Game Day

January 8th feels like a good morning for the penultimate UK Football Fan blog post. I've enjoyed doing this for the past three years, though obviously my interest waned as this season went on and posts became increasingly rare. I've ended the UK football season, though, as I have the four previous seasons, traveling to a bowl game in a southern city. This season the bowl crew is a little pared down. My son and I made the trip with my cousin, Appleton, who flew in from Denver and met us in Nashville, where his sister lives.

Last night we got out on the town a bit with Cats fans, though it sounds like most people were in an area, Five Points South, which we never found. I guess I should say we found it, but what we found didn't seem like a real happening spot to hit the town.

However that may have happened, this morning the Cats have a game to play. By now the story of Pitt's coaching woes are well chronicled. The Panthers fired Dave Wannestadt after the regular season. Wannstadt inherited a BCS team in 2004, and never managed to get back. Pitt. hired Miami(OH) coach and former Notre Dame assistant Mike Heywood, only to fire him 17 days later after he allegedly grabbed and injured his baby-mama.

When "head football coach" and "mother of one of his children" are in the same news story, it usually isn't good.

Of course, UK was not without drama over the months and a half layoff. Mike Hartline will miss the final game of his career after an alcohol related arrest. Morgan Newton will take the reins today in what might conservatively be called the most important three hours of his life so far. He needs to show this team he can be the man next year after losing a quarterback battle many assumed he'd run away with this year. Seeing him play well would be important for my confidence in next year's team. I think you can take big blue nation's temperature by how Newton plays today.

All in all, this is about the most unrest I've seen in UK's fanbase since the 2006 LSU loss. I agree that this team underachieved. With the SEC East ripe for plucking, we took a step backwards. A good performance today could go a long way to leaving a good taste in people's mouths.

Well, this rambling post wouldn't be complete without mentioning that this is likely to be Randall Cobb's last game as a Cat. His career deserves its own post, but suffice to say that I will miss watching the best UK player of my lifetime and whatever NFL team ends up with him becomes my second favorite overnight.

If you are going to the game today, we'll be in setion 36, row 46. Wave hello if you get a chance.