Crucial two weeks forthcoming for UK football, could set tone for rest of season

Let me first sing a familiar tune, something you might remember from a post I wrote about this time last week: UK is 2-2, and any realistic fan could not possibly expect to have had a better record than that after playing arguably the two top teams in the nation.

As UK fans, prior to the season, were mapping out the path to a 7, 8, or 9 win season, few of those maps included wins over either of those two opponents. UK was awful against Florida, discouragingly awful. UK, however, was not awful against Alabama. Mistake-riddled, yes. Awful, no.

Unfortunately, more than a fair share of those mistakes are attributable to one Mike Hartline…a guy who already could claim the description of “embattled”.

UK fans have more than enough illegitimate reasons to complain about Hartline, namely unrealistically high expectations post-Andre Woodson and unrealistically high expectations for incoming freshman. Hartline does not need to give fans legitimate reasons to complain about him.

What a strange relationship UK fans have with Hartline. Things started roughly. He fell into the starting job last year when Curtis Pulley was booted from the team. Then, he failed to hold back a challenge from the ever popular backup, Randall Cobb. From that point forward, I have never seen a player who can be turned on so quickly by fans. It literally takes one poor pass or decision after a series of 10 good ones for someone to bring up Morgan Newton.

I’m not saying that Hartline is without his faults. His ceiling is limited, at best. But as Rich Brooks has made it abundantly clear, he is the best option to help UK win games right now.

What I am hoping is that the road will offer a reprieve for Hartline. He clearly is affected by the UK home crowd, and for all intents and purposes, UK’s first four games have been home crowds. Hartline’s confidence is very, very shaky, and quarterbacks are going to make bad plays. They touch the ball every play. I think Hartline’s mistakes are exacerbated terribly by his shaky confidence. I am hoping that his confidence will better remain intact playing in front of crowds that boo him all game, not just when he makes bad plays.

Let’s think about the UK offense as a unit right now. Due to Chris Matthews slow development, it appears that UK has two playmakers: Randall Cobb and Derrick Locke. If UK is going to move the ball with any sort of consistency, it’s going to be with heavy doses of that pair.

When UK was holding onto the ball against ‘Bama, they got the ball to those two. The two had a combined 34 touches, resulting in 216 of UK’s 301 yards of total offense. Alabama is an excellent defense, and that is a respectable performace by a team with limited weapons.

Even though UK is an expected 2-2, things have changed with regards to the schedule. UK’s next two games look significantly more difficult than they did 2 months ago. Auburn and South Carolina are a combined 9-1, and both entered the rankings this week. Road SEC games are always tough no matter what. They’re tougher against two teams that have exceeded expectations.

We have said from the day the schedule came out that a win in one of those two games was a must if this UK team wanted to take another step forward in the grand scheme of things. I believe that the way things have played out so far this year has caused them to take on even greater importance.

If UK performs poorly in two road losses, Mike Hartline’s chances of winning over UK fans could quickly go from slim to none. If UK rolls back into Commonwealth on October 24th to play Louisiana-Monroe with a 2-4 overall record and an 0-4 record in the SEC, it’s going to be nearly impossible for this team to build the momentum it needs to make this season a success. Yeah, UK has 3 winnable games at home against Louisiana-Monroe, Mississippi State, and Eastern Kentucky, but I’m still not sure if wins in those 3 games will do the trick.

At this point, I really believe that this road trip could be what the ‘Cats need. Sometimes it takes a road atmosphere to really bring a team together. The effort I saw against Alabama was a step in the right direction in that area, but I’m hoping that the ‘Cats will take the adverse atmosphere of Williams-Brice and the challenge of playing the Ol’ Ball coach and turn them into positives.