In a Stoop-or

The inevitable came on November 4th when University of Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart released an open letter to fans announcing that after three seasons, Joker Phillips was going to be let go as head football coach.  I was one of the last Joker supporters left standing at that point and up until the announcement was made, I was hopeful that the passionate UK alum could get things turned around at his alma mater.  But even Ray Charles could see what was coming when less than 20,000 people rolled through the gates of Commonwealth Stadium to watch the Wildcats get completely obliterated by the Vanderbilt Commodores for the second consecutive season.  Even though I knew it was coming, I was still not thrilled with the prospects of watching my beloved Cats start a coaching search that I was not convinced would land someone that could truly excite the fan base (a fan base that at times is so misguided that they actually think UK is dream job for elite  coaches).

Well, twenty-three days after the process began, color me stunned and amazed.  The much (mostly unfairly) maligned Barnhart was able to pull off the coup.  By getting Mark Stoops to come to Kentucky, the UK AD was able to get one of the most sought after coaching commodities to commit to Big Blue Nation and the best part of the whole matter is that Stoops approached Barnhart about the job and presented a plan for why and how the Wildcats could win consistently in the brutal SEC.  Yes, the coordinator of the #2 defense in the nation wanted to come to the Bluegrass!  How amazing is that? 

As a lifelong fan of UK football, I could not be more excited about the hire.  While Stoops does not meet some of the criteria that I would have thought essential in the new coach (he has no head coaching or SEC experience),  he more than makes up for it with his resume.  Here are five reasons that I believe that Stoops has the potential to be the perfect fit for the UK football program.

1) He wants to be in Lexington.  As mentioned earlier, he approached Barnhart about the job and he did so with a PLAN.  If he holds true to his brothers' style (brother Bob is the head coach at Oklahoma and brother Mike was the former head coach at Arizona and now is Bob's D-Coordinator) he will be a defensive coach who brings in a talented offensive coordinator with an explosive offense.  The cupboard is not bare at UK like it was in 2002 when Rich Brooks came to town.  The Cats return three QBs with playing experience, a stable of four experienced running backs, and a bevy of nice young receivers.  The rumors that keep swirling is that UK alum and current OC at Texas Tech, Neal Brown, may possibly return to his roots and orchestrate Stoops's offense.

2) He is a defensive coach.  This was very high on my lists of musts (not that Mitch contacted me and asked for my opinion in the matter) but I think it is imperative for the Cats to improve their defense in order to have any kind of success in the treacherous SEC waters.  Stoops, like his brothers (and even his mother if you ask former UK signal caller, Dusty Bonner), has proven that he knows how to orchestrate a defense.  He improved a terrible defense at Arizona when he was brother Mike's DC and turned Florida State's atrocious defense from a laughing stock to the second best in the nation (on paper).  His defensive units are also known for forcing turnovers , which a team like Kentucky must have in order to compete with the elite in the conference. 

3) He has ties all over the country and may be able to tap into some new recruiting markets that have not been open to the Wildcats in the past.  Stoops was born in the football savvy city of Youngstown, Ohio and played his college ball in the Big 10 at Iowa.  He went on to have assistant coaching stints at South Florida, Wyoming, and Houston before landing on Larry Coker's staff at Miami in 2001.  In his three years at the U coaching defensive backs, Stoops was able to win a national championship in 2001 and play for another the following year.  From there, he moved on to Arizona when his brother, Mike, was hired and became a D-coordinator for the first time.  After the 2009 season, he moved on to Tallahassee where he has helped rebuild the Seminoles into a contender.  The point of all of this is that he has ties to certain hotbeds in the recruiting world.  He may be able to get players out of Florida, Ohio, Texas, and the west coast that otherwise never would have considered coming to Kentucky.  He has a reputation as a tireless recruiter which should pay dividends.

4)He has a championship ring.  As mentioned in the previous section, he was the DB coach when Miami won the National Championship in 2001.  He is used to the spotlight and having expectations.  While he has never coached a full season in the SEC, he has a winning record as a coordinator against the SEC (3-1) and his defenses have only allowed 17 points per game and 317 yards per game (two of those wins coming against Florida).  In other words, while he may not have head coaching experience like fellow candidates for the job Mike MacIntyre, Gary Andersen, or Butch Jones, he has coached at high profile universities in high profile games and that means something.

5) He's not Bobby Petrino.  Nuff said.

And for those who were dogging Mitch Barnhart for doing his job in a professional manner and not listening to the rabid fan base, he once again has proven his worth to the university.  While only time will tell if Stoops is a homerun, keep in mind that most rallies are started  not by hitting a long ball but by getting runners on base and getting them over.  So if he isn't a homerun (which can sometimes be a rally killer), maybe he will be a rally starter, which in the long run may prove to be even better.

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?