Column: Brooks, UK staff keep quiet about quarterbacks

Has Rich Brooks borrowed a move from Cleveland Browns head coach Eric Mangini?

In the wake of Mike Hartline’s knee injury, controversy has emerged as to who should take Hartline’s spot.

Other than what Will Fidler displayed in limited time against South Carolina last weekend, fans don’t know much about him.

The other quarterback in the equation, Morgan Newton, is a true freshman who has yet to take a single snap in a college game.

Since so little is known about each player, can’t we assume we’ll learn more about each player at practice this week?

Not exactly. At Tuesday’s practice, media members were informed neither Fidler nor Newton would be available for interviews all week.

It could mean a couple of things. Maybe Brooks wants to keep Auburn on its toes and not give the Tigers a chance to prepare properly.

Maybe the coaching staff simply doesn’t know yet, and the media boycott is to prevent the two inexperienced players from being distracted. That’s what Brooks said Tuesday.

“I don’t think they need the distraction with all of the stuff that’s going on,” Brooks said. “And besides, that gives you guys more stuff to write about and have more fun, do some polls on who should start. This is more fun for you. I’m giving you some cannon fodder.”

We appreciate it, Coach.

Brooks played it off — and Brooks is one of the best at playing off situations like those.
Still, the feeling to me is that either way, the coaches have little confidence in the situation.

I can’t blame them. When he went down, Hartline was coming off his best half of the season, arguably of his career. When he was injured in the third quarter of UK’s 28-26 loss to South Carolina on Saturday, Hartline was 9-of-14 with 139 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions.
Just when the hubbub surrounding Hartline’s job security was beginning to be silenced, it immediately roared back.

And now the controversy is louder than ever — turned up to 11, really. And is the speculation any less distracting than letting the players speak for themselves for 10 minutes after practice?
Fidler and Newton aren’t going to be fielding phone calls from their dorms. Ten minutes after practice, they could answer a few questions. That’s all it would be.

If that’s too much for either quarterback, how would either be able to handle his first career start on the road at the football-crazed, 87,000-capacity Jordan-Hare Stadium?

This all reminds me of what Mangini did this preseason with his quarterbacks.

Quick refresher: Mangini had to decide whether to start Brady Quinn or Derek Anderson at quarterback. Instead of being up front with the media, Mangini decided to tell everyone he had made the decision, but he wasn’t going to reveal it until the Browns kicked off on opening weekend.

Several days before the Browns’ opener, word leaked that Quinn was the choice.

Some confidence Mangini had in his choice: At halftime in the Browns’ third game, Quinn was pulled for Anderson.

The Browns’ case seemed like a lose-lose. Either way, the quarterback would have been surrounded by 10 other Browns. Nobody wins.

Sadly, UK’s situation isn’t all that different. Either way, UK is stuck with a quarterback who, in both instances, was blown away by Hartline in spring, summer and fall practice.

And Brooks, at least through one day of QB Watch 2009, isn’t handling it much differently than Mangini.

“You know, the quarterbacks both played pretty good,” Brooks said. “They threw some good balls and did some good things.”

As odd as it may sound, that statement was his least vague regarding the quarterbacks after Tuesday’s practice.

With the Browns, being vague didn’t get Mangini anywhere.

With the Cats, we’ll see.

James Pennington is a journalism senior. E-mail jpennington@kykernel.com.