Rich Brooks Says Goodbye To His Ole Kentucky Home

[HT: Lexington Herald Leader]

Rich Brooks has officially retired as head football coach of the Kentucky Wildcats. UK's head coach in waiting, Joker Phillips, is no longer waiting. The gig is his.

Those of us who have covered SEC football and crossed paths with Brooks hate to see him go because what he did at Kentucky is simply remarkable.

Three years into his tenure UK fans wanted Brooks run out of town. The Wildcats then ran off 4 consecutive bowl trips, never accomplished before in school history.

Brooks made Kentucky football matter in the bluegrass state.

Here's a list of Rich Brooks' accomplishments in his seven years as Kentucky head coach:

Became first coach in UK history to appear in four consecutive bowl games

Led the Wildcats to victory over eventual national champion LSU in 2007, the program’s first win over a No. 1 ranked team in 43 years. UK also reached the nation’s top ten for the first time in 30 years that season.

Guided Kentucky to its first bowl in seven seasons in 2006. UK finished 8-5 that season, its most wins in 22 years. Kentucky’s 28-20 victory over Clemson in the Music City Bowl was also the program’s first bowl win since 1984.

In 2009 led Kentucky to its first win over Auburn since 1966 and first road win at Georgia since 1977.

Finishes fourth all-time in UK history in wins behind Bear Bryant, Fran Curci, and Jerry Claiborne.

Became first coach in SEC history to hire an African-American offensive coordinator (Joker Phillips) and defensive coordinator (Steve Brown) at the same time.

Photo Courtesy: Charles Bertram/Lexington Herald Leader

Brooks Has Maxed Out At Kentucky

First lets stand up and applaud what Rich Brooks has done as the head football coach at Kentucky. Instead of something to do before college basketball season tipped off, Brooks gave UK football fans something to cheer for. Even made the program relevant in Lexington.

Two years ago with Andre Woodson, Wesley Woodyard and a bunch of other talented players, Kentucky made a serious run at the SEC East title but just didn't have enough horses to get the job done.

Still, Brooks has led Kentucky to 4 post season bowls in a row and winning 3 which is a major accomplishment. He has done one of the most remarkable coaching jobs in the SEC.

I can imagine though that Rich Brooks is frustrated because football will never be more than what I stated in the beginning. It will never become a passion with Wildcat fans.

Sure Kentucky fans will show up at Commonwealth Stadium and show support but once basketball practice starts, well that's where the loyalties lie.

Then their is the financial backing. If an SEC football coach needs to an indoor practice facility or a players lounge, the check is in the mail. That's not the case at Kentucky. Men's basketball gets priority, football must wait it's turn.

I can imagine to that watching schools like Rutgers, Cincinnati or even another basketball school, North Carolina, commit major dollars to there football programs has to frustrate Rich Brooks.

Brooks said after the Music City Bowl loss to Clemson that he was 80% sure he was stepping down which I interpreted that he's not ready to step away from coaching or even Kentucky for that matter. That he would like some kind of commitment to the Kentucky football program to compete with Florida & Georgia. That might sway his decision.

Then again maybe Rich Brooks is content to call it a career and cast his fly rod into a stream somewhere. At least the trout are always biting.

Photo Courtesy: Lexington Herald-Leader

TWTW: Brooks Says He's "80%" Sure He's Not Returning...

((HT: WKYT-TV Lexington))

But sources close to those of us at OSG HQ say you can go ahead and add the extra 20-percent to UK Head Coach Rich Brooks' statement from last night's Music City Bowl postgame comments...

Brandon Fisher was in Nashville for WKYT-TV...


Brooks announced back in January that Joker Phillips was Coach-in-Waiting for the Wildcats footbasll job...

The 68-year-old Brooks finished his seventh season at Kentucky with a 7-6 record and 39-47 overall mark with the Wildcats. If it was his final game, his career coaching record in college will be 130-156-4 in 25 seasons, including 18 seasons at Oregon.

The HQ has to give Brooks a lot of credit for resurrecting a moribund football program in the SEC, much like Bobby Johnson has done at Vanderbilt. It will be interesting to see how Phillips carries the mantle from here...

UK's Jarmon Ruled Ineligible

((HT: WVLT-TV/Volunteer TV/WLEX18))

Starting UK defensive end Jeremy Jarmon has tested positive for a banned substance in a random NCAA drug test, ending his career at UK.

In a press conference Saturday morning, Jarmon, who had considered entering the NFL draft this season before deciding to return for his senior year, said he was suspended for a year by the NCAA after the positive test of the undisclosed substance. Jarmon had less than a year of eligibility left.

Jarmon, a 6-foot-3, 280 pounder, says the substance came from an over-the-counter dietary supplement, and that he was unaware the substance was part of the supplement, which he said he used without the knowledge of the UK training staff.

Jarmon said he tested positive for the banned substance on February 24, but then tested negative to similar test six weeks later. He said he appealed the suspension after the negative test, but was denied by the NCAA on Thursday.

"My first concern is with Jeremy and his family and what a devastating blow this is for them," said UK head coach Rich Brooks said. "There was no intent by Jeremy to do anything improper, it was an error in judgment in not checking with our staff (before taking the supplement). Jeremy has been an outstanding individual on and off the football field, and I hope that people understand what a class act he has been."

Jarmon played in 38 games during the last three seasons, including 31 starts. He made 38 tackles as a junior, including 10 for loss and 4.5 quarterback sacks, along with six pass breakups. He was named second-team All-Southeastern Conference by Phil Steele's College Football. In 2007, he was first-team All-SEC by Rivals.com and second-team All-SEC by the league coaches when he had 62 tackles, including 13.5 TFL and nine sacks. He has 17.5 sacks in his career, third in school history.

Jarmon has completed his degree in political science and is studying abroad this summer as he works toward a second major.

SEC Media Days, Day 3

End of the Chaos…

The end of SEC Media Days brought to a close one of the more interesting three day stretches that I’ve seen in quite a while. The “Media” traffic slowed, a little bit, but it didn’t slow the craziness, the oddness (if that really is a word) but it did give a look at what some would call a media vendetta.

Meet the Petrino…

You could have had a nice debate on day 3 as to what the big story was. For the Alabama folks, Tommy Tuberville was in the house. Tuberville however is a great guy; pretty much universally liked, has a great sense of humor and doesn’t take himself nearly as seriously as the Auburn fan base does.

The other early visitor was Kentucky’s Rich Brooks. Brooks was also somewhat of an amiable sort, he smiled a lot and like everyone else, wasn’t really sure what to expect out of his team this year.

The fireworks however were still to come. The afternoon brought the guy who is generally considered one of the true characters in College Football, Steve Spurrier and the guy who made headlines for leaving the NFL, the day after a game in the middle of the season to go back to college, Bobby Petrino.

Attack!

Upon his arrival, Petrino got pretty much the same treatment as all the “Big Name” coaches got, which was the phalanx of cameras walking with him as he walked. The Atlanta TV Stations were there as were several from the state of Arkansas.

I’ve got to say here that I never really felt sorry for Petrino before, despite the bland press conferences when he was with the Falcons and the whispers of his distant, cold and sometimes odd behavior with the folks up in Flowery Branch. He always came across as someone who would rather be anywhere other than on a podium, speaking into the lights, faces and cameras looking for something, anything that was usable to report.
This time was a little different. When he arrived into the TV rooms, the questions were all the same “Why did you leave the Falcons like you did? “Did you really hate pro football so much?” “Why did you bail out on the players like that?” His answers were pretty calm and thought out and again nothing special, the funniest, at least to me was the last question he was asked; “How will you feel if you have to come and play in Atlanta?” The answer was a good one; “I’ll be happy because that means we are playing for the SEC Championship and if we can win that, we may be playing for the national championship, that sounds like a good thought to me”.

Don’t forget the ‘Ball Coach!

I would be remiss in my duties if I didn’t mention Steve Spurrier. The guy, though he has some faults is one of a kind, an original. He had us laughing the whole time he spoke, not something easy to do in this cynical age.

The ‘Ball Coaches presser went something like this: “Well, I-hm really lookin’ forward to how our team’s gonna play this year. We got us a tall team, big and we look good in our uniforms” “We should look real good comin’ out of the tunnel. Unfortunately, I cain’t sit here and tell you if we’ll play as good as we look, we’re just gonna have to wait and see”. Great stuff, and he kept repeating this theme the whole afternoon.

Predictions…

If you read my stuff regularly, you probably know how much I hate “Pre-season Predictions”, but because I am doing my best to inform and entertain, I give the you SEC Media (70 ballots out of 700+ credentials) Predictions for the upcoming season.

SEC East
1. Florida
2. Georgia
3. Tennessee
4. South Carolina
5. Kentucky
6. Vanderbilt

Pretty much the same way the conference is picked before the season every year. In fact I don’t know that I can even remember the last time that it wasn’t picked this way.

SEC West
1. Auburn
2. LSU
3. Alabama
4. Mississippi State
5. Ole Miss
6. Arkansas

Again no surprises here, Auburn and LSU seem to just take turns in this poll. The only disappointment is Mississippi State. The Bulldogs were 8-4 last year, a pretty good team, in fact, don’t be surprised if they finish in the Top 2 here in the west.

“The time has come, my song is over, thought I’d something more to say”- Time (Pink Floyd)