Report: Neal Brown to be named UK’s offensive coordinator
We now interrupt your Randall Cobb viewing for this very important tweet. Pete Roussel of CoachingSearch.com is reporting that Neal Brown will be named UK’s new offensive coordinator tomorrow.
Sources tell me that Texas Tech offensive coordinator Neal Brown will be named offensive coordinator at Kentucky. CoachingSearch.com
— Pete Roussel (@coachingsearch) December 10, 2012
Brown reportedly visited Lexington today to meet with Mark Stoops. Get to know him a little better with my profile from earlier this week:
104 Comments for Report: Neal Brown to be named UK’s offensive coordinator
woohoo!
And BOOM goes the dynamite!
God is good!!!
Get the Air-Raid Siren out…..Gonna be a FUN season.
Go Big Blue!!
Great news!!! Welcome home, Neal! Can’t wait for football season. GOOOOO CATS!
This is awesome!
Finally, we got our season tickets, how about you.
Hope it’s true!! Go Big Blue!!!
fingers crossed!
Truly good news. UK will be relevant again in short order. Still will take time to be a top tier team but this puts us back into the middle in a hurry.
All I can say –
Hot damn!
This is fabulous news. Evidently Mitch has opened up the checkbook.
FUDGE YAH!!!
Like #11 said “Hot Damn” with a side of Makers!!!
Great news. Can’t wait for football season again.
HECK YEAH!!!
also same report says Butch Jones offered a job to Tee Martin
Awesome. Stoops is tearing it up on the coaching hires. Go Cats.
I think we start with Matt’s Nose Whistle and then work up to the air raid, poor Charlie Strong, gonna lose to the Cayts!!!! Merry Christmas everyone (just like Jimmy Stewart said)
http://m.youtube.com/index?&desktop_uri=%2F#/watch?v=_f-hXPVNQwQ
If it is true, Stoop’s Troop’s going Airborne!! They want need security guards at Commonwealth! They’ll need Air Marshall’s!!
People on the Texas Tech board are high fiving over Brown leaving Tech.
Just curious what kind of recruiter is he? Go caters!!!!!
“Pay hard, play fast, play physical”. I love it!
just wait about 3 years. all you inbred rednecks will be screaming FFFAAAARRRRR STOOPS!
Stoops he did it again
best news all week!!!
THANK YOU MR BARNHART!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
wait about 3 years and strong will play turtleneck for more money because the price of KFC went up.
You hired Bob Stoops’red headed, ugly brother. He was Mitch’s 7th choice. Way to go!!!
John Schlarman and Chad Scott are also on the staff. Great Job Stoops!!
@29 mark was the first person interviewed and the first one offered. You have zero facts!
Something must be going good, the haters are coming out!!!
24 and trolls….so jealousy may be the root cause why you hurt deep inside and it originates in the buttock hole, you have shown us that but tell us…the reason you come into the best college fan base home site is because you want to be like us and you look up to the blue that runs wide across the commonwealth…right? OK…thx for showing your ignorance and blessing our site with your moronic comments which solidify your jealousy driven examples. One day you may grow up.
Thank you Mitch for guaranteeing my 1st Round status.
Neal! Yesss!
ridgeruner you go boy! hahaha
Why let facts stand in the way of making an idiot of yourself?
Miss me yet?
http://www.vivathematadors.com/2012/11/30/3709552/brown-and-kentucky
Going along with what 21 said, maybe we should temper our excitement. RedRaider fans seem as though they will be happy to see Brown depart. The overall sentiment is that he was far too predictable and would run bubble screens on 3rd and long situations (a la Joker) quite often.
I like the name Reality Check though, particularly when it isn’t rooted in any. I’m with you 32, the haters have been out in force the last few days so we must be doing something right.
You can’t stop this train.
If this is true, the areas of recruiting this will open up will be awesome; Ohio, Florida, Texas,etc… WOW!!
Speaking for 1 fan here obviously…but I am not excited (or naive) to think we are quote, expecting a bowl in year 1 or 2. My excitement is that we are assembling what I think is the best collection of coaches that we can assemble based on what we can pay and who we are. That of course can be debated slightly but for the most part my excitement is that we are trying to do something “right” for a football-change.
Go Big Blue!
As I stated with the Stoops hire; “it ain’t the X’s and O’s, it’s Jimmy’s and Joe’s”. All of the hires so far seem to be heading toward a good staff. I’ll remain grounded in my enthusiasm unitl the Jimmy’s and Joe’s begin to show up.
@39. same thing happened with Flordia state with Stoops and Elliot. So what?
I’m getting excited about this. Brown is a great hire and the defensive coaches he’s hired have been solid too. I’m liking the staff he’s putting together alot. Give us 2 or 3 years and I think Stoops can get us to a point where we can actually compete respectfully in the SEC.
Texas Tech fans are clueless if they think the Offense was the issue this year. Problem was they had a Mike Majors clone running the defense…Awful. Hey you Crow loving trolls…You and your overpaid coach will get yours on January 2 and again on September 14. If Neal Brown is the hire, we are going bowling.
sorry it was 38 not 39
21&38-we get it. red raiders fans are “happy” about losing brown. let me know who they replace him with & where that offense is in 2 years.
once again, we prob won’t win the SEC with brown’s air raid, but we can def win 6-8 games a year with it & a top 50ish defense.
Don’t you redbird fans have your own blogs?
I have been to this site 100 times today looking and hoping for this news. Can’t wait to hear Danny’s pessimistic take tomorrow. “Matt, we aren’t, listen to me, Matt, we aren’t paying him enough. Mitch won’t allow him to run the offense he wants to run.” I hate that guy. I’ve been hoping he would come here even before we hired Stoops.
Thank god I decided to keep my season tickets this year. I think I was the only person in our row that did – that, or they all just gave them away each game. This coaching staff should, hopefully, produce an entertaining game that doesn’t leave the angry old man behind me cursing about bubble screens and runs on third and long.
FINALLY! We’ll have some decent O around here! I’m getting season tickets NAO… heyyy… waitaminute. =/
I am so looking fwd to commonwealth stadium next year!!!! Mitch I believe u have just hit ur homerun with the duo of STOOPS and NEAL BROWN!!!! AIR RAID is BACK BABY!!!!
I cant wait till august!!!!
From what I’ve read BTW, Brown was doing a terrific job down there and the majority of the fanbase loved him but there was a very loud portion that wanted Mike Leach back or nothing at all, similar to some of our own for a certain coach the last couple months. Tuberville was not very popular either and Brown came in under him so there were probably that too.
I’m really excited about Brown, I agree JC, I was in the same boat. TTech fans who really thought offense was the problem last year are idiots.
I’m sure any coach will do better than Joker Phillips. How much worse can it get from 2-12. But I would hold my horses and let’s see what Stopps can do. You have to remember this is UK FB, not BB. We have never, ever, ever,ever been a top tier program. For a few fleeting years Brooks was able to get UK to a few bowl games. That’s it. He beat a deteriating UL team, good wins over LSU & Auburn and maybe Georgia, but for the most part, Brooks tenure was not top tier. If Stoops takes UK to the top of the SEC, every major program in the Country we be breaking down the door to steal him away, and that is the truth.
maybe premature, but I think this staff, so far, is a top 5 staff in the SEC
GO BIG BLUE!!!!
Expectations already too high! How is it that by hiring these coaches gonna make these one and two star players on this fb team better right off the bat? I’ve seen little 7yr old boys tackle better than some of the guys on this team. And #24 is right two to three yrs from now if we’re not winning. FOR SALE signs will be in the coaches yard.
Sad but true, #56. If he succeeds, inevitably other big name programs will be trying to steal him (Tennessee will probably be looking for a new coach by then). Then the question becomes, does he like it here and want to stay? I think if he does well, Mitch will back a dump truck full of cash up to the guy’s house. I hope we get to find out. Hell, even if he does leave, after what we saw with Joker, 2-3 years of entertaining football would just be great.
Top 5 coaching staff wake up bbn.This offense Neal Brown runs never wins a championship against the better defenses’s .nothing but alot bells and whistles.It’s practically useless . A Gimmick offense .
#48 This offence will score enough points to keep people in the seats untill Stoops can get the players in to run his style of D. We might not be that good for a couple years, but we should be pretty damn fun to watch.
Anybody who was out commonwealth during Tim Couchs 2 years knows how much commonwealth can rock with a good offence. UK didn’t win a lot of big games but they sure was great to watch.
I love it. Great combination of tough defense and an exciting, aggressive offense. How fun is it going to be watching our team play to win instead of playing not to lose.
Now lets get Petrino as QB coach and well be title contenders
I don’t get it. I am as diehard as you can get for football, but I don’t get this unabashed here comes UK enthusiasm. I am not saying any of these guys are bad hires. I am saying you have a head coach with no experience, you have a team with a bottom of the SEC talent level and you have a bunch of new coaches with limited experience coming in.
Elliot has never been a DC, Stoops has never been an HC, and while their turnaround at FSU was nice, it was in a horrible ACC with top FL talent.
Again, I am OK with the hires so far, but I am certainly not of the opinion this is a home run just yet. The expectation being built for this poor staff is already out of control.
Let’s be realistic, let them coach for a bit and then decide if this was a home run.
Wow, according to many on here, we will be far worse under Stoops than we were under Joker
Great I guess the line at the bathrooms will be back next year. Lol
#66 – I can’t speak for anyone but myself, but I’m not expecting them to win the SEC or do anything amazing for a few years. I’m just glad that these guys appear to know football and aren’t going to leave me absolutely perplexed as to what they’re trying to do, like Joker’s staff. Joker’s team was VERY hard to watch because the play calling was atrocious and the discipline was completely absent. These guys might end up being the same way, I don’t know, but at least it will hopefully be something different.
all the negative comments must be coming from loserville fans or bbll fans who dont want to see us have a good ftbll program here!!!!
Rixter – Not worse. But realism is something UK fans lack at times. Like after the Blue White game when I thought, wow, this team has a looooooooooooong way to go I log on here to see bunches of fans saying they should be #1.
I like the staff, but they are extremely inexperienced so I will temper my judgement until I give them a fair chance to prove themselves and what they can do. I hope it’s a home run and I for the first time in 3 years I am excited about the direction we are headed in football.
However, the SEC is king and right now we are a serf. And just as an FYI to all of the fans who said bye, bye bubble screen, the air raid features a screen and draw attack as it’s running game so get ready for a big dose.
You have to give this staff time. Joker played a lot of young players but doesn’t mean those kids were good. Next year will be very tough. Give them at least three years ok?
#69 I with you. I don’t think we are going to win the SEC or anythiing, but these guys do give us hope of being watchable at least. If we are going to lose and we will untill we get better players at least make it entertaining instead of feeling like a trip to the dentist office.
Now the debate for the next 8 months. Towles or Smith?
If you are just hoping to watch exciting losing football, we have different hopes as fans.
Patrick Towles is smiling today. Smith will be a good backup and Whitlow will be a good WR.
This is awesome news,; if UK is even halfway good next year, Brown will be at UK no more than 2 years. Either way, UK, Barnahrt, & Stoops aren’t f’ing around when it comes to football. #WeAreUK
I love Patrick Towels as much as anybody but he is going to have to come a long way very quickly to beat out a healthy Max Smith, especially in a Neal Brown offense. Maxwell is perfect for this offense but only time will tell. Excited to see what will happen. GO BIG BLUE!!!
#75 You said you wanted to be realistic. If you expect anything other then a mediocre at best team for the next 3 years your being unrealistic. That’s just the facts, Joker tanked the program and it is going to take some time. At least we will score pts and that will keep people coming untill our talent is better. I don’t know if Stoops is the answer or not but this will allow him him time to prove his self, but by in no way do I think he can walk on water.
I think it is a win win for everybody. If we do good enough for Brown to get a better job then UK should be in good shape to hire anther top flight OC.
#79 I completely disagree. The new coaching staff is inheriting a lot of talent and a lot of that young talent got very good experience this season. It is just now they will have coordinators confident enough to put them in the right position to suceed. No more Colonel Sanders and Nuclear Minter.
Passion has always over-ruled intelligence and brains so let it be with BBN. Remember the coaches don’t play just coach and evaluate but if they can attract players with size, speed and football instincts perhaps we can compete where the game outcome may not be as predictable as it has been the past few seasons.
I’m a little concerned that Jason Bateman will be running our offense…
You guys won’t wait that long and you know it. A month ago you couldn’t wait for BB. Aready gave up on BB now ready for FB again. Gotta love uk fans!
Some of you creepers must be fans of Louisville or some place besides UK.. Yes we have an inexperienced staff but guess what they all know football and what is required to win games.. Our kids are undisciplined and weak.. I have a sneaky feeling they will be much stronger better nourished and team disciplined or they will be on the highway.. Joker wanted to be their buddy and mark stoops will be their coach and leader … That itself is worth a star or two.. Raw talent is very similar between a 3 star and a 5 star … A good staff will show you Non believing creepers what is possible … I myself can’t wait till feb then spring blue white then September … A statement by the university of the magnitude of the last 5 weeks has been music to true blue fans !
ooh, realism – next 3-years won’t be a great W/L ratio. What it should be:
1) Exciting offense and solid defense
2) Winning some games we shouldn’t
3) Winning most of the games we should
4) Play calling that makes sense
5) A road to recovery…
Honestly my highest hope is that we return to a Brooks-era sort of team for the next 3-years and keep moving up thereafter. Coach Stoops doesn’t see a ceiling. neither should we.
I’m excited about the staff that is falling in place for this squad and what they can bring to our current players. We do have some decent talent currently that they can work with and get improved results. Hopefully the talent level will rise with string recruiters, the staff taking new roles (Stoops and DJ) can adjust quickly) and the Cats will start stepping up the SEC ladder in the next few years. I’m looking forward to a fun ride. Go Cats!
I approve of the hire! Maybe I’ll have regular company next year!!!
84 – ….says the loser who spends his evenings on a rival site. ya sound scared, man. just enjoy you’re bowl beatdown, and hope old Charlie can live up to his overpriced/overstay contract.
To all those who keep talking about all the talent we have returning. Really? You must have watched a different team then I did. It’s unfair to Stoops to overstate our team. If he wins 6 games next year we should extend his contract and he will be coach of the year in the SEC. Need to stop looking at the stars and look at who else is recruiting the players. Every other team isn’t looking over these players. I get the finding a hidden gem but you can’t have a whole team of them. We have to win the recruiting battle in the Lousville high schools to win. Then we can get a couple from other places.
FML…can I borrow some seat covers so I have a comfy seat on the bench next year?
I disagree @90. We looked very strong offensively before Max Smith went down (top 10 passing game in the country prior to injury), lots of speed and talent in the young receivers and really strong running backs, we couldn’t throw the ball after Max went down and every team we played stacked the box on us after that which also neutralized the running game.
Defensively we struggled all year but even there I thought several of those Freshmen secondary guys (the weakest link early in the season) improved by leaps and bounds by the last 2 or 3 games of the season (like JD Harmon), they had the speed and athleticism to hang with SEC caliber receivers, but they were still checking out mentally every so often which I think can be corrected with good coaching. Our Dline, well, big disappointment this year and zero depth, Stoops will need to recruit that position hard and our linebackers were hit and miss except for Avery W and Bud D who were both solid all year (both made all sec team).
I WILL say that we didn’t have a lot of talent in the upper classmen though, it was pretty much all the Freshmen and redshirt Freshmen that were impressive so they will still be young next year too but they got a lot of experience last year most freshmen in the SEC don’t. Joker may not have done a great job at HC but his staff was full of good recruiters and they did well the last two years, hence the non bare cupboard.
So what your saying is Kentucky will have a defense and a offense? Crap… Vicky, you know the drill…pulled pork please
#92 wasn’t Smith the QB for the UL and Western loss. If you think UK will win 7 or 8 next year God bless you. Drinking way to much blue kool aid. It’s just not fair to Stoops to expect him to come in here and turn this thing around quickly. It takes more time to fix football then it does bb. I do appreciate your optimism and would love it if you where right. Just think this thing is 2 or 3 years away best case.i hope people will give Stoops a fair shake and not want to fire him after 2 so so years. He’s coming into a program in a lot worse shape the Joker. I don’t think Saban could win with this team next year. It took him 2 years to get Bama where he wanted them and they where already in a lot better shape then we are now.
As good as Smith was, I would almost rather see Towles start. Why? He’s 6’4 230-240 lbs. and is MOBILE. Smith is a somewhat better passer, but cant move to save his life. Honestly, I say they work with Whitlow in the offseason, and get his passing better. Honestly, if Whitlow could develop a passing game, it would make the offense that much more dangerous.
Stoops+Brown = Charlie Strong’s demise at UL
Poor Charlie…………UL will be the second or third best team in the state again in short order
@94
Yes, Max Smith was the QB during both the UofL and the WKU games. But the defense, also existed. And so did that vanilla, bland, awful offensive playcalling. While I will agree that you can’t just ignore those loses, it’s also really hard to say the team doesn’t have a lot of offensive talent on the roster, ready to be used, either.
I won’t predict 6 wins, but I don’t think it’s impossible to find 6 wins on the schedule. We’ve got our 3 patsy non-conference games. We’ve got a home matchup with Mizzou. We’ve got Vandy on the schedule. We’re home against UT. And then we’ve got UofL in a rivalry match, at home, and Commonwealth will probably be rocking as it will be the first big game of Stoops career, I’d expect the fans to come out in droves. Again not predicting 6, but there’s 6 wins on that schedule if things break right in a few of those games.
97, after last season, 4 wins would be a vast improvement. Let’s temper our expectations and give Coach Stoops a fair shake. Still, I like the level of excitement he is bringing with him. That alone can inspire the motivation amongst the players that is needed to sneak away with an extra win or two.
Oh I agree that four wins is a vast improvement. I don’t think we will for certain win 6, but I don’t think it’s some impossible thing, either. If you squint really hard, you could see where this team could get to six or seven wins.
I expect to see a team who’s in almost every game this year and one who gives you the chance to win against Louisville, Vandy, Tennessee and Mizzou (maybe even Miss St. though thats a longer shot) but still comes up short more times than not. I expect better recruits than we had been getting (if Vandy can…we can. Simple as that). 4-5 wins is what I think is likely, 6 wins is an outlier of a season but in the realm of possibility.
#99 We will do well to win 4 games next year. UK is slow. Vandy, MSU and UL are all leaps ahead in talent. Mizzu, UT are possiblities. Right now, I only see the 3 roadkill non-conference games and 1 SEC. I hope Stoops is a great recruiter and I am liking the staff he is putting together. Go Cats!
So UK gets beat by Vandy 40-0, by Mizzou 33-10, UT 37-17 and now some are moving those over to the “winnable games” column? LOL “3 out of conference patsies”. Geez, we lost to WKU and in hindsight I can’t believe we beat Kent State (UK was their only regular season loss and they ended up top 25). Anybody thinking there’s a chance of 6 wins next year is nuts…just caught up in the excitement of UK’s hiring of the next sacrificial SEC lamb. I’m okay with Stoops, but give me Mike Summers over John Schlarman as O-line coach. Chad Scott? meh. Neal Brown..we’ll see. Gimmicky offense is just that. Yeah, I read about the excitement in CWS, the air raid sirens. Will it propel UK into middle tier SEC even? Nope
@100
Very much agreed for the most part. My “expectations” are four wins. There’s no reason to have them lower then that. I could see us exceeding those expectations to around 6 wins on the high end, though I find it unlikely. If Max Smith and CO take to the Air Raid offense as well as you hope them to, there’s no reason they can’t find a win against Vandy or someone else in that “middle tier” of games, or, at least see a world where they could win one. With a high powered offense, you can sneak up on someone. But yes, I’ve got them down as a 4 win team right now, but there’s some fluidity and mobility. I honestly don’t think we’re that slow.
When I mentioned those games, the UL, Vandy and MSU games, I expect to be in the game, not necessarily win them. Essentially, I’m saying no more 40-0 drubbings.
IF YOU WANT TO PUT LITTLE BROTHER IN THEIR PLACE YOU HAVE TO GO AND BUY SEASON TICKETS!
BUY
SEASON
TICKETS
In one of the worst economic times ever I don’t think I would be telling everyone to buy season tickets. Most people just don’t have the money they used to for leisure items. You buy tickets if you want to, let other chose for theirselves.