The Hartline Evolution

Or maybe that title should read revolution instead?  I can not remember a player moving so far on the popularity scale in the off season than that of Mike Hartline.  I am actually very happy for the kid.  I thought he took way too much heat last year.  He can probably thank Woodson, a lot.  After all, EVERYONE is looking at the changes Woodson made between his Sophomore and Jr years when they look at Hartline today.  He can thank Brooks who has gone to great lengths to keep the positive vibes flowing where his starting QB is concerned.  Brooks usually shoots it straight and there is absolutely no player that is going to please him every day in fall camp.  Yet Brooks has been very careful to avoid any critical remarks and I am sure I know why.  He has two very gifted players that simply are not ready and rightfully so.  He doesn’t need another season where the fans are ready to throw Hartline under the bus on the first dropped pass.  The need to throw Cobb in the mix last year underscores the dire need UK had at QB much more than Cobb’s ability to run an SEC offense.  That isn’t a knock on his talent by any means.  The kid is extremely special.  But the demands of running a pro style offense in college requires experience and repetitions far and away above what would be possible with an incoming true freshman.  And you simply do not tell the other 80 something players that you are going to change your system for a freshman.  Will Fidler was suppose to be ready to compete last year but several factors like shoulder surgery and an off the field situation set him back.   
 So how much further along will Hartline be when he takes the opening snap?  Its hard to say at this point but my guess will be that he hasn’t come that far at all.   He may be a little stronger, a little smarter and a little more accurate.  But I thought last year that all he needed was to be a little stronger, a little smarter and a little more accurate.  He was already quite smart and managed the game much better than any other QB in recent history.  The smarter part would be dealing with the other players and the media.  He had a decent arm and was able to thrown the out pattern.  He had major issues with his release point when trying to throw the same distance down the field so he would have done himself a major favor by working on his down field form.  He was actually quite accurate on his mid range passes.  His biggest issue last year was dropped passes.  Passes that should have been caught.  Passes to places that receivers should have been at but were not.  It could very well be that the biggest part of the Mike Hartline evolution could come in the form of receivers. 

While I do think Brooks may be holding up a tad when talking Hartline, I am quite certain that he is much more pleased with the offense at this point than he was last year.  The line is more solid, the runners are gifted, the receivers are producing and the QB position is set.  Now all they have to do is show us in a game.

A SEASON ON THE BRINK FROM INSIDE THE HUDDLE Part 4

#1–It was the opening game of what we felt would be a very good season

#2–We lost to a team that we felt we should have defeated

#3–We defeated ourselves with mistakes and poor execution

Pretty hard for a team heavy with seniors and juniors that were experienced. We turned the ball over, We gave them short field position to score from, we got a lot of penalty’s called that killed our drives and helped our opponents drives. Our kick coverage was poor which ended our chance for a comeback.
We got behind early and let the crowd bother us but still this game was much closer than the score would indicate.

We got behind 13-0, then in the second half we marched down the field and scored 7. We were back in the game and good kick off coverage and a stop by our defense which had been playing well would give us the ball around our 35-40 yard line with plenty of time left to march down and score and win this game.

We got poor kickoff coverage and LSU ran it back for a long td. Game over, no alibis, no complaints, we lost that one. It would be a long ride back to bluegrass field.

The coaches were also in shock trying to figure out just where the problem was but they would have to look at and grade the film to know just what went wrong. Well it was mistakes and poor execution that did us in. That big tackle named Legget didn’t help either he was a load.

We got back to Lexington and everyone was in shock like zombies. I called 10-12 of the seniors and juniors in to write my weekly column–it went like this.

Inside the huddle the wrap.

The loss at LSU was very disappointing. It was the result of poor execution on our part. We turned the ball over. We gave LSU short field position to score from. We had a lot of penaltys that stalled our drives and a few penaltys on defense that helped LSU’s drives. Our kicking coverage was inadequate and cost us a chance to get back into the game. In the end we lost a game that we should have won, a very poor way to start a season.

Our only bright spot was that our defense played well enough to win and that we had marched down the field and scored 7 in the second half to get back into the game.

Ole Miss was coming to town and would be ranked #1 or #2 when the rankings came out on Monday. This was a great football team and it would take an error free effort to play with them. They were loaded with great rangy athletes that looked like a measuring tape had selected them. They ran a sprint out run pass offense with split ends and wide receivers. The quarterback threw on the run or kept the ball if the linebackers and corners came up. The quarterback would also slip the ball to the fullback who stayed in which froze the middle linebacker. They ran a well greased, well organized offense. They had speed at all the receivers including the ends. Their backs were fast, could get outside or power inside. Play action offense at it’s best.

Their defense was textbook, good linebackers, good corners, good safety’s and a very good line. They would be hard to run power stuff at

The common feeling of our seniors and juniors is that this will take a great effort to play with Ole Miss. At the same time this group feels that this will be exactly what Kentucky brings Saturday. Better get your tickets. Don’t miss this one it could very easily be the game of the year.

My prediction Kentucky 20 Ole Miss 14.

Lets play Flu-ball

Most of us are thinking this might be a good year for our football Cats. The season for every team in the nation might just depend on who and when players gets the swine flu this fall.

The CDC’s web site states “If you have flu-like symptoms, you should stay home and avoid travel for seven days after you get sick or for at least 24 hours after you stop having symptoms, whichever is longer”.

There could conceivably be enough players sick at one time where even Florida might have a hard time winning a game or games are canceled.

How does a coach minimize contact in football. Do they need to require mandatory testing to try and head off the flu.

How can a coach plan for having 6 or 7 starters off the field on a given Saturday. If your a passing team and have 4 receivers sick do you go to the run. If you have three starting linebackers and 3 defensive linemen out how do you plan for that and what do you change.

What does a conference do when teams have so many players sick they can’t field a competitive team. Do they consider the games a forfeit or extend the season.

There is no telling how the season will play out but at a minimum mild problems will occur and both coaches and the conference need to be prepared.

Cats Pluck Cards

The womens soccer Cats started the pluck Louisville year off with a 1-0 win. Stellar defense and Giuleana Lopez scored on a header off a corner kick at the 18:58 mark. The shutout was their first against the Cards since 1996. The Wildcats now lead the all-time series with the Cardinals 6-1-1.

The Tomato Man

In a time when UK coaches and ex coaches seem to be making the National news on a daily basis, there is one set of coaches we hardly hear about.  And trust me; making the National news is usually not a good thing.  We hear about the vacated final fours, the wild women, the fruity golf outings at 2 am, but we just don’t hear anything at all about the tomato man.

If you get Coach Brooks’ tweets, and I don’t but I have seen a few, you know that his off season was spent raising some tomatoes.  I have no clue what Joker, and the rest of the staff has been up to, and in this day and age, no news is great news.  Of all the coaches in modern day UK history, no coach has been hated from the start for no good reason any more than Brooks.  And the really sad part is he heard every word of it.  And the saddest part is he deserved none of it.  At this point I must confess that I was either close to the front of the pack or leading the way, which is a mistake I will not make again.

So what does a man do when he has the moral fiber of a Coach Brooks in this situation?  Something much bigger than me; this I know for sure.  He puts his head down and plows.  He plants his tomatoes as seeds and he brings them up as best as he can.  The ground isn’t the best, but he adds as much nutrients as he can and he protects his young plants.  He gets the help he needs from a solid group of assistants and finds a way to make them feel like his tomato field is their own.  Pretty soon, his tomato field is a family of stronger and stronger plants.  He doesn’t cut corners and he doesn’t cheat.  And if things do not go well, he doesn’t twist them or turn them into something they are not.  He takes a few plants that no one wanted and turns them into some of the best there is. And because of this, the new plants he brings in each year are better than the year before. Every year his little tomato field gets a little bigger and better. 

Pretty soon Coach Brooks will be able to work in his little home garden all he wants.  And when he does, he will be able to look back at an incredible job well done, all at a place that didn’t want him and frankly didn’t deserve him.

We will only have coach Brooks around for a very short time.  In that time, we should all make sure to pass along how much we love him and the job he has done.  After all, his garden is our garden.

Hammer in Hand

First I want to stress how much I appreciate and respect what Rick Pitino has accomplished in his college coaching career so this isn’t a typical rant from a typical rival fan.  And the only reason for this (non)rant is because out of everything I have read, nothing has quite hit the nail on the head for me.  So, with hammer in hand, let the (non)rant begin.

 I sat with amazement, and with my jaw firmly on the ground, as I watched this man single handedly rip not only his career, but his legacy apart in his August 26^th impromptu press conference.   There was a question before hand if the damage he created could be repaired, but at this point I think he is well past totaled.  And he is the one that created the damage.  He is the one that had the fling.  It doesn’t matter if Joe Public thinks the fling is, “no big deal” or a sin. He is the one that paid to abort a child.  It doesn’t matter if Joe Public thinks this sort of act is murder or a life choice.  What matters are his beliefs and with perception always being reality, the perception he has taken great pains to create for himself says that both acts are wrong.  Everyone makes mistakes and in the end, this is really something that should be between himself, his family and his God.  But it’s not the acts that hurt Pitino; it’s the now publicly known hypocrisy of it all. That hypocrisy goes much deeper when you consider he fired an assistant at Boston for a similarly perceived, “one little discretion”.

 Let’s be very straight on this; he is the one that made this public and continues to make it public.  Rich and famous goes to a local hot spot.  Pretty after six drinks blonde bimbo walks by and twirls her hair.  Said Rich and famous takes said blonde bimbo close by and gives said blonde bimbo a taste of said rich and famous.  Said not so pretty when sober blonde bimbo wants money from said rich and famous.  Said rich and famous may or may not decide to give said blonde bimbo money, but in either case, zero or three grand is never enough so said blonde bimbo wants more.  Based on Hollywood perception which we know must be reality, this sort of thing is business as usual in the slime celebrity lifestyle.  What said Rich and Famous should not do is turn it into a federal case, literally.  While Karen Sypher may have threatened to go public, it is Rick, himself, that actually did it!  After all of the wrong, Rick now wants Joe Public to believe that he is trying to do the right thing by prosecuting a bimbo that he helped create?  He assumed he was above being touched in this, his trial would go un-noticed and this lady would get life in prison?  And this is just the beginning of his miscalculations in this saga.

 Let’s play a little game.  Let’s assume for a second that Rick said nothing on this.  Let’s say the blonde whacko, and with perception being reality she is a whacko, does sing.  We, the Joe Public, would look around, we would wonder, we would probably assume something happened but wouldn’t know for sure, we would make up a few jokes and we would probably move on to the next hot recruit.  The blonde whacko would probably turn up being impregnated by aliens in a tabloid and most of us would never know about it or care.

 “I did not have forced sexual relations with that Bimbo” Richard Pitino August 26, 2009

 That isn’t what he said in his August 26th press conference, but it might as well have been.  Some tape recordings were released.  Big deal..   No one in their right mind thought for a second that he forced himself on anyone.   Why would he need to?  Let’s face it; calling this lady a six drink hottie is being way too flattering.  That wasn’t what this news conference was all about.  I don’t think the releasing of the tapes is what is eating at Rick Pitino.  What I think gets his goat is having fallen from his pedestal and I think this news conference was his poorly calculated attempt at pulling himself back atop it.  Where he erred greatly is the steps he used as a ladder.   He blasts the media for cutting in on Ted Kennedy day then does the same thing himself?  This is the same media that has gone out of its way to present this lady as a whacko.  Then he has the gall to instruct fans on what they should and shouldn’t watch?  He tells us that it hasn’t hurt recruiting when it painfully and obviously has as several commits/almost commits have each run like rabbits.  It not only hurt recruiting but hurt his ability to recruit. Anyone remember the name of his top recruiter who is now at Florida?  Pitino is the name and while I was scratching my head at the time, which was before I knew who Karen Sypher was, I now think I have a firm understanding of why he left daddy’s side.  The miscalculations are so numerous that they simply can’t be summed. 

 So, “what is next for UofL?” is the question that rains on my day.  They have to be wondering, just as I am, if Pitino is capable of leading their team. There are lots of coaches that could continue getting and motivating kids after something like this but those are more the, “we all make mistakes” and the, “arm around the kid and lets get this done together” type coaches.  Pitino is more the, “rule from far above and use my perfect life as an example” type of coach.  Both styles can work but both are geared to the personality.  With Pitino’s hypocrisy and failed attempt to climb mount Pedestal, how can he get himself above the kids without beating them to a lower level?  And what will happen with the miscalculations?  One as simple as not putting a man on the out of bounds guy still haunts him to this day.  I can’t imagine how deep and far these will go.

 If it seems like I am mad at Rick Pitino, I am.  We should be focused on the up coming football and basketball season.  We should be focused on the Pitino/Calipari basketball game.  We should be watching a great coaching career wind down at a great basketball school.  I didn’t need to know all of this and I blame him singularly for making it public.  And he best hope that his, “one little indiscretion” is just that as right now it wouldn’t take as much as an ant to knock him right out of his hot seat, if he hasn’t lost his job already.

 What’s really sad is he didn’t ruin himself by having an affair and paying for an abortion.  He did it by opening his mouth.

Paddle Rick Paddle Karen

The flood gates have opened and even Pat Forde is managing to paddle his canoe in the rough waters during these troubled times better than Rick Pitino and Karen Sypher who are forever going to be linked.

What was Rick thinking throwing Ted Kennedy into his rant. A guy who fooled around on his wife bringing up a guy who fooled around on his wife. Brilliant as they say in a non Italian beer commercial.

Thankfully he didn’t compare 9-11 to his problems this time just Ted Kennedy. Any votes on if this is as big a blunder as Ford announcing the Edsel or Regan saying we were winning the war on drugs.

Then he goes on to tell people not to read newspapers or watch TV if they are going to talk about the lies being said about him. Even Billy Gillespie showed more understanding of when to shut up around the media than what Pitino did today.

Its nice to know that Rick understands what the economy is doing to the media.

I listened to both Rick Pitino’s rant and Karen Sypher’s police interviews and frankly they both need someone desperately who can write what they are going to say. Write Forrest write.

The only people who deserves an A+ for all this mess are the detectives who threw out the chum and reeled Sypher in. After listening to her I truly believe they are right in ordering a psych evaluation.

Getting back to Regan announcing we are winning the war on drugs anyone know where Karen and Rick are getting theirs from.

Deluxe Fruitcake

Been a while since we’ve had any thing to say about Rick Pitino. Finally there is some news out we can post on the situation.

Federal prosecutors in Kentucky have asked a judge to order a psychiatric exam for the woman accused of trying to extort $10 million from Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino.

In a motion filed yesterday, prosecutors say Karen Cunagin Sypher may be “so mentally incompetent” that she doesn’t understand the legal proceedings or can’t assist in her own defense.

How about that she might be so mentally incompetent she can’t assist in her own defense. Leave it to a federal prosecutor to figure that out.

Wheres Martin Luther when you need him?

Wheres Martin Luther when you need him to help reform the Athletic church?

Some place along the line the NCAA has reached the conclusion that they own college sports instead of administering college sports. Nothing shows it better than what happened to Memphis recently and what didn’t happen to Duke or what hasn’t happened to USC.

Occasionally they get something right like they did when the allowed Matt Pilgrim to play immediately for Oklahoma St. More often they get it wrong like they did with a bunch of players from Hawaii. Due to a error in not registering software schools in the state use to add kids to the clearing houses list by several high schools one or more classes weren’t submitted in a timely manner to the clearing house for a number of boys and girls. When the schools realized this they attempted to register the software and straighten the classes out with the NCAA but by that time the NCAA wouldn’t accept the classes.

So lets see the high schools made a mistake and tried to rectify it to the best of their ability. The clearing house refused to accept that and do what the colleges did by realizing it wasn’t the kids fault and accept the classes. It left a bunch of boys and girls with the choice of either going the JC route, paying for a year of college or sitting out a year of sports.

If the NCAA wasn’t so secretive aka the lawsuit against Fla. St and the NCAA there would be no problem finding other cases where kids suffer because of the NCAA’s general inflexibility.

How do you solve a problem like this. Its simple to sports fans you force the NCAA to reform. The biggest problem isn’t going to be getting the NCAA to reform its going to be getting college presidents to get together and do what was done a few years ago The CFA forced the NCAA’s hand on television rights when they had every major and mid-major school except for the PAC 19 and Big 10 schools ready to form a new organization to replace the NCAA. Now the schools are making money hand over foot so whats the percentage in upsetting the money cart.

The NCAA is very good at trying to convincing the average fan that collegiate athletics is nothing more than an extracurricular service being provided to enhance the lives of nerdish students who barely remember to go to practice. As a result, the NCAA earns more during its post-season than the NFL and the NBA earn in their respective playoffs, including the Super Bowl.

So the next time you hear the NCAA say the student athlete comes first don’t believe it. What comes first is money, then the NCAA’s reputation, then certain schools and coaches and finally you find the student athlete at the bottom of the pile.

Help the Womens Soccer Cats Pluck the Cards

The womens Soccer Cats opened the season with a 2-1 win over Cincinnatti. Down 1-0 at the start of the second half they scored 3 minutes into the period when Giuleana Lopez found Samantha Au in transition, lofting a ball over the Cincinnati defense that Au tracked down and fired into the upper right corner of the goal tying the game. Nine minutes later the scored again when Jenna Goblirsch was left alone 25 yards out at the top right of the 18-yard box and buried a shot in the upper left corner of the goal.

The Wildcats next game is Saturday, Aug. 29 when they play Louisville. The game will be a “Blue Out” and all fans will receive admission for just $1.

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