I love to see an underdog achieve success and I love to see folks in the media have to do the backstroke. Earlier this week, Mark Story in the Lexington Herald-Leader stepped up and devoured his plate of crow. Well done, Mark. More interesting, though, was this excerpt in a column where the ultimate theme was a program persevering and making a series of supremely good decisions:
After two years of UK offensive futility with Ron Hudson trying to install the Kansas State multiple attack on a Kentucky roster that didn't fit the scheme, it was Mitch Barnhart that got a big [decision] right.
Saving Brooks from one of his more admirable personal qualities -- extreme loyalty to the people who work for him -- the UK athletics director helped engineer the offensive coordinator's resignation.
That allowed Brooks to elevate Phillips. Joker has grown so in that role, he has become one of college football's brightest head-coaching prospects.
Phillip Fulmer and Bobby Bowden deserve some credit for Kentucky's rise. With Florida State's offense growing stale in 2004, the venerable Bowden allowed his longtime offensive line coach, Jimmy Heggins, to fall on his sword.
The next year, it was Tennessee's attack that had grown listless. It was Fulmer's offensive coordinator, Randy Sanders, who took the p.r. bullet for his boss.
Brooks lured both to Kentucky.
Now, people in Woodson's hometown of Radcliff will tell you that it is Sanders who is most responsible for the dramatic mid-career turnaround of the quarterback's fortunes.
It is Heggins -- while not exactly working with a roster stacked with five-star recruits -- who has built an offensive line that in 2007 has allowed Woodson to become a legitimate Heisman Trophy candidate and Kentucky to move the ball on all comers (so far).
Congratulations to the Kentucky Wildcats. A special congratulations to Jimmy Heggins, a refugee from the FSU Seminoles who probably (well -- maybe, maybe not) got the raw end of the stick here in Tallahassee. But, make no mistake about it, there should be a serious beatdown coming today against the Mighty Gators. At least there better be.
Well you were right about USF. But I think this week proved that Florida's biggest problem is still defense. Seemed like everytime they had a chance to put them away and come up with a big stop... they allowed more yards and more big plays.
Posted by: ScW | October 21, 2007 at 01:27 AM
Yeah, I'm not happy that the Bulls lost but that's the kind of year it is.
My Orange and Blue glasses tell me not only that I'm very happy this morning but I am satisfied with the defense. Woodson is one hell of a QB, and you can't underestimate how much the Wildcats wanted to break that 20-year losing streak. So, I'll just chalk up our inability to put them away to their serious improvement as a football program. They would not die and played to the last whistle. Kudos to Kentucky; I was very impressed with their play and their heart.
Posted by: RattlerGator | October 21, 2007 at 05:58 AM