Is This The Lowest?

Carolina Kat Mon Sep 17, 2012 2:11 am

Is this the lowest?

Posted on September 16, 2012
by Chris Diggs (Courier-Journal)

Is this the lowest point for Kentucky football?

Now before the emails start, hear me out.

I ask this for two reasons. Kentucky went on a five-year bowl run from 2006-2010, was a top 20 team in 2007 with ESPN Gameday rolling into town and appeared to be climbing up that preverbal SEC hill a bit.

Last season was terrible. A win over Tennessee on the last weekend gave Kentucky and its fans something to be proud of after an awful year that saw them ranked as one of the worst teams nationally in offense while becoming maybe the worst team in the SEC.

Fast-forward to this season, where Kentucky looked terrible against in-state rival Louisville, and shades of last year came back.

Then, last night, the bottom fell out.

Kentucky welcomed in a good Western Kentucky team last night who blitzed out of the gate to a 17-0 lead, something Kentucky didn’t respond to until late in the first half.

Behind the legs of Antonio Andrews and the play of quarterback Kawaun Jakes, Western came in and completely took it to Kentucky early. They used that “hit you in the face” running style to gash the Kentucky defense and make it look non-existent at times.

Then you throw in sophomore safety Jonathan Dowling’s three interceptions, one he later fumbled, and you have a recipe for a disastrous game.

I’m not going to go through stats, what Kentucky should have done here or there or what I think, because in the long run, it doesn’t matter.

What I will say is this.

Willie Taggert has some ice in those veins. To go for two in that situation on the bubble throwback pass that he called, wow. Plain and simple, wow. If you want to make a statement, you do it just like that. You put all of your marbles in one basket and go with it. Have no fear. Make the call and do the work.

That one play made me respect Taggert more than anything else he could have done. Gutsy.

But I ask again, are we as a program at the lowest point?

We were at a very low-point in the early days of the Rich Brooks era, but a lot of that had to do with the probation.

It was in the subsequent years that guys from the state committed to Kentucky to bring change and man did they do that.

We can’t expect that to happen again.

Recruiting is going to take a hit. Laughs are going to be had.

People can call for a new coach, but in the short term, what does that do? I’m sorry to tell you, Bobby Petrino, Kirby Smart, Mike Leach and a host of others are not coming here. And building a winner in the SEC is probably one of the hardest jobs in America.

So where do we go from here?

Joker Phillips is under contract until 2014 and economically, it may not be feasible to pay Phillips and a new coach. It’s a tough spot for Mitch Barnhart, who is one man I am glad I am not this week.

So save the coaching carousel and answer one question, is this the lowest point for Kentucky football?