BornBlue22088

Someone mentioned this to me the other day, and I thought it was a bit crazy at first but now I'm not so sure; what about hiring Bobby Petrino as a coordinator? Still get the offense, possibly Ryan Timmons and James Quick (two previously Petrino committs), and give Petrino a chance to ease his way back in to football. Not to mention he's probably really reeling for a job now that Paul Petrino is a head coach of his own. Thoughts?

They will have experience in the front 7, and a tackling machine in Avery Williamson, not to mention a secondary that will have a full season (basically) of game experience to bring in to 2013. I would like to see him make a couple of splashes on the offensive side, since that is where we happen to be lacking (some of which can be contributed to Maxwell Smith's injury and the otherwise inconsistent QB play), but I'd like to see him land someone like a Ryan Timmons that is a playmaker no matter what position he plays. I don't think it's going to happen, because I think the prospect of playing in Urban Meyer's offense at Ohio State and the possibility of playing in a NC and playing in front of 105,000 fans will be too much for us to be able to keep him home; but it's a nice thought anyway. Haha

Mumme ball is indeed exciting, but it won't get us anything other than the offense being fun to watch against Louisville and the FCS schools. The defenses are too good and too fast for gimmick offenses in the SEC because it's not like teams in the WAC that Dykes is facing now that have a couple of gamechangers on defense, EVERY team worth their salt has several starting and the depth to have several on the bench. Im OK with Dykes getting it as long as he has someone who will actually get the defense on track now that these kids have to experience. Traditionally, offensive head coaches have defenses that couldn't stop a pop warner team (Petrino, Mike Leach, RichRod, and so on). We need someone who will run the football (at the right time) and we need to get rid of this 3-4 crap. You need an excellent corps of linebackers (not just one like Avery Williamson) AND great lineman who can get pressure on the QB if they're just rushing 3. Im just babbling now, but bring in an offensive mind if they like, but we need a defensive mind too. If we could grab a Sonny Dykes and a Zook as a DC that would be awesome. However, I just don't think any of that is going to happen. Barnhart just needs to take a look at the past coaches and what they've done and how it didn't work. Joker makes 9 straight coaches that left here with a losing record, and a lot is going to have to change besides just the coach.

I agree. I think that the fan base as a majority is tired of this, and that if he happens to lose any of the remaining games that he will probably be gone. I just hope that if he is let go that they do it peacefully and not have a nasty firing. If they had been more competitive against Mizzou it definitely would have helped his case, but losing to them the way they did (and how Mizzou has struggled this year beforehand) if he does come back there will be a lot of people that just won't go to games until there's a different man at the helm. I think also that finding a good coach to replace him is going to be hard work. We are a state that isn't a traditional football power for high school, and one of the big keystones to recruiting in football is keeping the in state talent (that we don't have a great resource of) and be able to make a few splashes out of state. The problem with that at UK is that since we are a traditional basketball power, it's difficult to recruit out of state without the right money to do so. I think they are too concerned with maintaining the prestige of the basketball team to field an overly competitive football team in by far the toughest football conference in the country; because of this, I think it will be difficult to find a good coach that can swallow his pride well enough to coach a football team that will always play second fiddle to the basketball team. I'm not sure if this is true or not, but I've heard from several people that UK spends more money on Midnight Madness than the recruiting budget per year for the football team. If that is the case, whoever else they might find to replace Joker is going to have a really tough job.