By: LONNY DEMAREE
The season is on the brink of being one of the worst in several years and there is an ever increasing demand for athletic director Mitch Barnhart to face some questions head on. In terms of the job status of his head football coach, fans want to know what's on the AD's mind. Not to be mistaken with specificity, just a statement of his feeling as to where the football program is.
The longer the status report stays a mystery the more ansy the fans base gets. Saturday is Homecoming at UK when they entertain the University of Georgia. If by halftime the team is experiencing a big deficit "There will be Blood." There was 2007 movie with this title starring Daniel Day-Lewis who was a turn of the century oil prospector. A line in the movie was "I am a family man and I run a family business." Customarily the athletic director crowns the homecoming queen on the football field at halftime. It's a safe bet the attendance will be better than one would expect if history is to prevail. Like sharks in the water, when things are going bad a certain percentage of the fan (short for fanatic) base wants blood. Christians are often thrown to the lions. Barnhart will open to the public.
Joker Phillips said today that he and Barnhart are friends an above all he treasures that friendship. Phillips is part of that aforementioned family business alluded to. The rub comes in the fact that many previous staffs diligently believes that metaphorically speaking there is oil under Commonwealth Stadium and Barnhart needs to get to that oil. The question is, will he continue to use Joker Phillips as the hired help. To be specific, there are those that are still in strong belief there are untold wins buried in that football field.
Cooler heads say that it is fair to wait until there's no mathematical chance for a break even season. Again, no one knows what's on Barnhart's mind. However he did say at the beginning of the year that he would evaluate the situation at the end of the season. Never in his wildest imagination did he think things would go this bad for Phillips' team. The trip to Arkansas was a total wipe out. But there is precedent for a turnaround ala 2006. However this scenario is marked different in that team wasn't playing with a secondary dominated with freshman.
So if and when there is a change of the head man what kind of commitment will be made to the new man and the program as a whole. The same things that Joker Phillips was expressing in 2003 in an interview by past WVLK Sports Director Tim Woodburn, to keep up with the rest of the league have still yet never come to past. These are the same things Rich Brooks said was needed for him to stay on as head coach. Whether or not that was just a power-play for his successor, we will probably never know. Nevertheless these wern't hollow request because they are needed to show commitment to the football program. If not, three years down the road "There Will Be Blood."
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