re: Bill Curry: Football is not important enough to lose one life

Bill Curry came across well to the public. Good PR kind of a guy, but a lousy coach. At UK he changed his offense every two years going from a Bowden pro set to an I-bone and not having the personnel matching up with the offense. He wasn't as bad a coach as Joker but it was awful close. Maybe he was. He did indeed try to use Tim Couch in an option offense.

His last season CM Newton told him with 4 games to go he was gone. The players learned about it and a 1-7 team promptly beat Vandy, MSU and UGA in a row. That was his longest SEC win streak. I asked one of the guys that was a DE on that squad what was it that motivated y'all? He said they were happy he was leaving, didn't have to listen to any cornball stories and the staff left them alone. The game they won before that was against IU. A 3-0 debacle of a football game. UK had the ball with seconds remaining at the end of the first half, no timeouts and well within field goal range. Instead of spiking the ball and going up 3-0 they tried a pass play. Completed the pass and the half ended. I remember the UK crowd and the IU fans too booing both teams off the field.

So no, Bill Curry was not underrated. Quite the opposite.