No living Kentucky coach has a winning record vs Louisville (football)

I was floored to see that today.

Bill Curry: 1-2
Hal Mumme: 2-2
Guy Morriss: 1-1
Rich Brooks: 3-4
Joker Phillips: 1-2

UL coaches against UK:

Schnellenberger: 0-1
Cooper: 2-1
Smith: 3-2
Petrino: 4-0
Kragthorpe: 0-3
Strong: 2-1

As if I wasn't depressed enough about losing to UL again, to know that we lost twice to a Ron Cooper coached team is the topper!

I was hoping someone would pick up on the Cooper thing. You have to consider the competition. He was 2-0 against Bill Curry but 0-1 against Mumme. The year he lost to Mumme he also lost to 9 other teams though. I think there is a strong correlation to how he slowly reversed some of the progress Howard Schnellenberger had made at UL to how Joker seems to be reversing some of the progress Rich Brooks brought to UK.

If you toss out Schnelly's first 3 years at UL, his average record there was almost 7-5. He had 5 winning seasons there out of those last 7, going 6-5 his last year. Cooper took over when Howard left and went 7-4 his first year, which didn't look too bad, but then went 5-6 in his second year before going 1-10 and getting canned. Howard did have a 2-9 year after those first three seasons, but it came right after their 10 win season so their fans were still feeling all warm and fuzzy.

After Coach Brooks' first three seasons at UK, we went 8-5, 8-5, 7-6, and 7-6. We went to four straight bowl games, going 3-1 in those games. In Joker's first year, we slipped to 6-7 and no bowl game; no extra practice time. His second year, we slip a little more to 5-7. I've adjusted my hopes for the season after seeing that Joker still doesn't understand opportunity cost to maybe 4 wins. I hope Mitch sees what I (and several thousand other UK fans) see.

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Originally Posted by Catfan73

After Coach Brooks' first three seasons at UK, we went 8-5, 8-5, 7-6, and 7-6. We went to four straight bowl games, going 3-1 in those games. In Joker's first year, we slipped to 6-7 and no bowl game; no extra practice time. His second year, we slip a little more to 5-7. I've adjusted my hopes for the season after seeing that Joker still doesn't understand opportunity cost to maybe 4 wins. I hope Mitch sees what I (and several thousand other UK fans) see.

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We did go to a bowl game in Joker's first year. And yes we did slip the next year to no bowl status. But I know i'm going to be in the minority here, but I think that had way more to do with the actual lack of talent, than coaching. With departures of Hartline, Cobb, etc. the previous year, and IMO, the evidence of a low cupboard talent level of Juniors and Seniors that Brooks left, we just weren't that good last year. I think Joker and his staff has recruited well to refill some of the talent gaps. What I still don't know is, can he coach it??