Interesting, Slightly Akron-related Column

Captain Kangaroo · June 8, 2005

Kentucky football, Reds in same boat

WHY CAN'T THEY WIN? THEY DON'T KNOW HOW

By John Clay

HERALD-LEADER SPORTS COLUMNIST

My father, wise sage that he is, made this observation over the weekend.

"The Reds play like they expect to lose," he said.

It's true, and they don't lack for company. As such, Cincinnati baseball and Kentucky football have much in common. If winning breeds winning, the opposite is true. Once losing begins, losing is hard to stop. Old habits are hard to break.

Unless you find an agent of change.

Howard Schnellenberger changed Louisville football. Bill Snyder changed Kansas State football. Travis Ford changed Eastern Kentucky basketball. Marvin Lewis is in the process of changing Cincinnati Bengals football.

Some franchises reach a state of perpetual success. Names change, results don't. The New York Yankees won in the 1920s, '30s, '40s and so forth, just as they are winning today -- or were. Oklahoma football was good then and now.

Consider that since the days of Adolph Rupp, every Kentucky basketball coach, save Eddie Sutton, has won an NCAA Tournament title.

Did Rick Pitino make Kentucky basketball, or was it the other way around? Does it matter?

But from Vanderbilt football to Los Angeles Clippers basketball, some forever seem stuck in reverse no matter who's behind the wheel. Nothing changes.

And college football may be the toughest sport to change gears. Or should we say Southeastern Conference football? In the 13 years since the league split into two six-team divisions for football, only three schools have won East titles.

Of the have nots, South Carolina tied for second -- once. Kentucky tied for third -- once. Vanderbilt never has finished higher than fifth.

The Cats haven't posted a winning record in the SEC since 1977.

So for UK football, losing has become destiny. It's inherited, passed on through generations.

Along the way, the school has tried a new stadium, a training center, an indoor field house, stadium expansion, white helmets, blue helmets, differing logos and uniforms, smash-mouth football, Air Raid football, the wide-tackle-six, the three-four, the four-three, the Blue-White Fund, the K-Fund, and eight head coaches in 40 years.

Strategic scheduling seems the next approach. Move Louisville off the opening weekend. Draw up home-and-homes (two at our place, one at theirs) with Akron and Temple. Say you'd like to help Division I-AA schools meet their budgets. If you can't beat the teams on your schedule, schedule teams you can beat (Sounds like "The Dan Hipsher Scheduling Theory?").

"We need to teach our team how to win," Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart says, and Barnhart was around when Oregon State turned the grid corner.

But then the Pac-10 has been an easier safe to crack. In the past 10 years, eight schools at least have shared a part of the conference football title. One of the two that has not, California, went 7-1 last year.

(An aside: The Pac-10 voted this week to expand its conference schedule from eight to nine games when the new 12-game season takes effect in 2006.)

In baseball, 10 National League franchises have made the post-season since the Reds' last trip to the playoffs in 1995. There have been eight different NL teams in the post-season since 2000, the Reds' last winning season.

Cincinnati's new bosses look no different than the old, penny-pinching regimes in one area while throwing money away in another. The current Reds seem far more worried about furniture than fundamentals.

The Atlanta Braves suffered 11 losing seasons in the 16 years before Bobby Cox became general manager in 1985. Cox moved to field manager in 1990 when John Schuerholz took over the front office.

With those two in place, the Braves have won 13 consecutive division titles.

There's one sure way to cure a losing mentality.

Hire a winner.

Kangaroo Craig · June 8, 2005

Interesting read. In the Mid American conference, two schools that come to mind when discussing winning football traditions are Miami and Bowling Green. I believe Akron has been a member of the MAC now since the late 80,s and has not won a single football title. Did they share an East crown once, but lose the tie breaker, or was that in hoops? Good news for us Zips fans is that we have reason to be optimistic and hopeful that JD and KD are the college equivelents of Bobby Cox. Of course if they are, they'll be promoted to BCS size schools before too long. Miami and BG have had that problem, but they somehow always seem to come up with a replacement coach who is just as successful as the guy who left for greener pastures. I guess that goes back to the winning tradition thing again. We need to build a winning tradition here.