Just as soon as news broke about Tee Martin’s departure for the beaches of USC, footballscoop.com broke the news that Kentucky has hired Pat Washington to replace him as the wide receivers coach. Normally, I wouldn’t run with info from some random website, but footballscoop.com has proven to be one of the best sources available for accurate coaching news. The popular thought at this time, is that Washington is not the ‘sexy’ hire that some UK fans would have liked the program to make. I would oppose that idea. Let’s look at the facts.
RE: Tee Martin
– In 2011, Kentucky’s receivers were bad as a group. Only La’Rod King had more than one touchdown reception for the year (7). Of the 17 players on the roster that caught a pass this past season, only seven of them were receivers and only three wide receivers had more than ten total catches. The unit was arguable the most underwhelming position group on the team in 2011 despite having some of the most talented players physically.
– The 2010 season saw Randall Cobb, Chris Matthews and La’Rod King excel on the field and propel the Kentucky offense to its best season since Andre Woodson was at the helm. As bad as the 2011 performance was, the 2010 performance by the receivers was very, very good.
– Tee was widely considered the team’s best recruiter. But looking at rivals.com, it appears he was the lead recruiter on only three of Kentucky’s signees in the 2012 class. While Jalen Whitlow, JordanWatson and DeMarcus Sweat are certainly talented players, they were all consensus three-star prospects. I happen to believe that all three will be major contributors to the Kentucky program before they leave, but let’s not kid ourselves into thinking that Tee was hauling in Army or Under-Armor All Americans in the 2012 class. I’m sure he was at least involved in the recruitment of Khalid Henderson and Justin Taylor, but those two seem to have been more of a joint effort between many coaches than a product of Tee Martin’s prowess.
– In the 2011 class, Tee was a force. He was the lead recruiter for Bookie Cobbins, Darryl Collins, Rashad Cunningham, Nile Daniel, Eric Dixon, Glenn Faulkner, and Demarco Robinson. He loaded up the roster with wide receivers that will likely be the future of Kentucky’s offense. But again, only Faulkner was rated as a four-star player. As talented as everyone in Tee’s haul was, most of the players he had the lead on only had one or two other BCS offers.
My point? Tee was a good coach and a very good recruiter. As good as he was, he was not a coach that is irreplaceable. His receivers badly underachieved this past year I would argue that Greg Nord, Steve Pardue, and Chuck Smith had a better year as recruiters.
Now, on toWashington…
– Washington, like Tee, is a native of Mobile Alabama. There is a ton of talent in the city famous for Belgian fries, seafood, and being the home of the original Mardi Gras festival. If Washington can continue to pull 1-2 players out of the city each season, it should help the Cats to move on without skipping a beat.
– Washington is an experienced coach and will be entering his 24 year of coaching at the college level. He only joined the staff at ECU in January, but was at Southern Miss for the 2011 season. While in Hattiesburg, he helped coach an offense that won the Conference USA title and success that eventually lead to Head Coach Larry Fedora being offered the UNC job. He coached the running backs and special teams at Southern Miss and tutored running back Damien Fletcher to a record breaking career.
– He was not just a successful WIDE RECEIVERS coach, but an outstanding one. He has sent many receivers to the NFL and coached the position at Tennesseefor 11 years under Phil Fulmer. Between the 1995 and 2006 seasons, The Volunteers had a revolving door of all-conference players at receiver and Washington coached them all.
– Similar to Tee, Washington knows Sanders’ offense well and should snap right into place here at Kentucky. There should be very little catching up for him to do and he is a great option to get into Lexington and hit the ground running.
– Washington has coached in Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Tennessee, Kansas, and Mississippi. Assuming he still has contacts in those states, he could be a force on the recruiting trail.
The bottom line? Kentucky got a steal here with Washington in my opinion. You can say what you want about his age, but the truth is he is not that old. Honestly, there may not be many coaches younger than him that have the accolades he has for coaching receivers. With the slack that Nord, Smith, Pardue, Summers, and now Cassity already have or are expected to pick up on the recruiting trail, the truth is that Washington doesn’t really have to be an ace recruiter for the Cats. If he can just coach up the talent that Tee brought in for the 2011 class alone, Kentucky should see several receivers go on to careers in the NFL.