By Ira D. Combs Syndicated Columnist
Tri State Sports Media Service Inc.

Did anybody notice that a certain Big East football team had Five players drafted in last weeks NFL draft. No, not the one Big Blue Nation loves to hate on a daily basis.

The one that embarrassed UK in last January's BBVA Compass Bowl.

Yes, Pittsburgh that team that everyone said UK laid an egg against, well, it turns out that maybe and it hurts to say this but as the old saying goes "sometimes the truth hurts, because it's simply the truth". Maybe, the Pitt Panthers were simply better than UK. Pittsburgh had five players drafted into the NFL professional ranks last week with one each in the 1st and 2nd round and three more in the 5th & 6th rounds.

This is another confirmation that UK may not have cabbaged on those first two 8 - 5 bowl winning seasons in the recruiting process like everyone thought, it's also a testament that since only Randall Cobb was drafted from UK that the overall recruit that has been brought in too the Nutter Training Center since those first two bowl winning seasons isn't at the talent level we all thought either.

Henceforth, this is possibly why UK has put up two 6-6 regular season campaigns in the last three years and of more importance we may all now know the real reason that Rich Brooks chalked it in.

Brooks saw that he had done about all he could do and envisioned a slide backwards coming.

How Does Joker Circle The Wagons

It is no secret that in this new day and age the UK football fan will not tolerate 6 win seasons very long.

With the money spent by todays college football fan for the fan experience to be successful more is expected by Joker Phillips and his troops or the seats will start being vacated on those beautiful fall afternoons in the bluegrass and we all know what happens to coaches when seats become empty on gamedays.

Simply put, I don't think today's new era UK football fan will have the patience nor loyalty to spend today's money like the old fans of the 60's, 70's, 80's, and 90's.

This September, Joker Phillips will enter his 2nd season as the man in charge of UK football and in most situations that is not a year that is critical for a coach taking over a program. But Phillips has been a keen adviser for Brooks since he stepped on campus and has put his own stamp on the program much more than most assistant coaches with other college football programs.

The Joker Phillips era will be scrutinized much quicker and closer than most 2nd year head coaches.

To Phillips credit he was the lead recruiter for the first five or six years of the Brooks era and actually turned the program in the right direction when he became the offensive coordinator in the middle of the Brooks era.

However, I myself have heard several longtime UK football donors who have privately stated in the past year that Joker Phillips may have been more productive and important to UK football in his role as offensive coordinator and lead recruiter than as the Head Coach. This doesn't mean that Joker can't be or won't be a successful head football coach on the college level. It simply means that at UK his impact and importance to this particular program may have been what he was doing when Brooks departed.

To be painfully honest I can see where those thoughts may actually have some merit.

Todays big time Div. 1 head football coaches have so many daily responsibilities to perform in and out of season that have no significant importance come game day . Attending speaking engagements at various fund raising functions as well as civic responsibilities and full filling those many required media conferences at various times during the season no matter how appealing you are to those in attendance has no significance to his teams play on game day.

Phillips made several ground breaking and program changing inroads for UK football in several southern states to get UK football to the level that it's at today.

I sometimes wonder if he can continue the upward trend for UK football in the future by spending all his time on the banquet tour with the high rollers and sugar daddy's of UK football instead of on the recruiting trail and running the roads of southern high school football.

Getting the Jimmy's and Joe's on campus are much more important for a UK than drawing up the X's and O's on gameday.

Every college football program has to sell a recruit on something and at a UK you have to build a friendship and trust with a recruit by a coach who can relate to the modern day athlete and bond with them over a period of time.

You can't do that unless you spend a lot of time on the road especially with those 7 or 8 prime recruits that you target every year . In the recruiting world the head coach has to have the ability to go in the home to close the deal but it's that bonding relationship that the lead recruiter builds with that recruit on a weekly basis over a period of time that gets the head coach in the home and Joker was a master mind in the early to middle Rich Brooks years in getting UK's name on the map.

It appears Phillips is trying to groom Tee Martin to take that role over I just hope Big Blue Nation will provide enough time for Joker to put the finishing touches on his early work.

Coach Cal Lining Up The Troops For Year #3

It now appears that Coach John Calipari's roster for the upcoming 2011-2012 season is set barring any mid or late summer surprises (See Trevor Lacey sweepstakes).

As I predicted in this column a week after the Final Four Brandon Knight is off to the big bucks of the NBA although he may have to fend for himself for a few months until the collective bargaining agreement between the NBA players association and the NBA owners has been settled. But he will be handsomely rewarded once those bulging vaults are reopened and the season starts.

Somewhat of a mild surprise that Terrence Jones is staying at UK for another year but he could be handsomely rewarded himself a year from now if he uses next season as a building block not to mention next years lottery picks will be under the new collective bargaining agreement which I'm sure will be much more lucrative.

As for DeAndre Liggins and his surprise announcement late sunday night that he will take a plunge into the upcoming NBA draft , I wonder sometimes who is in the dark the most the college player or the NBA player personnel folks .

Life's full of surprises and I think Liggins is about to get one.

Spring Football Correction

Thanks to UK football media relations director Tony Neely I found out the reason talented red shirt freshman running back Brandon Gainer was a no show at the spring Blue - White game. Neely told me in an e-mail response to our last syndicated column that Brandon Gainer is alive and well at the Nutter Training Center and in good standing with coach Joker Phillips and his coaching staff.

Gainer was simply held out of the Blue-White game because he injured his right shoulder in a blocking drill for the running backs on the Wednesday before the scrimmage and the coaches simply felt like it was best to hold him out of the scrimmage in fear of making the injury worse.