The Case For Rich Brooks
August 15, 2005
In a Southeastern Conference rife with outstanding coaches, there are
only two men currently in the league that have received the Paul W. ‘Bear’
Bryant award, one of the most prestigious coaching awards in college
football. I will be happy to spot you one, Tommy Tuberville in 2004. The
other? Steve Spurrier? Phil Fulmer? Urban Meyer? No. No. No. All
three have received national coach of the year honors, but none of them
have received the Bryant honor. The name you are looking for, and may
not come up with in your extra three guesses (unless you happen to
follow West Coast football), is Rich Brooks. That’s right, Kentucky’s Rich
Brooks. The same guy that everybody in the local, regional, and national
media wants to paint as a doddering old incompetent was once honored
for having done the finest coaching job in the land.
And I can hear the critics now: “Yeah, but that was in 1994, at Oregon,
and in the Pac-10. Now Brooks is 63, and he doesn’t have the energy to
build a winner at a basketball school in the SEC.” Well, maybe he does,
and maybe he doesn’t. But if he fails at Kentucky, it won’t be because the
man can’t coach. Because for over 40 years he has done just that and
he has done it very well.
Any suggestion by anybody that Brooks is in over his head at Kentucky is
preposterous. We are talking about a guy that held the head coaching
job at Oregon for 18 years. He took the Ducks to their first winning
season in nine years in 1979, and the program’s winning campaign in
1980 would give them their first consecutive winning seasons in 16
years. Brooks would guide the Ducks into the national rankings in 1987
for the first time in 17 years, and their bowl berth in 1989 was the school’
s first in 26 seasons. Brooks would cap off his career in style in 1994,
when he led the Ducks to a Pac-10 championship and a Rose Bowl
berth, the school’s first since 1958.
Now again, the critics are going to point to the fact that Brooks record at
Oregon was under .500 at 91-109-4. And that is a fact. But I am going to
point out to you that the man put Oregon football back on the map, and he
provided the foundation that would make Oregon one of the West Coast’
s strongest programs. Keep in mind that when Rich Brooks got the job
at Oregon he inherited a very weak program competing against some of
the nation’s finest college football programs. UCLA, USC, and
Washington all were very strong on the national scene and in the Pac-8
(Ok, so Coach Brooks has been around for a day or two…), and the
conference’s depth only got better when Arizona and Arizona State joined
to make the league the Pac-10. Brooks still found a way to have
success, but it took time. Twelve years, in fact, to reach his first bowl
game with the Ducks. And isn’t that some notion? An administration
giving a coach the time to build a weak program into a strong one…what
a quaint concept.
And that is exactly what the situation at Kentucky calls for. Give Rich
Brooks time. I know that the knee-jerk reaction is to think that Brooks is
too old for the rebuilding job (I can remember thinking the same thing
when I heard he had been hired). But the more I look at Brooks’ tenure at
Oregon, the more I feel certain he is the right man for the job. Because
as I look over the 18 years Brooks spent in Eugene, I keep hearing one
word: Commitment. Rich Brooks stayed on the job at Oregon until he
got the program where it needed to be, and thank goodness the
administration at Oregon had the good sense to let him do the job.
Because since Rich Brooks left the University of Oregon, his former
assistant, Mike Bellotti has led the Ducks to eight bowl games in nine
years. That slate of success includes finishing number two in the
country in 2001. Without taking any credit away from Coach Bellotti, there
is little reason to believe that any of that would have been possible
without the long-term efforts of Rich Brooks.
He knows the terrain, folks. Rich Brooks has never had one of the cushy,
ready-made national title contender jobs. He knows what it is like to
have to build from the bottom up against adversity. And that is just one of
the reasons he should have the opportunity to coach the Kentucky
Wildcats as long as he likes. Another good reason is desire. Rich
Brooks wants to be at Kentucky. He is not one of these hot young
coaches just using the job to parlay it into a higher-paying, higher-profile
job (sound familiar, Louisville fans?). Rich Brooks is there because he
loves coaching football, and he wants to do it at the University of
Kentucky. And I think that is a pretty good reason to keep the man around.
My last reason for keeping Rich Brooks around in Lexington for the long
haul is right back where we started. The man can flat out coach. And he
hasn’t forgotten how in the decade since he was the national coach of
the year. Brooks gets criticized because he didn’t win in his two seasons
as head coach with the NFL’s St. Louis Rams. Nobody doubts Steve
Spurrier’s ability to come back to college football and win after his
disastrous stint with the Redskins. And Spurrier is 60 years old. He’s an
AARP guy, just like Brooks. But I don’t see anybody acting like he has
lost touch or lacks the energy to turn the Gamecocks into a winner. Rich
Brooks, by the way, after his firing by the Rams, didn’t go running back to
college football, either. He just picked up and became assistant head
coach and defensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons, helping Atlanta
to the Super Bowl in 1998.
That’s a couple of times I have mentioned energy. I do so because the
inspiration to defend Coach Brooks came from an ESPN.com piece (who
else) listing college football coaches on the hot seat this season (We
cannot confirm the rumor that Bob Petrino saw the list and immediately
applied for every job mentioned.). The piece was written by a gentleman
named Todd McShay, who if I had to guess, has been on the planet less
time than Rich Brooks has been coaching football. But McShay, not
content to simply say that Brooks needed to win more, suggested that
Brooks was responsible for the sorry state of UK football and that he had
trouble relating to players and lacked the energy to turn the program
around. And you know that McShay knows nothing about either. He
simply makes a ridiculous generalization because Brooks is 63 years
old. He also fails to mention that Brooks inherited a program on
probation or that Brooks was the program’s third head coach in 22
months. While I am sure that Coach Brooks does hold himself and his
staff accountable for the state of the program, it is completely unfair for
the rest of us to use either of the last two years to evaluate the job Rich
Brooks has done at Kentucky.
So what will get Rich Brooks off of the proverbial hot seat? I am not sure
there is a record out there that can do that. Kentucky faces a very difficult
schedule in 2005, beginning with a Louisville team loaded with talent.
They have the usual power trio of SEC East foes in Florida, Georgia, and
Tennessee (The Cats are 4-56 against those three since 1984), as well
as Auburn and the ‘Ol Ballcoach at South Carolina. But I am also not
sure that Brooks is on any hot seat. While the media and a percentage
of the Cats fan base may grow impatient, one can only hope that Athletic
Director Mitch Barnhart and President Lee Todd understand that only
now can one begin to truly evaluate what Brooks can do without the
shackles of probation.
You know, it wasn’t that long ago that Louisville had a football program in
disarray and completely off the national radar. And they were turned into
a program of significance by an old veteran coach by the name of
Howard Schnellenberger. That should serve as a note to Mr. McShay
and others that sometimes it is the wise, experienced man who is best
suited for the arduous task of building in the face of adversity. And
maybe, just maybe, the administration will follow the same path of
patience and put their faith and trust in a man named Rich Brooks. Who
knows? UK football just might have a very Rose-y future…
In a Southeastern Conference rife with outstanding coaches, there are
only two men currently in the league that have received the Paul W. ‘Bear’
Bryant award, one of the most prestigious coaching awards in college
football. I will be happy to spot you one, Tommy Tuberville in 2004. The
other? Steve Spurrier? Phil Fulmer? Urban Meyer? No. No. No. All
three have received national coach of the year honors, but none of them
have received the Bryant honor. The name you are looking for, and may
not come up with in your extra three guesses (unless you happen to
follow West Coast football), is Rich Brooks. That’s right, Kentucky’s Rich
Brooks. The same guy that everybody in the local, regional, and national
media wants to paint as a doddering old incompetent was once honored
for having done the finest coaching job in the land.
And I can hear the critics now: “Yeah, but that was in 1994, at Oregon,
and in the Pac-10. Now Brooks is 63, and he doesn’t have the energy to
build a winner at a basketball school in the SEC.” Well, maybe he does,
and maybe he doesn’t. But if he fails at Kentucky, it won’t be because the
man can’t coach. Because for over 40 years he has done just that and
he has done it very well.
Any suggestion by anybody that Brooks is in over his head at Kentucky is
preposterous. We are talking about a guy that held the head coaching
job at Oregon for 18 years. He took the Ducks to their first winning
season in nine years in 1979, and the program’s winning campaign in
1980 would give them their first consecutive winning seasons in 16
years. Brooks would guide the Ducks into the national rankings in 1987
for the first time in 17 years, and their bowl berth in 1989 was the school’
s first in 26 seasons. Brooks would cap off his career in style in 1994,
when he led the Ducks to a Pac-10 championship and a Rose Bowl
berth, the school’s first since 1958.
Now again, the critics are going to point to the fact that Brooks record at
Oregon was under .500 at 91-109-4. And that is a fact. But I am going to
point out to you that the man put Oregon football back on the map, and he
provided the foundation that would make Oregon one of the West Coast’
s strongest programs. Keep in mind that when Rich Brooks got the job
at Oregon he inherited a very weak program competing against some of
the nation’s finest college football programs. UCLA, USC, and
Washington all were very strong on the national scene and in the Pac-8
(Ok, so Coach Brooks has been around for a day or two…), and the
conference’s depth only got better when Arizona and Arizona State joined
to make the league the Pac-10. Brooks still found a way to have
success, but it took time. Twelve years, in fact, to reach his first bowl
game with the Ducks. And isn’t that some notion? An administration
giving a coach the time to build a weak program into a strong one…what
a quaint concept.
And that is exactly what the situation at Kentucky calls for. Give Rich
Brooks time. I know that the knee-jerk reaction is to think that Brooks is
too old for the rebuilding job (I can remember thinking the same thing
when I heard he had been hired). But the more I look at Brooks’ tenure at
Oregon, the more I feel certain he is the right man for the job. Because
as I look over the 18 years Brooks spent in Eugene, I keep hearing one
word: Commitment. Rich Brooks stayed on the job at Oregon until he
got the program where it needed to be, and thank goodness the
administration at Oregon had the good sense to let him do the job.
Because since Rich Brooks left the University of Oregon, his former
assistant, Mike Bellotti has led the Ducks to eight bowl games in nine
years. That slate of success includes finishing number two in the
country in 2001. Without taking any credit away from Coach Bellotti, there
is little reason to believe that any of that would have been possible
without the long-term efforts of Rich Brooks.
He knows the terrain, folks. Rich Brooks has never had one of the cushy,
ready-made national title contender jobs. He knows what it is like to
have to build from the bottom up against adversity. And that is just one of
the reasons he should have the opportunity to coach the Kentucky
Wildcats as long as he likes. Another good reason is desire. Rich
Brooks wants to be at Kentucky. He is not one of these hot young
coaches just using the job to parlay it into a higher-paying, higher-profile
job (sound familiar, Louisville fans?). Rich Brooks is there because he
loves coaching football, and he wants to do it at the University of
Kentucky. And I think that is a pretty good reason to keep the man around.
My last reason for keeping Rich Brooks around in Lexington for the long
haul is right back where we started. The man can flat out coach. And he
hasn’t forgotten how in the decade since he was the national coach of
the year. Brooks gets criticized because he didn’t win in his two seasons
as head coach with the NFL’s St. Louis Rams. Nobody doubts Steve
Spurrier’s ability to come back to college football and win after his
disastrous stint with the Redskins. And Spurrier is 60 years old. He’s an
AARP guy, just like Brooks. But I don’t see anybody acting like he has
lost touch or lacks the energy to turn the Gamecocks into a winner. Rich
Brooks, by the way, after his firing by the Rams, didn’t go running back to
college football, either. He just picked up and became assistant head
coach and defensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons, helping Atlanta
to the Super Bowl in 1998.
That’s a couple of times I have mentioned energy. I do so because the
inspiration to defend Coach Brooks came from an ESPN.com piece (who
else) listing college football coaches on the hot seat this season (We
cannot confirm the rumor that Bob Petrino saw the list and immediately
applied for every job mentioned.). The piece was written by a gentleman
named Todd McShay, who if I had to guess, has been on the planet less
time than Rich Brooks has been coaching football. But McShay, not
content to simply say that Brooks needed to win more, suggested that
Brooks was responsible for the sorry state of UK football and that he had
trouble relating to players and lacked the energy to turn the program
around. And you know that McShay knows nothing about either. He
simply makes a ridiculous generalization because Brooks is 63 years
old. He also fails to mention that Brooks inherited a program on
probation or that Brooks was the program’s third head coach in 22
months. While I am sure that Coach Brooks does hold himself and his
staff accountable for the state of the program, it is completely unfair for
the rest of us to use either of the last two years to evaluate the job Rich
Brooks has done at Kentucky.
So what will get Rich Brooks off of the proverbial hot seat? I am not sure
there is a record out there that can do that. Kentucky faces a very difficult
schedule in 2005, beginning with a Louisville team loaded with talent.
They have the usual power trio of SEC East foes in Florida, Georgia, and
Tennessee (The Cats are 4-56 against those three since 1984), as well
as Auburn and the ‘Ol Ballcoach at South Carolina. But I am also not
sure that Brooks is on any hot seat. While the media and a percentage
of the Cats fan base may grow impatient, one can only hope that Athletic
Director Mitch Barnhart and President Lee Todd understand that only
now can one begin to truly evaluate what Brooks can do without the
shackles of probation.
You know, it wasn’t that long ago that Louisville had a football program in
disarray and completely off the national radar. And they were turned into
a program of significance by an old veteran coach by the name of
Howard Schnellenberger. That should serve as a note to Mr. McShay
and others that sometimes it is the wise, experienced man who is best
suited for the arduous task of building in the face of adversity. And
maybe, just maybe, the administration will follow the same path of
patience and put their faith and trust in a man named Rich Brooks. Who
knows? UK football just might have a very Rose-y future…
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