Who was the best UK O.C. ever?

[Greasy Creak Mafia]

I would have to say Mike Leach even if Hal didn't give him total control the man was an offensive genius. I also like Joker with the pro style offense he also threw in some option in 3rd down and red zone situations that confused teams unprepared for it.

Who do you think was the best O C of all time for the Cats?

 

[JPFisher]

Joker has to be considered. Producing the points he did with a West Coast offense is incredible. He knew how to utilize every single member of the offense to the best of their potential and did a helluva job with it. His offense did require a few years in the system to get things figured out (Same as his replacement Randy Sanders), but the offense usually clicked. Joker's success could very well be attributable to the talent he had at the end of his tenure as a coordinator, but I figured I'd give him a nod since I don't feel like anyone else will give him one even though he did a lot for the program as an OC.

I expect Air Raid offenses to put up a lot of points, so while Mumme (Leach) was revolutionary.... I'll put them as 1a and 1b.

 

[SDcatfan13]

Joker has to be considered. Producing the points he did with a West Coast offense is incredible. He knew how to utilize every single member of the offense to the best of their potential and did a helluva job with it. His offense did require a few years in the system to get things figured out (Same as his replacement Randy Sanders), but the offense usually clicked. Joker's success could very well be attributable to the talent he had at the end of his tenure as a coordinator, but I figured I'd give him a nod since I don't feel like anyone else will give him one even though he did a lot for the program as an OC.

I expect Air Raid offenses to put up a lot of points, so while Mumme (Leach) was revolutionary.... I'll put them as 1a and 1b.

My issue with Joker Phillips is it seemed he was too conservative at times. Seemed like Kentucky fell behind early in games and it was only then that they started being more aggressive on offense. I like Dawson's approach better and think that if you had him as coach in 2007, Kentucky would have won 9 regular season games instead of 7.

 

[JasonS.]

Folks like to bag on him, but those 2001-2002 Brent Pease offenses were pretty electric. I loved him as a playcaller. Having Artose Pinner helped things, of course.

 

[SanAntonioCat]

Bear Bryant

 

[stenchymouse]

Elliot Uzelac

 

[seccats04]

Elliot Uzelac

Useless Sack

 

[StubbornPenny]

I HATED that third down option crap. We need two yards, so we pitch it ten yards back?? NOT my style.

 

[TotesMcGotes]

im making an early prediction that after 24 months we will have a strong argument for Shannon Dawson. with our talent level on offense and his aggresive playcalling there are sure to be some 50+ point games

 

[Tummygoat]

Joker was not a great head coach, but no question he was a great coordinator. Hard to dislike much the offenses did under his/Brooks tenure. Hal Mumme obviously good too - look how many disciples have been disciples he had.

 

[Blue Decade]

I would have to say Mike Leach

You must really be young.

 

[TotesMcGotes]

Joker was not a great head coach, but no question he was a great coordinator. Hard to dislike much the offenses did under his/Brooks tenure. Hal Mumme obviously good too - look how many disciples have been disciples he had.

interesting the perspective people have about him now. i remember many times people complaining about Joker's playcalling during his tenure...i thought he was okay. not bad not great

 

[catben]

Don Shula

 

[ukalumni00]

Joker cost KY some huge games by not giving the ball to his best playmaker (Cobb) inside the 5 yard line. These were games defenses had no answer for Cobb. If he does not score then so be it, but the calls he made were baffling to say the least.

 

[Caveman Catfan]

Tommy Bowden was pretty good. Curry succeeds at UK if he did not leave.

 

[white10]

Hal, Mike Leach and company was so exciting!! Fun to watch those teams needed better D....

 

[KyCatFan]

I'd go with Leach as well. I know he benefited from having Couch and Yeast, but the offense, while still pretty good, was never anywhere as effective after Leach left. When Mumme took over the offense, we were just too predictable. That is when talent started to matter more and I think Mumme started turning a blind eye to the cheating his assistants were doing.

 

[WeepNoMore]

Going back, way back, I still remember some of the offenses Perry Moss had as OC under Fran Curci in the 70s. If I'm not mistaken, he was OC for the Peach Bowl champs of 76 and the SEC champs of 77.

 

[UKErik]

The Mumme/Leach years were easily the most effective Kentucky offenses. In 1997, UK finished #6 in the nation in total offense. They were #3 in 1998. After slipping to 56th in 1999, UK finished 11th in 2000.

Since 2000, UK has only had three offenses finish in the top 50 nationally (31st in 2006, 24th in 2007, and 27th in 2010). During the Joker/Sanders years, Kentucky finished in the 100's four times.

Ron Hudson was putrid. His two seasons (2003-04 )were absolutely miserable (96th and 115th).

Brent Pease was also fairly awful. UK finished 56th and 87th in his two seasons (2001-02).

I don't need to track down Uzelac's numbers to know those years were abysmal.

GBB!!!

 

[Shavers48]

no Ron Hudson fans?!? Guess not.

 

[stenchymouse]

no Ron Hudson fans?!? Guess not.

When I made selection of Uzelac, Hudson crossed my mind as a close 2nd.

I'm sure a lot of posters on here have tried to forget both of em!

 

[Greasy Creak Mafia]

I think Leach was ahead of his time.

 

[optimus-blue]

Leach and Mumme nobodies even close. They revolutionized college football in many ways. Even the NE patriots camped with Leach and use a lot of his principles in their O. Look at coaching tree from those guys. Head coaches at Cal, Texas AM, West Virgina, Troy and Illinois came out of that system and there are many more. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery and a lot of none tradional teams have used the air raid to be competitive in college football. In truth what innovative ideas has say Nick Saban brought to table he is a great coach and knows how to win at a high level and motivate. Still he wins by stacking the deck but he is not very innovative . Heck he hired Lane Kiffan to be innovative and the only thing he ever been known to innovate is cheating in recruiting lol.

 

[CB3UK]

Some serious revisionist history if you're picking Joker for this. He had ups and downs.

 

[TBCat]

It's hard to say. The ones that you would list as the best were really good when they had great players and very average when they didn't. Overall I'd have to say Leach was the best even though we never got to see him without Couch. Still a close call. Joker's years with Woodson were really strong as well. I still believe there would have been less of a drop off with Leach if he would have stayed past the Couch years than there was with Joker when his talent level wasn't there.

 

[no1gman]

Elliot Uzelac

I think he was being facetious(sp)

 

[Perrin75]

Uzelac was so horrible that it finally forced Newton to fire Curry. So, would that make him the best?

 

[southindycat]

Tommy Bowden was pretty good. Curry succeeds at UK if he did not leave.

There is a lot of truth in this.

 

[ktbug]

Mummy/ Leach had two good years. If you think Joker had ups and downs.....Mumme had up then' down. With a whole lot of cheap stats picked up at the end of games.