Beech Tree News Network

Every UK football fan I know loves Rich Brooks.
Brooks was good for the UK program and UK fans. As head football coach he pulled the Wildcats out of a pit of failure and misdeeds, and actually brought a little excitement to the program. I respect Brooks, but I don’t put him in an exalted spot like a lot of fans. They seem to think that he took UK from cellar-dweller to contender, but that’s a little too much praise.

It is true that Brooks brought UK away from the bottom of the sport, but not higher than just a respectable mediocrity. Further, Brooks planted the seeds of the mindset that Mark Stoops has to overcome in order to truly elevate UK to contender status. It can’t be enough anymore to just be respectable, and fans can’t be happy with that.

Stoops is already turning the UK fan mindset. Rich Brooks did get some good recruits for UK, but had a recruiting comfort zone from which he seldom strayed. Brooks was content to build a roster of kids from certain areas of the country where prospects were friendly towards UK. As far as actually going up against some of the mega-programs it basically didn’t happen.

That’s something that has already changed in a big way with Stoops.

Recruits are already committed to UK that had offers from schools like USC, Ohio State, Florida, and even mighty Alabama. That’s big. Big enough I need to restate it. UK—one of the worst college football teams in America—has players on the way that could have played anywhere else in the country. What’s more they’re top recruits, the kind with four and five stars next to their names on recruit ranking sheets.

Rich Brooks didn’t enter the conversation with players like that. If UK talked to them at all it was usually as a courtesy to coach Brooks. Still, UK fans were fine with that, but it can’t be good enough anymore.

Coach Stoops has a 1-2 record at UK this season, but he has UK in the conversation concerning what teams will contend in the SEC in the next two or three seasons. Brooks took UK to several postseason bowls, including three straight bowl wins, but UK was never more than an also-ran in the SEC. Under Brooks UK was a paltry 16-39 in league play. The best UK season in the league with Brooks as coach was 2006 when the Cats finished tied for third in the SEC East with a 4-4 conference record.

It’s time for UK to get players that can win games in the SEC. If it means expending resources and missing out on a guaranteed 3-star player to go after a 4 or 5-star kid that is a tough sell, then so be it. It’s not enough anymore to settle for mediocrity, it’s time to raise expectations.

Sure, there will setbacks, and it’s not going to be a quick nor easy process. However we finally have a coach that believes UK can actually be great, and he’s not afraid to take some chances to get there.

Rich Brooks was great for UK, but it’s time to put his success aside and look to the future. What Brooks did was great for the program, but it didn’t make the program great. The program can be great, but it has to build upward off the groundwork that Brooks laid.
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If my season of picking every NFL game is going to be great I’m going to have to right a sinking ship. After opening 12-4 and 10-6 I slipped to 7-9 last week. That puts me at 29-19 on the young season. To make matters worse there are a number of tricky games to pick this week.

I’ve decided to break my picks into two groups this week. First I’ll list the games that look like easy picks, with the tougher games to follow with a little commentary on a couple.

First the easy winners are; Ravens, Bengals, Chiefs, Colts, Broncos, and Patriots.

The winners that weren’t so easy to decide are;
49ers—the Rams can’t move the football and the Niners can be stingy on defense.
Bears—the Lions are contenders, but they come into this game banged up and missing some cogs in the offense.
Titans—I’m giving the edge to the home team.
Vikings—I never would have guessed these teams would be winless coming into this game. The Vikings will win if they can run the football.
Cardinals-this isn’t a horrible team, it just has a lot of holes. The Bucs however are pretty horrible.
Texans—The Seahawks are good, but not great. The Texans are tough at home and will put pressure on Russell Wilson, and make running the ball tough. The Seahawks can’t win by just throwing the ball. Texans win a close one.
Redskins—Who would have guessed that the most entertaining games of week four could be Washington at Oakland. With two running quarterbacks this game could be fast and high-scoring. Look for the ‘Skins to win by a touchdown.
Cowboys—I’m waiting for the Cowboys to fall apart, but I don’t think it will be this week.
Saints—The Saints are getting up to full speed with Drew Brees healthy and head coach Sean Payton back on the sidelines. I think the Dolphins are about to get beached in New Orleans. I don’t think this one will be close.
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I’d love to hear some of your picks. They can’t be any worse than mine.
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