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04 January 2010
Just over seven years after taking the head football coaching job at the University of Kentucky, Rich Brooks handed the reins over to Joker Phillips earlier today. Coach Brooks took over in late December of 2002 and rebuilt a Kentucky team that was mired by NCAA sanctions at the time. Many people (including this writer) weren't sure about the seasoned Brooks upon his hiring. My how wrong we were.
Brooks' first three seasons at Kentucky were predictably underachieving. UK football's combined 2003-2005 record was 9-25. Fans were sure there had been a hiring mistake and that Rich just didn't have the magic that he once found at Oregon (leading them from a broken program to the Rose Bowl in 1994). The 2006 season was just the start of things to come. Kentucky finished 8-5 and played in their first bowl game since 1999 (winning their first since 1984).
Kentucky continued to post winning records over the next three seasons, finishing 30-22 over Brooks' final four seasons at the helm. This included a nearly unprecedented four straight bowl berths. Brooks' bowl record while at UK stands at 3-1.
The only mar on Rich's record while at UK is the continued ineptitude against Tennessee. Considering the success the team has seen during his tenure, Kentucky fans can hardly complain. What Coach Brooks brought to this program was a dogged attitude, an incredible work ethic, and for the first time in years, the belief that they could play alongside, and beat, elite teams in the SEC. The 2007 defeat of (then #1 ranked) LSU may be Brooks' most enduring win.
No one could have expected Coach Brooks to have the type of success he has had in his seven years as Kentucky head coach. While many UK fans feel their team should compete yearly in the best conference in the nation, it took Brooks to make this a reality. While he did not by any means get UK to the top of the conference, he knocked off several of those perennial powers and moved Kentucky out of their usual cellar-dweller role in the East.
Brooks also brought along, and continued to add to, a very strong set of assistant coaches and coordinators in his tenure. All signs say Joker Phillips assuming the role of head coach will be a move that will continue Brooks' string of success in the Bluegrass. If so, UK fans will laud Phillips as a great coach, but they need to forever remember the man that turned the program around and handed off a much improved product to Coach Phillips upon his departure.
