Minor bowls can produce major progress

Mark Story / Herald-Leader Sports Columnist

Let's start Kentucky's maiden voyage to the AutoZone Liberty Bowl with a little straight talk.

The 2008 edition of the Kentucky Wildcats is not a good football team.

Loser six times in the final eight games. Winner over exactly no teams that finished the season with a winning record (combined record of teams UK beat: 26-46).

Last in the SEC East.

UK's bowl matchup with East Carolina is about as sexy as Seth Rogen in a Speedo.

Yet, even with all that, what Rich Brooks & Co. did in 2008 by making a bowl for the third straight season was exactly what is needed to give Kentucky football at least a chance to finally move forward as a program.

UK last played in three consecutive bowl games (1949-51 seasons) when Harry Truman was in the White House and Bear Bryant was coaching in Lexington.

In the case of coaches Fran Curci, Jerry Claiborne and Hal Mumme, the UK football program enjoyed two strong seasons but fell back in the third year each time.

"All I heard after last year was 'Kentucky's success is measured in two-year cycles,'" Brooks said. "We want it to be, not just three in a row, but four, five, six in a row. We have a lot of work to do."

If you look at how historically downtrodden football programs have built into pigskin relevance, the tried and true path is through multiple years of consecutive bowl appearances.

When Bill Snyder was first lifting Kansas State out of the football wilderness, a three-year stretch of trips to the Copper, Aloha and Holiday bowls launched the arc that landed KSU in 11 straight bowl games (with two trips each to the Fiesta and Cotton bowls).

Closer to home, Louisville was 1-10 in 1997. During the first week of 2007, it won the Orange Bowl.

In between, the Cards made trips to the Motor City, Humanitarian, Liberty, Liberty, GMAC, GMAC and Liberty bowls. They finally crashed the New Year's Day action with a trip to the Gator in 2005.

Making even minor bowls "had a huge impact on our recruiting," says John L. Smith, who coached the Cards to the first five of what became a nine-year bowl streak.

"You bring kids in and they see a bowl ring and a bowl ring and a bowl ring and another bowl ring, and they don't seem to look that closely at what (bowl name) is on that ring. They decided, 'This is a place that goes to bowls.'"

Consecutive bowl trips are also an important player development tool. Teams that make the post-season essentially get a month of extra practice that non-bowl teams don't get.

"Basically, it's an extra spring practice," Smith said. "That really helped us at Louisville, where we needed to develop talent. I think that's a big thing now for Kentucky in what they are doing."

Consistently playing in the post-season, Smith said, helped change the way players at Louisville looked at themselves.

"Once you get that mind-set established — this program goes to bowls — then it raises the expectations on the kids in the program," Smith said. "The younger players know what is expected and nobody wants to be the class that breaks the streak."

So a matchup of a mediocre UK against Conference-USA champion East Carolina in the Liberty Bowl may not have blood pumping fast in the commonwealth.

There are significant things Trevard Lindley, Jeremy Jarmon and crew are playing for in Memphis.

Standing 6-6, Kentucky must win to secure a third straight winning season for the first time since 1954-56.

At historically football-challenged UK, it's good to be able to say your program has played in three straight bowls.

In a world where perception is reality, it's better to say your program has won three straight bowls.

Reach Mark Story at 231-3230 or (800) 950-6397, Ext. 3230, or at mstory@herald-leader.com. Your e-mail could appear on the blog Read Mark Story's E-mail at Kentucky.com.