Cats Win 75% of Their Bowls in the 2000's

If you had told me before the game that we would hold CJ Spiller to a mere 64 yards rushing, I would write it down as a UK win.  Unfortunately, on this night, the rest of the Tigers came to play.  You can’t really be disappointed with the effort, as the Cats were in it until the end when an unlucky fumble by Gene McCaskill sealed our fate.  As Gimel said below, this season really becomes one of those “woulda, coulda, shoulda” moments where a couple bounces could have changed the trajectory of the season.  After stopping Clemson’s opening drive and marching to score on our first try, I really felt like it could be our game.  Still, for a team that most wrote off prior to the season, I’m still quite proud to be a Wildcat football fan.  On to some thoughts/observations-

–The biggest question becomes what the future of Rich Brooks is.  The general concensus seems to be that he’s coached his last game, but could going out on two consecutive losses be enough for Grandpa to want to give it another go?  We should see it play out in the next week or so.

—Hard to watch Micah go down with less than a minute to play in his career.  Looked like he was in some serious pain as he was clutching his knee.  Hope it’s not serious.

–CJ Spiller gave a post-game interview to the ESPN sideline reporter.  Did anyone see this?  Was he speaking English?  I literally was only understanding every 4th word.

—Cats win 3 of 4 bowl games in the 2000’s.  Not too shabby after the way the decade started.  And that’s infinitely better than losing all bowl games in the 90’s and only winning 1 of 2 in the 80’s.  Definitely the best decade of UK football by far.

–As I write, Rick Bozich tweets that Rich Brooks says 80% chance he WONT be back next season and will decide for sure in the next 4-5 days.  If you compare this to Michael Jordan saying he was 99.9% sure he wasn’t coming back to basketball, and then did, I wouldn’t count anything out just yet.

–Based on all reports, it was a great turnout for UK on an abnormally chilly night in Nashville.  It was a far cry from the 2006 Music City Bowl which it was in the 60’s and warm.  UK fans prove once again that they are the best fans in college sports.

—Derrick Locke says that he will most likely stay for his senior season.  Good call, young man.

–I’m sure more news will trickle out as the night progresses, but I need to hit the sack.  Use the comments to discuss the merits of a Joker Phillips-led 2010 squad that plays @Louisville, Western Ky, Akron, @Florida, @Ole Miss, Auburn, South Carolina, Georgia, @Mississippi St., Charleston Southern, Vanderbilt and @Tennessee.