How Guy Morriss proved his worth to Kentucky in wake of one of most embarrassing losses
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The fans were still on the field as Artose Pinner and his Kentucky football teammates tried to make sense of the chaos that had just taken place on the Commonwealth Stadium field.
The Wildcats had appeared on the verge of a statement win against LSU on Nov. 9, 2002, when Tigers quarterback Marcus Randall hit receiver Devery Henderson for a 74-yard Hail Mary touchdown with no time left on the clock. UK Coach Guy Morriss had already been drenched with a Gatorade bath on the sideline. The stadium fireworks were shooting off in celebration when the touchdown that came to be known as the Bluegrass Miracle was scored.
Making sense of the sequence was impossible in the moment. Shock was universal in the Kentucky locker room.
“I remember the reaction of the players, how out of whack everybody was, how out of sync everybody was and how chaotic the locker room was once we lost the game,” Pinner told the Herald-Leader last week, a day after Morriss died following an extended battle with Alzheimer’s. “When (Morriss) came in, there was a calm in the locker room. Everybody was waiting to hear from him.
“As the players, we were waiting to hear from him because at that particular point in time we kind of lost our way for a little bit.”
How Morriss would react was no sure thing.
At the time, he could not have known the clip of him being doused with Gatorade by quarterback Jared Lorenzen and offensive lineman Antonio Hall would become the most repeated highlight of his coaching career, but some coaches might still have lashed out in response to the embarrassment of the moment. Players knew the Hail Mary could have been prevented if any of the group of defenders around the ball had swatted it to the ground as directed.
With NCAA probation keeping the Wildcats from a bowl game, there was real risk in the catastrophic finish derailing the positive strides made that season as Kentucky rallied from a 2-9 record the year before.
“Realistically, he had nothing to do with that loss,” said Pinner, the 2002 Wildcats’ All-SEC running back. “It had to do with players not executing. Being in the huddle, understanding everything that was said at that point in time, he set us up for success and we didn’t execute.
“You would never hear him say that, though. He would never say that. … Some coaches will point at people. I remember at the University of Kentucky earlier in my career, if they felt like you lost the game, you would know it. He wouldn’t do that. He would take any bullets he could for us. He would lay it all on the line for us so we wouldn’t feel the pressure.”
Morriss’ calming approach proved wise when his team bounced back from the LSU heartbreak for a 41-21 win over Vanderbilt to secure a winning season, just Kentucky’s second seven-win season since 1984.
“He wasn’t throwing water bottles against the wall like (Hal) Mumme did,” former Kentucky wide receiver Derek Abney said. “He was an NFL offensive linemen, 15 years or whatever. He earned it, he worked it. The mentality he had after that game, he wasn’t going to get too crazy.
“Obviously, it was disappointing, but he was solid and consistent. That was part of why I think we were successful.”
The fact that Kentucky players had jumped the gun by dumping Gatorade over Morriss’ head before the game was over was no coincidence.
Morriss had been named interim coach prior to the 2001 season when Mumme resigned amid a recruiting scandal. Despite a 2-9 record in 2001, Morriss was given the permanent job after the season. A hearty endorsement from players played a role in new athletics director Mitch Barnhart making that decision.
NCAA probation meant the 2002 Wildcats were not eligible to play in a bowl but even without that postseason goal, Morriss kept Kentucky players focused on a common goal.
UK opened the season with an upset of No. 17 Louisville. It followed that with a 77-17 blowout of UTEP, marking the second-most points ever scored by Kentucky in a game. A 4-0 start was followed by a heartbreaking defeat at Florida, but the Wildcats righted the ship to take down Arkansas and Mississippi State to secure at least a .500 season.
So, when it seemed a win over defending SEC champion LSU was wrapped up, of course players gravitated toward the coach that led them to that moment.
“He was always foundational to what we knew was going to be our success,” Abney said. “Celebrating it with him in that way was, of course, natural.”
“Everybody wanted that signature win for him,” Pinner said. “Everybody understood the work he put in.”
There was more heartbreak to come when Morriss left Kentucky for a job at Baylor after the season.
When Morriss and Barnhart met with players to inform them of the news, emotions were heated.
Some players were reacting to fans’ common theory that Barnhart had not done enough to keep Morriss in Lexington. Others felt abandoned in an era where they could not easily switch schools like the coach they had campaigned to keep could.
Morriss declined to seize the opportunity to hoist the blame on UK’s administration, instead taking accountability for his decision. While almost 20 years later Abney acknowledges feeling bitter at the time, he now is impressed with how Morriss handled the situation.
“He did not throw them under the bus despite some young 22-year-old super pissed about it,” Abney said. “He didn’t blame anybody. He understood where we were coming from. He acknowledged we were a part of keeping him there. He felt bad about the situation, but he had to make his own decision. Never was disrespectful to me or the team. That’s for sure.”
The best coaches teach their players things beyond the field.
Both Abney and Pinner remember Morriss as a coach who cared about his players as people first and athletes second. That was not always their experience with the previous Kentucky staff.
Responding to heartbreak is a lesson everyone must learn at some point. It was one Morriss successfully conveyed in the immediate aftermath of one of the most embarrassing moments in Kentucky football history.
“The first thing I said was, ‘I don’t have any comfort for you; I know you’re going to hurt,’” Morriss told reporters after the LSU game. “‘But the thing you’ve got to walk out of this dressing room understanding is that we’ve got to play every play in the ball game until the fat lady sings. It’s never over until it’s over. It’s a hard lesson to learn, but as long as there’s time on that clock, you’ve got to play hard every down.’”
This story was originally published September 14, 2022 at 7:00 AM.
