Neither Brooks, nor fans correct in reaction to team

Maybe it was the 35,000 of you that left Commonwealth Stadium a quarter too early. Or maybe Rich Brooks had his radio dial tuned to radio call-in shows a little too long.

Whatever the reason may be, Brooks came to a tipping point at his weekly news conference on Monday. It wasn’t so much that Brooks was ripping the fans or the media — OK, maybe the media just a little bit — but he had a few things he wanted to get off to his chest.

The most important: the negativity that surrounds UK football.

“I find Kentucky football an interesting phenomenon,” Brooks said. “What our team has been trying to do is change the culture of Kentucky football, and I think we’ve done that. But some people don’t get it.

“I’m thrilled that we’re sitting here picking away at every little thing on our team and we’re 5-2,” Brooks said. “Four years ago people would have been shooting off fireworks at 5-2, but not now — and I don’t have a problem with that. But there’s a difference between having a problem with it and just being negative to be negative.”

Is Brooks right? Is there really an unnecessary cloud of negativity that surrounds the program?

Yes and no.

Maybe the media (including this columnist) and the fans jumped the gun a little bit when they switched into panic mode after consecutive losses to No. 2 Alabama and South Carolina. After all, that only dropped the Cats to 4-2, two wins away from bowl eligibility.

And maybe we’ve all become spoiled by watching the back-to-back bowl wins in Nashville. This is a different team made of new faces and young, budding talent.

But then again, maybe we didn’t jump the gun. Maybe we’re overreacting about the Commonwealth Comeback. Some have termed it a season-turning victory, but it’s hard to turn the feeling and confidence of a team around when you have teams like Florida and Georgia staring you in the face.

Another crushing loss in Gainesville, Fla., this weekend would hardly characterize Saturday’s Arkansas win a turning point. It could have just delayed the inevitable.

Because let’s not kid ourselves about the offense. Five minutes of spectacular play doesn’t cover up the nearly seven games of the pin the tail on the donkey offense UK has displayed.

The true turning point is really this week against Florida. Do the Cats build on last week and put together their biggest win of the year? Or do they fold to the Gators in The Swamp and face the inevitable backlash of “here we go again” from UK fans.

The fans just want a winner, and they nearly have one. That’s why they’re expectations are so high when the Cats flutter. UK is on the verge of becoming a legitimate annual threat, but Cats fans have seen so many failures throughout the years that it’s nearly impossible for them to get their hopes up. They want to believe this is the final transition, but two years of winning doesn’t erase decades of mediocrity.

“That’s part of the process in trying to change what’s happening and reacting to what’s happened in the past with Kentucky football to make it a more positive environment,” Brooks said. “It’s not easy, and I understand why it’s not easy because people get disappointed. They invest their emotions in a product, in a team and they don’t want to be disappointed; they get mad.”

But the truth is they’re not mad. They want that final push. They don’t want their hopes crumbled like they have been so many times in the past.

It’s true, there is some negativity that comes along with that, but Brooks and his team must ignore it and push forward.

“You have to be strong enough not to give into those things,” Brooks said.

My advice to Brooks is to turn the talk radio off, put the newspapers down and don’t pay attention to the fans that do or don’t show up. Just keep doing what you’re doing.

Because while there has been some negativity that has surrounded the program at times this season, Brooks has done the best  he could with what he has. He’s driving a beat-up 1980 Cadillac that’s lost two of its wheels (Dicky Lyons Jr. and Derrick Locke) and the other two are flat (Micah Johnson and Myron Pryor). Yet, Brooks keeps driving the car forward.

If he does that and keeps winning, the sour tune will turn into a sweet melody. The angry radio callers will stop calling, the media will give this group more respect and the fans will stay around for all four quarters.

I can guarantee you that.