Midweek Report

THUMBS UP, THUMBS DOWN
Thumbs Up: The 4-0 Kentucky Wildcats. Former Oregon and Los Angeles Rams coach Rich Brooks was hired to Lexington with mild (if any) fanfare in 2003, after Guy Morriss left for Baylor (Baylor!).

After a slow but steady rebuilding, Brooks has the most complete quarterback in the SEC (Andre Woodson) and has Kentucky ranked for the first time since 1984. And not a moment too soon - with the Wildcats booting basketball coach Tubby Smith in the winter, Brooks is doing the new coach a big favor by giving them something to cheer about before Ashley Judd returns for midnight madness.

There were some extremely dark times for UK football recently, a school Bear Bryant left because football was always the second sport. Head coach Hal Mumme made waves with a spead passing offense, propelling the program to two bowl games and Tim Couch to the #1 pick in the NFL draft.

But it all unraveled. Mumme pulled a Mack Brown installing redshirt frehsman Jared Lorenzen over incumbent starter Dusty Bonner after a bizarre post-spring practice flip-flop in which Bonner's position was publicly asserted, then taken away. Then it came out that Mumme's staff was involved in some illicit recruiting, including paying high school coaches to push kids towards Kentucky, and before you cold refresh ESPN.com, Mumme had been fired (all the while claiming he was a victim and scapegoat).

Probation kept Kentucky from a bowl game in its 7-5 2002 season, best known for LSU's "bleugrass miracle" Hail Mary pass. Brooks was on the chopping block after two seasons when he was ordered to fire offensive coordinator Ron Hudson. Brooks refused, but Hudson voluntarily fell on his sword to save his boss' job.

1984 was also the last time Kentucky beat Tennessee, although they've had several good chances. Given Woodson's passing skill and the apparent slowness of Tennessee's defense, I thnik this might be the year.

Thumbs Up: Chip Kelly, Oregon offensive coordinator. A coach I know had been corresponding with the former New Hampshire OC and suggested I get in touch with him. After a non-response from the Oregon sports information office, I emailed Chip myself. We had a two-minute interview on Friday that went on the air in the pregame segment of the Oregon game.

Then on Sunday I got an email reply with the following body: "Great to Meet you.... Keep in touch." He didn't have to do that, but he took the minute of his time to follow up. My coaching friend thinks Kelly could be on his way to big things - if he's as courteous with everyone as he was with me, he'll have friends across the coast before too long. Kelly is a Granite State native, so I bet he's got a lot of polite but stubborn Yankee attitude in him.

Thumbs Down: Air in the Big East's balloon. The repeat of last year's three-team race down into November went up in smoke when Louisville lost at home to Syracuse, one of the poorest teams in Division I-A for three years running. Questions about the Cardinal defense that emerged after the Middle Tennessee State game were answered in the negative by Kentucky and the 'Cuse.

Barring a miraculous defensive transplant, the Cardinals are done in the Big East race. Bad news for Rutgers and West Viriginia - they won't be able to ride the credibility Rutgers got last year for beating Louisville. The conference is probably out of the hunt for dual BCS bids.

Thumbs Down: Texas A&M. The Aggies put on a weak, lackluster and mistake-filled show in the Orange Bowl last Thursday. Coach Franchione's situation was discussed in Monday's post, but this program has become the poster child for Big XII near-miss mediocrity.

VARIOUS MISCELLANEA
On Mike Gundy: As a former ballplayer, aspiring coach and member of the media, I feel the need to address the now-infamous Mike Gundy press conference, in which the Oklahoma State coach publicly berated a Daily Oklahoman columnist who had written a piece questioning the maturity of the former starting quarterback. The analysis will come Friday. It will be short and to the point.

In the interest of staying on topic, discussions of Charlie Weis' coaching will be off the table until Notre Dame plays Pac-10 member USC. While the Domers are certainly of interest to the average Pac-10 fan, it's just too easy to tag Weis and Notre Dame week after week. Several websites have been set up to counter such continual criticism; I am not interested in becoming a regular foil to them (although I will welcome their readers to broaden their knowledge at the P10BH).

Floppycock of the Week
Bill Callahan, Nebraska head coach: This is something of a career-to-date award. In his first season after Steve Pederson fired Frank Solich and broke with forty years of homegrown tradition, the Cornhuskers went 5-6 - their first losing season since 1961. The second year, they beat Michigan in the Alamo Bowl, in the biggest officiating disaster since the Dred Scott ruling (it was so bad that Brian Cook labeled the game BOWL REDACTED and refused to do all of his usual postgame analyses).

Last year they won the Big XII North and got blown out by Oklahoma in the conference championship game. The corner appeared to have been turned, with Arizona State quarterback Sam Keller transferring onto the squad.

Not no more. Three weeks ago, Nebraska escaped Winston-Salem with a 20-17 win in which Wake Forest's top quarterback didn't play. Last Saturday, Ball State dropped a touchdown pass and missed a field goal in the waning seconds, securing a 41-40 Husker win. A Nebraska football affiliate I know told me "I wanted them to lose so bad."

"It's a step forward because it's a win," Callahan said. "These wins are hard to come by in this day and age because of the way people are playing football. We see that across the country. You would always want things to go a little bit better, and it didn't, so you have to deal with that for the duration of the game. Our ability to stay in the game, to keep rallying, was outstanding."

Callahan is dissembling. This was a truly unbelieveable result. Ball State beat Navy last week, but there's a big difference between Annapolis and Lincoln. And a big difference between Ball State and Wake Forest. This weekend's matchup against an Iowa State team that hasn't scored a touchdown in a victory this season might actually be an entertaining game.

There used to be a time when Nebraska's biggest problem was beating other top-flight teams in high-stakes bowl games. The switch to the 4-3 defense and the presence of Tommie Frazier secured the elusive championships for Tom Osborne. Now they're reduced to patting themselves on the back for defeating moribund teams by razor-thin margins. Hip hip hooray.