Is 6-6 Half Empty or Half Full?

When this season began, I felt that the hallmark of success would be a 6-6, bowl eligible season. I scoffed at any projections that had us doing better. The Cats did not have much back on offense, and the defense, though reportedly improved, wasn't very good to begin with. I love going to my bowl games, and as of August 28th, the thought that I would have that chance again this year was good enough for me.
So why now, three and a half months later, does 6-6 feel like such a disappointment? That so many key players lost the season and games lost to injury makes the feeling in the pit of my stomach even harder to understand. Is it just because I am too selfish and demanding? Surely not. Here are some of the reasons for the dissonance:

1. The 6-6 record was obtained in the cheesiest manner possible. Only two conference wins, against poor teams, with both games coming by the narrowest of margins. The 4-0 non-conference mark, in retrospect, was totally unimpressive. I did not think that Louisville would be worse than it was last year. It was. The Cats got to a bowl without beating so much as a decent team. This isn't a real original angle (everyone in the Herald has mentioned the same thing), and moreover, isn't the true reason I feel the way I do. Here are more salient ones:

2. Paradoxically, the season felt disappointing not because we barely beat bad teams, but because we had chances to beat good teams and didn't. Georgia and South Carolina wins could have moved our program forward and instead slipped through our fingers. This stings more because the SEC was way down this year. Win against South Carolina, even with the losses to Vandy and UT, and we are probably in the Outback Bowl. Think about it.

3. We have watched many a defense struggle at UK over the years. God knows, few things were more painful than Hal Mumme's squads tittie tackling their way through the SEC. On the pain scale, however, UK's 2008 offense was Kathy Bates to my James Caan for most of the year. Which is to say, they had Mumme's Matadors beat. As a football fan, its hard to watch a team string together 3 and outs while seemingly running the same 4-5 plays over and over again. Watching a team with a bad offense is, for lack of a more artful description, no fun. We haven't had to do that for a while here.
(While I am bringing up Mumme, how is this for a parallel. Unconventional football coach comes in. Team takes unusual step of not tackling in practice. Team is glaringly unable to tackle during games. Coach sees no connection. Team ends up on probation despite not having accomplished a whole lot. Unconventional basketball coach comes in. Team takes unusual step of practicing hard on game days. Players suffer numerous stress injuries and appear tired at the end of games. Coach sees no connection. Team. . . ????)

4. The overarching reason why 6-6 feels like a bummer, though, is the way the season ended. With a Chick-Fil-A, and perhaps now in retrospect, Outback Bowl bid on the line, UK came out embarrassingly flat against a by then very crappy Vandy team. We looked like the UK era Kelenna Azibuike of football teams. "Here it is, take it, no really, take it. Oh, you don't want it? Ok." Seriously, how do you fall behind 24-7 at the half to a school not even 10% of your student population could get into? Oh yeah, you rough the passer once and the kicker three times. Vandy had not won in 34 days, including a home loss to Duke. Here are the yards that Chris Nickson rushed for against SEC competition this year: 17, 2, 40, -5, 39, 118, -7. Guess which one was that night? Fans froze their asses off, and the Cats decided to show up with an epic, all systems failure. If you think I am still bitter about this game, you are right. Then, with a week to rest, against the worst Tennessee team anyone can remember, the Cats fell into a wormhole. Playing a team that lost to freakin Wyoming two weeks before, our boys could not break triple digits in either passing or running yards.

Had these games have been our first two, with Louisville and Norfolk State the last, the season would have felt like a success. As it was, the Cats saved their two most disappointing, and arguably worst, games for last. Not good times.

The takeaway here? The Liberty Bowl is more important for us than our last two bowls. A win makes us 7-6, with our third straight winning season, the program still feels headed in the right direction. A loss, and the season is a losing one, and we will have dropped like a rock since the Mississippi State win that got us to 6-3.

More later with a preview of the 2009 team and our prospects. Expect to see the words season, success, hinges, Lindley, Jarmon, Johnson, declare and NFL Draft in or close to the same sentence.