What would former Kentucky coach Rich Brooks says to UK football fans today who are not happy with the team’s 5-2 mark going into Saturday night’s game against Tennessee, a team that Brooks was never able to beat in his seven years at UK?
“I get online and see the news and watch games and hear the noise if you will,” Brooks said Friday.
He did the same thing as a coach even though his “compatriots” thought he was “nuts” for doing so.
“I wanted to know where the arrows (aimed at him by critics) were coming from,” Brooks said. “Kentucky fans are great, but fickle. For them at 5-1 to not be happy with this team and couldn’t believe that we hadn’t blown some of these people out, it’s crazy. You’re 5-1 for god’s sakes. How many times has Kentucky been 5-1? Not very many.”
Brooks and members of his 2006-2008 teams that won three straight bowl games are back in Lexington for a reunion weekend. They were scheduled to have a private reception tonight and then team members will be recognized at halftime of the UK-Tennessee game Saturday night. The 2007 team had wins over top-10 foes Louisville and LSU — the eventual national champion.
Kentucky is 2-2 in league play this year and could be favored in three of the four remaining league games.
“They have an opportunity to do something Kentucky has not done in a long time They can win more than half of their conference games. They can reposition the pecking order in the SEC East which is a jumbled mess compared to when I was here,” Brooks said. “Kentucky can still do something very special.
“I don’t care if it’s pretty. I just want to see a W at the end. How they get it, I don’t care. Just get the win. I hope fans will embrace that.”
He joked that he went 0-for-7 against Tennessee.
“I want to see a win over Tennessee, too,” he said.
What he wants more, though, is just to enjoy the players and coaches he was with at Kentucky. He called them a “special group” and said he’s proud that not only so many of them had professional football careers, but the way most of them have grown into solid family men.
Many of those here this weekend were the ones who went to bat for the coach in 2005 and again in 2006 when his job was on the line.
“I really didn’t know a lot of what was going on. I knew the noise, the flak. I knew the support administratively was lukewarm at best,” Brooks said. “But I didn’t know players were being talked to (by UK administrators) and asked about their opinion.”
Brooks found out later he kept his job because of the way his players supported him.
“I was surprised because I was hard on them. I am very thankful for what they did,” he said. “They didn’t like everything I did. They didn’t like me running them and getting after them. But they battled through it and got better. They are really special people and left great memories in a 76-year-old mind. We had a wonderful time in Kentucky.”