we ought to him a call and see if we can talk to him, but leave MA at UK.

but leave MA at UK.

:eek: Gee Thanks Larry!:lol: You all all heart. I will say this about Brooks......although I have been very critical of him the one thing that I do have to admire about him is that he stands by what he says and the players seem to like him and they are playing very hard for him.

I think at this point you have to give Brooks a lot of credit. He is trying to rebuild UK, a team with virtually no football tradition playing in the a conference that is consistently the toughest in America, from ground zero, with scholarship reductions, no support from the local media and the worst fan support for any coach in my memory.

 

I like the direction Rich Brooks has us headed. He seems to be doing things the right way with a lot of integrity. I like Joker as the OC. I like Sanders as the QB coach. And, I still think Archer can get the job done on defense when we get better talent and better depth.

 

People who were expecting Brooks to work an overnight miracle in the situation he was in were naive, to say the least.

 

Give they guy a fair chance. Despite the tough season last year, Brooks landed one of the better recruiting classes at UK in recent memory. And, that fact is, UK didn't look that bad last year when they had a healthy roster. Now that they're healthy this year, we're seeing some major signs of improvement. In a couple more years, if he keeps recruiting well, we'll actually have a little depth and experience. There are a lot of reasons to be excited about the direction the Wildcats are headed, IMO. If people could just get past their hatred for Rich Brooks...

 

Mark Story...he loves the guy that took over a basketball program that was on top of the world and has been on a decline ever since. He hates the guy that took over a football program that was at rock bottom, then had to absorb an extraordinary number of injuries on a team with no depth, and yet he has shown steady progress. Go figure.

 

I wish Chuck Culpepper would come back!

I read something in a local paper today that really made me scream. Understand, that this same sports writer has bashed Brooks for quite some time. He started off with "This is going to hurt, so I will make it fast. Rich Brooks has done a good job this season. I am impressed with the way Kentucky has turned things around." Okay, I am with him so far. But, of course, we can't give a compliment without a followup quote "I am not saying that I am jumping on the bandwagon and I'm not even sure the Cats recent success is because of Brooks. The fact may be the players have developed a little pride and decided to play the way they are capable.

 

If we are going to give someone all the blame for not succeeding, ... should we not give them credit when they do succeed? I believe that Brooks and his staff are at least partially responsible for guiding this young team (73 frosh/sophs) to a better than anticipated season. Maybe the coaches instilled some pride in these young Cats. If we going to hold a coach responsible for the performance of his team then we have to give credit for the good as well as criticism for the bad. Backhanded compliments or the "Yeah, but" comments don't do that for me. Anyway, had to vent and I feel much better now! :thumb:

 

 

If given credit for nothing else, Brooks deserves all the credit for getting those talented freshmen and sophmores to come to UK despite the the program's problems.

If given credit for nothing else, Brooks deserves all the credit for getting those talented freshmen and sophmores to come to UK despite the the program's problems.

 

Excellent point.

 

Brooks and his staff. Joker Phillips, Steve Ortamyer (sp), Chuck Smith, etc have done an excellent job in developing relationships with the HS coaches and building their trust. They have contacted EVERY head coach in the state the past few seasons. They also have earned the trust of these young Cats to believe that if they continue to do it the right way, it would pay off in the end.