Signed, Sealed, and Delivered

Today is one of my favorite sports days of the year.  Sure, it doesn’t rival opening day of the MLB season, the opening rounds of March Madness, or the Super Bowl but for a day in early February, it’s something for college football fans to get excited about.  Of course, I am talking about National Signing Day!  Today is the day in which thousands of young men all across the country sign to play college football and in so doing give each fan a glimpse of what their favorite program will look like this coming fall.

For years, there hasn’t been much to get excited about on this day if you were a University of Kentucky football fan.  I am one of the few who I know that would pay attention to the Wildcat signees and try to learn more about them and how they could help the program.  Overall, there wasn’t much interest from casual fans.  They would latch onto the biggest names in the crop of talent and then expect them to dominate the SEC as soon as they stepped foot on campus.  Or they would bemoan the fact that UK was either 11^th or 12^th in the SEC in recruiting and go on a negative tirade about it being a loser program and why couldn’t the football team be more like the basketball team.  Well, it’s just not that easy.

But this year brings an excitement to National Signing Day that I have never seen before.  New UK head coach Mark Stoops has the fan base excited.  He has been able to do things that many have assumed were impossible at Kentucky: he has been able to sell a lackluster program to highly ranked kids and get them to come to what many consider to be the worst football program in the SEC.  He steadily preached about a change of culture and the university has stepped up to give him unprecedented support.  And for the first time in my memory, here we are in the middle of February and there is more talk about UK football than there is about the basketball program.  (Some of that speaks to the fickleness of fans.  The basketball program is 16-6, 7-2 in SEC, and many have given them up for dead.)

Just last week, the UK football team released a You Tube video promoting signing day.  During the Super Bowl, UK football ran an ad on Lexington station WKYT showing clips of past UK greats in action and featured a voiceover of former UK receiver and new offensive coordinator, Neal Brown, saying, “Come be a hero.”  The energy was pulsating across Big Blue Nation.

And now, on National Signing Day, no one could have anticipated the kind of first signing class that Stoops was able to haul in.  Eight of the kids signed were considered 4-star players by one of the major recruiting services (Scout, Rivals, ESPN).  Three of those were ranked in the top 250 of this signing class in the nation.  To put that in perspective, they had only signed one of those kids in the top 250 of a class in the past five years.  Two of these kids were Kentucky kids who had not been likely to attend UK until Stoops and his staff came on board.  Ryan Timmons, a projected wide receiver and return specialist from Franklin Co. High School, chose Kentucky over Ohio State and Florida (where he was being recruited by Joker Phillips) and Jason Hatcher, a former USC commit from Trinity High School in Louisville, will have the opportunity to leave their mark, along the lines of Tim Couch, Andre Woodson, Craig Yeast, and Jared Lorenzen, as kids who stayed in-state and became legends at UK the past fifteen years. 

Many of these kids are going to have the opportunity to play immediately at Kentucky, which certainly has to be one of the key selling points to young recruits, but any turnaround will not come overnight.  The one thing that I see from these young men that I like is that they already seem close and they already seem to have defined leadership.  Jaleel Hytche, the young cornerback prospect out of Ohio, was one of Stoops first commitments and has waved the banner proudly for UK.  He has been aggressively talking to other prospects on Twitter encouraging them to come be a part of something special.  For the first time I can remember there has been a campaign set in motion that it may not be so bad to play at Kentucky and these recruits truly seem to believe that.  They seem to understand exactly what it is going to take to be successful at UK and are helping convince others along the way.

As excited as I am about this class, I must urge caution to Big Blue Nation.  If there is to be a turnaround for UK football, it will take these kind of classes year in and year out.  Remember, most of the same fans who are getting excited about Fall 2013 are the ones who abandoned the Cats in Fall 2012.  I admit that I am as excited as anybody about the future of the program but that excitement should be tempered with patience.  I hope that Coach Stoops will get the one thing from fans that Coach Phillips never received: unconditional support.  Check your negativity at the door; there’s no place for that if this program is to move forward.  That’s all I am asking of anyone. 

But for today, let’s just enjoy the prospects that have signed and talk them all up like they are All-Americans.  The Stoops staff has done a magnificent job of going in and getting guys from hotbeds that had previously been untapped by UK.  Stoops said when he was hired that he would concentrate on the states of Kentucky, Ohio, and Florida.  As it stands right now, he has three top players each from Kentucky and Ohio and nine from the state of Florida.  He has flipped kids from nationally prominent schools like Nebraska and USC convinced them to come to a lower tier SEC school.  Just think, if he can do that in just over two months of recruiting, what is the class of 2014 going to look like when he has a full year to get after it?

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.

Hey, Fighting Irish, Listen Up!

Dear Notre Dame Fighting Irish,

I know that we have never had an amicable relationship so I most definitely do not write this letter to you as friend.  I realize that you don’t even know who I am but what I have to say to you is not made important by my status, rather by your university’s lack thereof.  Please keep in mind everything that I say to you is for your benefit and not to add any additional animosity to our nonexistent relationship.

First, let me congratulate you on the announcement this week that you are joining the ACC as a full conference member.  Oh, wait.  That implies that you will be playing football in the conference but, of course, you are not.  You will just be playing five teams a year (probably Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, Wake Forest, and Boston College) and you will get to participate in their bowl games, except for the Orange Bowl which is reserved for the conference champion.  Oh, what’s that you say?  You can play in the Orange Bowl?  Funny, but the ACC says you can play opposite the ACC champ in that bowl game, which is basically run by the ACC anyway.  Interesting.

Second, let me say you have done a masterful job of keeping your name in the headlines for the past 23 years without really doing much on the field.  In the years since your last national championship (1988), you have become like the NCAA version of the British monarchy.  Your success is decades in the past yet people tend to keep you elevated on your laurels rather than on what you have done lately.  I understand that, just like the Royal Family, you have lots of money and you believe that is enough to keep you relevant, but haven’t we moved on from that line of thinking?  I mean, aren’t we in the 21^st century?  Does “Old Money” really make you relevant these days?  I do not begrudge you your fantastic history.  The monarchs had a great run as well, but at some point you have to let go of your arrogance and humble yourselves before your brethren. 

I know what you are saying, and you are right, to an extent.  It is not all your fault.  There are those who have colluded with you and kept you prominent well beyond your years.  It is not your fault that you accepted a mega-million dollar deal with NBC to have your home games broadcast exclusively by one of the big three networks.  It is not your vault that in 1998, when the NCAA decided to go with the BCS format, they granted you a free pass as long as you won just nine games instead of forcing you to join a conference.  (When was the last time a nine-win SEC team played in a BCS game?)  But, at some point, you have to realize who and what you are and sometimes you are not what you really think you are.

Third, this move to join the ACC in most sports may just be to secure your future for when the NBC deal is up in 2015 and then you will join the conference as a true full member.  If so, that’s great but just be up front about it.  Why all the secrecy if this is your intent?  People prefer honesty as opposed to scheming.  As I said earlier, we are in the 21^st century.  Come and join the rest of us.  It really isn’t a bad place.  Doing things in this manner only makes you look like a politician making campaign promises.

Fourth, I know this is hard for you to fathom but you really aren’t a significant player in college football anymore.  I know, I know.  You have 13 national championships and a bevy of Heisman Trophy winners.  You have Rudy, the Gipper, Touchdown Jesus and Lou Holtz.  Cherish your history and honor it.  You will not find a person who respects history more than me.  But you can’t live in the past.  You have to move forward.  I have been on your campus and it is beautiful.  (As a matter of fact, one of the greatest sports viewing-moments of my life came in 2008 when I was in South Bend to watch the Pittsburgh Panthers make an astonishing comeback win in a four OT thriller against the Irish.) You also have a passionate, devoted fan base and they deserve better.  Lately, you have been for like the Farting Irish than ones that Fight.

I don’t say this to offend you, but if you are honest with yourself, you will admit that it’s true.  Yes, you have made three BCS bowls but you have been housed in all three, one of those by the mighty Beavers of Oregon State.  Besides Oregon State, there have been many other schools who have secured a BCS bowl win while you have not.  Boise State (2), Utah (2), TCU, Louisville, Stanford and Kansas have all won bigger games than you have.  And if you want to look at recent bowl history in the BCS era, your record is only 2-10, with one of those wins coming in the Hawaii Bowl against the University of Hawaii.  In that time, powerhouse programs such as Kentucky, Maryland, South Florida and Rutgers all have as many as or more bowl wins than you.

I know this is difficult for you to read and it’s a blow to your mighty ego, but point out something that I have said that is not true.   You must realize that your independence in the sport is an antiquated philosophy and you must let go.  You have never had to buy the milk because you have always gotten the cow for free, but those days are coming to an end.  That is why I hope this deal with the ACC is more like dating a girl before marrying her than it is like an arranged marriage where both sides get something out of it but the motives for the relationship are not genuine. 

I know that my opinion means nothing to you, and that’s fine.  I also know that our relationship will always be as it is now, and that, also, is fine.  And in the end, this letter is no more relevant in the grand scheme than you are relevant in the grand scheme of NCAA football.  But know this one thing.  This letter is sincere and this is how my four eyes see it. 

Your biggest anti-fan,

Brian Ray Gross

P.S. I know that the college football Hall of Fame is in South Bend, Indiana and you like to flaunt that.  But it really makes sense to have it there.  I mean, where else would you put a dinosaur other than a museum?