Do UK football fans owe an apology to a special Wildcats senior class?
When Kentucky football introduced its 16-member senior class one-by-one Saturday before the Wildcats faced Middle Tennessee State in UK’s 2018 home finale, one could not help but be struck by how impressive this departing group of players has been.
The roll call of Kentucky’s 2018 seniors is a who’s who of the turnaround in UK football fortunes that has taken the Wildcats from six straight losing seasons (2010-15) to three straight years of bowl eligibility.
From the defense: Josh Allen. Mike Edwards. Darius West. Jordan Jones. Adrian Middleton. Tymere Dubose. Chris Westry. Lonnie Johnson. Derrick Baity.
From the offense: C.J. Conrad. Dorian Baker. David Bouvier. George Asafo-Adjei. Bunchy Stallings.
Add in kicker Miles Butler and long snapper Tristan Yeomans, and Kentucky saluted 16 total seniors Saturday. As UK Coach Mark Stoops noted Monday at his weekly news conference, all 16 can point to significant, on-the-field contributions at UK.
Not since the class of 2007 — think Andre Woodson, Keenan Burton, Rafael Little, Jacob Tamme and Wesley Woodyard — has Kentucky had a class of departing players as accomplished as the 2018 seniors.
Given that, the fact that the announced attendance for UK’s 34-23 victory over MTSU was only 47,535 seemed, well, ungrateful toward a class that has meant so much to Kentucky football.
UK junior linebacker Kash Daniel saw it that way. The Paintsville product blasted the lack of attendance on Senior Day. “Honestly, dude, I’m really disappointed. That stadium should have been filled out to the max,” Daniel said. “... This is the class that turned Kentucky football around.”
In not showing up in greater numbers to say farewell to seniors that have been at the core of UK teams that have won 13 SEC contests over the past three years — matching the number of SEC wins which UK teams achieved from 2008 through 2015 — did Cats fans let down a class that deserved better?
Yes.
Do UK fans owe their football seniors an apology?
No.
Let’s stipulate, it was disappointing that more Kentucky fans weren’t there to salute a senior class of unusual merit in UK football history.
Conversely, to expect fans to operate primarily out of love for school is disingenuous when big-time college sports programs have made clear with their actions that the relationship between the university and the ticket-buying public is primarily one of commerce.
Before its 2015 football season, the University of Kentucky re-ticketed its entire football stadium as a result of a $110 million renovation that modernized the venue formerly known as Commonwealth Stadium and added premium seating areas.
For a lot of longtime UK fans with whom I interact, that 2015 re-ticketing was a seminal experience in their Wildcats fandom.
Priority in choosing new seats, as well as in picking what stadium parking lot one had access to, was determined by one’s standing with the K-Fund, the primary fund-raising arm of UK Athletics.
A fair number of UK football backers who felt like they had shown loyalty by renewing their season tickets through “thin and thin” lost their seats and their traditional parking areas because they had not donated enough money to UK Athletics.
Progress comes at a cost, so I’ve never criticized that process. It had become abundantly clear that Kentucky needed to enhance its facilities if it was ever going to become more competitive in the cutthroat world of Southeastern Conference football.
But once you have unequivocally shown your fans that their value is determined by how much money they are worth to the university, it’s hard to then turn around and make emotional appeals to fan “loyalty.”
The ticket-buying public has begun to approach UK sports as consumers, not blind loyalists.
Give a consumer a noon kickoff, a Conference USA foe and only seven days to bounce back from an unusually demoralizing loss at Tennessee — all the conditions which Kentucky fans faced for MTSU — and some will find other ways to spend their leisure time.
This fall, Kentucky’s seniors are the heart of a team that ended the Cats’ 31-game losing streak to Florida; gave UK its first winning SEC record (5-3) since 1977; and, with a victory at archrival Louisville (2-9) Saturday, can give the Wildcats (8-3) only their second nine-win regular season since 1952.
In a more innocent time, those achievements would have meant a full Kroger Field and a rousing fan send off Saturday for Senior Day.
Alas, innocence is in short supply around big-time college sports in 2018, even — especially? — among the customers.
Mark Story: (859) 231-3230; Twitter: @markcstory