The Curse of the Bear?

Well, I've been here before and, sadly, history tells me it won't be the last time.  After enjoying a rare five-year run where it was beginning to feel as if the University of Kentucky had been onto something and was really making strides in its football program, I'm afraid the real Kentucky is back following a 32-31 loss to Western Kentucky.  The hot seat on Coach Joker Phillips could melt steel and there is virtually no way for him to save his job barring a miracle like the one that happened on 34th Street.  And, regardless of my opinion on the matter, if Santa Claus brings Phillips another season as head coach, the faithful (and I use that term loosely) will be seething. 

So what is the problem with UK football?  Why can't they establish long-running success as a football program?  One obvious answer is they play in the most brutal conference in college football; the SEC.  But really, the true nature of Kentucky's dismal gridiron tradition has its roots firmly planted six decades in the past.   Let's take a look back at the seminal moment that forever altered two different programs within the University of Kentucky athletic department.

In 1946, a man named Paul Bryant was hired as the new football coach for the Wildcats.  He was coming from Maryland where he had only spent one year.  He was a tough-nosed, unforgiving 33 year-old coach who preferred to go by his nickname, Bear.  (Legend has it that he earned the nickname from wrestling a captive bear for a theater promotion at the age of 13.)  His success was immediate, winning seven ball games in his first season.  He led UK to eight wins the next season and their first ever bowl appearance, The Great Lakes Bowl, which the Wildcats won.  His best run came from 1949-51 when his teams won 28 games and appeared in the Orange, Sugar, and Cotton Bowls.    In the 1950 Sugar Bowl, Bryant's Wildcats defeated an Oklahoma team that had won 31 consecutive games.  According to some polls and modern computer rankings, the University of Kentucky can claim a national championship for that season.  In total, Bryant spent eight seasons at Kentucky and finished with a career record of 60-23-5 and never had a losing season.  Bryant remains the all-time leader in career victories at the University of Kentucky.

Bryant was not the only coaching legend at Kentucky at that time, though.  Prowling the bench on the hardwood for the Wildcats was an irascible veteran coach named Adolph Rupp, who had a nickname of his own; the Baron.  Rupp had already been at Kentucky for 16 years by the time Bryant was hired and had led the basketball Cats to several conference championships and a Final Four.  It was while Bryant was at UK with Rupp that the basketball program began to assert itself as an elite program.  From 1948-51, Rupp was able to lead his teams to three NCAA championships, coinciding with the same years that Bryant was having his best run on the football field. (Even though Florida is credited with becoming the only school to ever hold the NCAA football and basketball championships in the same scholastic season, it can be argued that Kentucky did it in the 1950-51 season.) The University of Kentucky was poised to become the predominant school in all of college athletics.  So what happened?

The answer, it seems, is complicated and murky.  One legendary tale has it that Bryant was offended when the university bought Rupp a brand-new, four-door Cadillac and he was only given a fancy cigarette lighter.  While this story is rather funny and was told tongue-in-cheek by Bryant, there is nothing to corroborate its validity.  Another tale is that Bryant was upset by a scandal that had taken place with Rupp's teams involving point shaving.  In 1951, a story broke about Kentucky legends Alex Groza and Ralph Beard being involved in a points shaving event during the 1948-1949 season.  The subsequent investigation resulted in multiple NCAA rules violations and the first ever death penalty as the Wildcats were not allowed to have a basketball team for the 1952-53 season.  It is speculated that Bryant became antsy due to the increased NCAA scrutiny of all Kentucky athletic programs and decided to go elsewhere where the NCAA would not be sniffing around so much.  This theory seems to make much more sense.  But in a 1966 interview with Sports Illustrated, Bryant said, "When I try to put my finger on it I can't say exactly why I left Kentucky, but one thing I want to make clear. I never tried to get Bernie Shively's job as athletic director, and the athletic directorship had nothing to do with what you could call a clash of objectives between me and Adolph Rupp."  He also went on to say that leaving UK was one of the biggest mistakes he had ever made; this coming after winning three NCAA championships at Alabama.  To further dispel myth and legend, many accounts show that Bear Bryant and Adolph Rupp remained amiable towards each other and considered themselves to be friends until Rupp passed away in 1977.

So, to put it simply, the best guess as to what derailed the Kentucky football program was the points shaving scandal from 1951 that involved the Wildcat basketball program.  In an odd sort of way, the program that was not punished now suffers from the Curse of the Bear akin to the Red Sox' Curse of the Bambino.  In the years after Bryant left Kentucky to go to Texas A & M, the Wildcat football team has struggled to maintain any semblance of success.  UK has had ten head coaches since Bryant departed 59 seasons ago and only one (Blanton Collier) has left the university with a winning record, and he had the benefit of replacing Bryant and having some of the Bear's recruits play for him.  The only other time the football program has come close to making a splash on the national scene was under Fran Curci when his 1976 team finished 9-3 with a Peach Bowl win and followed it up with a 10-1 season in 1977.  But, as the Curse would have it, the Wildcats were ineligible for postseason play due to NCAA violations.  The UK football program was once again beset by NCAA violations during the Hall Mumme era.  It was only recently when Rich Brooks was able to lead the Wildcats to four consecutive bowls, winning three, did people begin to think that the Curse had been broken.  But as this past weekend shows us, that has not been the case after all.

In what appears to be a long season ahead for the Wildcats football program, athletic director Mitch Barnhart and the powers that be at Kentucky have a lot of tough decisions to make.  With an unsettled fan base and empty seats in the stadium, Joker Phillips's future may have as much to do with performance off the field as on it.  One thing that Barnhart and company will have to consider when deciding on whether or not to replace Coach Phillips is who can reverse this relentless curse?  So far, that question has seemed to stymie countless ADs and boosters for the past six decades.

If Joker Gets Canned, Blame Hartline?

It's no secret that entering this football season University of Kentucky football coach Joker Phillips has toasted buns from sitting on the proverbial hot seat.  Some speculate that if he does not lead the Wildcats to a bowl game, his fate is sealed and the majority of the fan base that is clamoring for his head on a platter will have their wish fulfilled. 

Phillips enters the 2012 season with an 11-14 career mark as a head coach and is 0-1 in bowl games.  Hardly a record that screams success.  Of those 14 losses, there have been several disappointments, perhaps the greatest being last year's lackluster performance against the archrival Louisville Cardinals.  Who knows what the season could have been like if the Cats were able to pull that one out?  Assuming they win that game, and no other games the rest of the season are affected, they would have completed the regular season at 6-6 and would have appeared in their sixth consecutive bowl game.

As devastating as that game was for Coach Phillips (many believe that marked a changing of the guard in the Bluegrass State, shifting the power from Lexington to Louisville), perhaps the most damning loss on his resume came in the 2011 BBVA Compass Bowl against Pittsburgh.  The game was a battle between two schools that should have been going in opposite directions on the football ladder.  UK had made its fifth consecutive bowl game, a feat never before accomplished in school history, and Pittsburgh, favored by many to win the Big East, had a disappointing season that resulted in the firing of coach Dave Wannstedt.  Newly hired replacement, Michael Haywood, was arrested for domestic abuse and subsequently fired after two weeks on the job and only one week before the bowl game. Momentum should have definitely been on the side of the Wildcats.

So what went wrong?  For starters, a fan base who was spoiled by Music City Bowl and Liberty Bowl championships believed the BBVA Compass Bowl to be beneath them.  The fan support for the Cats dwindled at an alarming rate and the usually supportive Big Blue Nation turned their noses up at buying tickets.  Another problem was that the game was actually played on January 8, 2011; a week after most major bowls had already been played.  It seemed an eternity had passed since the Kentucky Wildcats had met up with the Tennessee Volunteers on November 26, 2010, making the bowl seem as if it were part of a new season.

But the most likely cause for the ugly performance by the men in blue was the loss of their leader, senior quarterback, Mike Hartline.  Hartline, who was coming off the breakout season that the team desperately needed, was suspended for the BBVA Compass Bowl after having a drunken run-in with authorities two weeks after the loss to Tennessee.  The stunning arrest seemed completely out of character for a guy who had worked hard to transform from much maligned and hated to almost liked and appreciated.   Regardless of how fans felt about the senior QB, his numbers for the 2010 season are some of the best for a single season in school history.

Coming into that season, Hartline had started 14 games at the University of Kentucky and had an 8-6 record with a bowl win.  His career numbers were not great, but serviceable: 2,468 yards passing with 15 touchdowns and interceptions each.  In 12 starts in 2010, Hartline threw for 3,178 yards, 23 touchdowns, and 9 interceptions.  The numbers speak volumes about the improvement he made as field general.

Hartline's lapse of judgment proved to be too much for a deflated team to overcome.  Sophomore quarterback, Morgan Newton, stepped in to take Hartline's place.  Newton had started 8 games the previous season and had some success, beating both Georgia and Auburn on the road, but most would tell you he was riding the coattails of stud running back, Derrick Locke, and Mr. There's Nothing I Can't Do, Randall Cobb.  Newton had not started a game in 2010 and his lack of familiarity with the offense and teammates was glaring.  Newton's inability to move the offense allowed Pitt to take advantage and dominate the time of possession in the final three quarters; 25:16 to 18:44.  The Cats were outscored 27-7 in that span. 

Nobody knows if the outcome would have been different had Hartline played.  It is possible that the same thing would have happened; but I would venture to say it would have been unlikely.  A team with a proven leader who had started over two seasons' worth of games and had a bowl win under his belt would stand a much better chance than a relatively unproven sophomore with less than a season's worth of starts and no track record of being able to command an offense.

Just for the sake of argument, let's say that Hartline plays that game and the Wildcat offense performs up to par, keeping the defense fresh, and wins the game.  Joker Phillips finishes his first season with a winning record, a bowl win, and ends the perpetual losing streak to the Ol' Ball Coach. Even with a dismal 5-7 follow-up, including another streak busting win against Tennessee, the coach's seat would not be nearly as hot as it is currently. 

With a huge roster turnover from 2011, Joker Phillips faces the daunting task of winning six games in 2012, half of which will probably have to come against SEC opponents.  We can debate from now until the coach's fate is ultimately decided later this season about the justification of firing Phillips, but who knew a seemingly obsolete bowl game played nearly two years ago could be what decides the future of a man who has given most of his adult life to the University of Kentucky football program?