Monday, January 4, 2010

a moment of respect

This is a pause to the regularly scheduled programing, to give some respect to a man who did things right.

Brooks retires as UK coach

University of Kentucky football coach Rich Brooks announced his retirement on Monday, ending a seven-year stint at UK in which he turned around a program saddled by NCAA probation and led them to an unprecedented four straight bowl games.

"I just felt it was time to make the change," Brooks said at a late morning news conference. "The losses take their toll."


Brooks had a losing record during his time as UK coach, but while stats are important, in this case stats don't come near to saying it all. For years, the football program had been pretty bad, with the occasional good year to highlight that bad. With Brooks, the teams went from the depths to knocking on the heights, I think at one time being ranked in the top 10 three years ago, and beating some nationally ranked teams.

While not yet able to stay at such heights, the teams have gotten over the winning-season hump the last four years, and have come close to some impressive years.

Brooks laid a good foundation for coming years. I only wish he could have stayed around one more year, so we could get him the wins over South Carolina and Tennessee that he deserved.

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