Football Cats look towards the future: Life after Brooks

UK football coach Rich Brooks caused quite the stir yesterday when he announced at the SEC Media Days that he likely would not be UK’s longest tenured coach. Fran Curci is the longest tenured UK football coach at nine years. Brooks is entering his 7th season at UK, so doing the math, this would mean that this year or next year would be his last season at UK.

My first thought? “Brooks is leaving when it’s going to start getting really fun!”. It appears that Brooks will miss Morgan Newton/Ryan Mossakowski’s junior and senior seasons. It’s hard to walk away from that but I respect Brook’s reasons. He said that he has been to too many memorial services lately and well, football is just a game and he has other things to do with his life.

Regardless on whether it is this season or next season that is Brook’s last, UK fans owe him a huge debt of gratitude. I admit, I was not thrilled with his hire, but he has won me over and I can actually see UK turning the corner in the SEC. SOON.

It is apparent that Brooks will be handing over a far better football program than the one he inherited to Joker Phillips. And I really struggled with writing this post, but I feel the question needs to be asked: Is Joker the right man for the job?

*****Let me preface this by saying that I LOVE Joker Phillips. He played a huge part in helping to build this program and he has done a great job opening recruiting pipelines in Georgia and South Carolina. He deserves a good bit of the credit for the Andre Woodson development and the offensive juggernaut that was UK two years ago. So yes, he deserves a shot at being UK’s coach and if he was not named “coach in waiting, he would have probably been lured away by another school and I am glad his loyalty was rewarded.*****

But still, not trying to cause drama or stir the masses, but the questions begs to be asked. Is it right to just hand the keys over to Phillips without conducting a proper job search?

Both sides actually have a valid argument. One is that you can never know who may show interest in the open UK job. Keep in mind that there are only 12 spots available in the number one football conference in the country. Could some one like BYU’s Bronco Mendenhall , Boise State’s Chris Peterson or TCU’s Gary Patterson be poised for a jump to a BCS conference ala Urban Meyer? Part of me thinks that UK should open up the coaching search and see what hats get thrown into the ring. Like I said, Brok’s made this a very attractive job.

On the other hand… I love Joker Phillips. Have I said that yet? He obviously has the pedigree to take over for Brooks in the SEC. Let’s not forget that his resume includes stints as WR coach at Cincinnati, coaching positions at Minnesota and South Carolina and following Urban Meyer as WR coach at Notre Dame. Phillips obvious bleeds blue though as he returned to UK and became offensive coordinator UK since 2004. In short order, he turned around UK’s offensive scheme, which was one of the nations worst performing under previous OC Ron Hudson.

Clearly, UK is at a crossroads heading into Brook’s last season or two. I honestly think that 3rd place in the SEC is up for grabs this year and UK has a good shot to move up a notch or two in the hierarchy. Having Phillip’s means that this year’s strong recruiting class will see some stability during their four years and will get a chance to consistently develop. Also Joker has been in touch with potential recruits for a few years now and they have had the opportunity to see UK blossom into a three bowl in a row winner. Seeing a program progress like that can have a lot of impact on the perception of UK and Joker is a good face for the program.

After giving this some thought for the last day or so, I think that Joker is the right choice for this program. He has been so instrumental in the success and deserves to reap the benefits so I am glad we have him on our side.

Let’s just hope we can send Brooks out with a New Years Day Bowl before he decides to give up the gridiron for tending to his tomatoes full time.

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