Sunday Afternoon Discussion

Why yes Rich Brooks, that’s exactly what I would like right about now.

The regular football season ended last night, as I would assume all of you are aware. While the full season is far from over, as we still have an unnamed bowl game to go win, it’s not unreasonable to begin our evaluation of the season that was. So I pose to you this question, do you consider this season a success?  Do you consider it a success ‘for Kentucky standards?’

I think it stands as a success on it’s own, even without the Kentucky qualifier.  Here’s why.

1.)  Bowl games, bowl games, bowl games. No matter which way you look at it, Kentucky is doing something they have never before done in the history of their football program, they are going to a fourth consecutive bowl.  Yes, this bowl may end up being the Music City or Independence bowl, and yes those certainly aren’t glamorous.  But Brooks has taken a program that was only averaging three wins a year, and is consistently getting them to the post season. As any college football analyst will tell you, in order to be a successful program you have to make a bowl every year.  That’s what this team has accomplished.

2.)  History making road wins. For the first time in a long, long time, Kentucky beat two perennial SEC powers on the road, in Georgia and Auburn.  What has often been said about the Kentucky program, is that while they may be able to grab an upset or two at home, it is almost impossible for them to go into another SEC stadium and walk out with a win.  Well this team did that twice this year, something that very few people believed they could do at the start of the season.

3.)  Battling constant adversity. Before the season even started, we lost our star returning DE.  Only five games in, we lost the third team All-SEC QB, and were forced to start a true freshmen.  Lindley was injured a few times this year, and when he did come back, he never quite looked the same (though I believe the rest between now and the bowl game will get him back up to speed.)  Micah Johnson was injured and forced to sit for a few games.  We played 11 weeks straight without a bye.  We had to play Alabama and Florida at home, and South Carolina on the road (we would have won the USC game if it had been in commonwealth.)  The fact of the matter is, pretty much everything that could go wrong for this team, managed to at one point or another. Even with all of that, we managed to put ourself in position to finish the season 8-5, with a possible trip to Atlanta.

Don’t get me wrong, there were plenty of negatives to go along with this season as well.  If you’ve got ’em, let’s hear ’em.  So, what do you say Big Blue Nation, was this season a success?  Furthermore, are you happy with the results?