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Wise folks have said and written many things about dealing with the hills and valleys of life. Most of us are well aware that it's a mistake to get too high when things are good or too low when they aren't. We know it's better to focus on things we can control and to avoid allowing our emotions to overcome constructive decision-making and ensuing action.

And if any of that were easy, wise folks would spend more time talking and writing about other things.

So we have Oregon. No college football program in the country has combined stunning successes and swirling controversies over the past two-plus seasons as much as Oregon has under coach Chip Kelly. Perhaps even more amazing than the frenetic tempo and creativity of the Ducks' offense is their ability to make news in positive and negative ways, yet remained focused.

Year 1 started with a humiliating loss at Boise State and a punch from then-Ducks RB LeGarrette Blount and ended with a Pac-10 championship and a Rose Bowl berth. Year 2 started with quarterback Jeremiah Masoli -- a Heisman Trophy candidate -- getting booted from the team and ended with another Pac-10 championship and a berth in the national title game.

Year 3? It's started with an NCAA inquiry into the recruitment of redshirt freshman running back Lache Seastrunk, who decided to transfer last weekend, and a $25,000 payment to his mentor, Willie Lyles, who is a recruiting scout and alleged "street agent."

Where will Year 3 end? Will this be the year that the Ducks do get distracted and upended by off-field issues?

"I think the media around here is the smartest people I've ever been around my entire life," Kelly said with what sources said may have been some sarcastic shadings.

"If they voted us No. 1 in the conference and No. 3 in the country, they must not think it is a distraction. So we shouldn't let it be a distraction, because I don't think anyone would vote us No. 3 in the country if you guys thought it was a distraction."

Zing! The capacious "Book of Quotable Chip" adds another entry.

Kelly then referred to one of his handful of mantras: "We have the same mentality all the time. We have a vision for what this football program is supposed to be about and we prepare against that vision. We compete against that vision every Saturday and that's how we measure ourselves. ... We are not concerned with any outside influences, whether it be praise or blame."

Kelly's ability to impose that philosophy -- all part of his "Win the day" credo -- has been remarkable, the fuel for the Ducks' rapid rise in the college football pecking order. When you talk to his players, they either parrot what he says verbatim or provide their own little twist.

Said redshirt junior running back LaMichael James: "I focus on my team and that's it. I don't really care what outsiders have to say."

Still, there's just a little bit of double-speak. Don't believe for a moment the Ducks are unaware of -- and not following -- both the intrigue (Lyles & the NCAA!) and hype (national title contender!) that surrounds them. Kelly claims he doesn't pay attention to what reporters write, but he is curiously apt to tweak them for their stories -- Hey, Chip! -- most notably when they are wrong.

And the players, though totally bought into the Temple of Chip, are the same way. They claim they never discuss the day's headlines. Balderdash.

"Everybody wants to say all this about Oregon," redshirt junior quarterback Darron Thomas said. "We don't like that. We've just been working hard, getting ready for the season, ready to shut everybody up, ready to come out and play ball and forget about all these other allegations that are eventually going to come out."

No one knows when things are "going to come out." The NCAA hasn't even gotten around to sending Oregon an official letter of inquiry, which would spell out how the organization plans to apply vague rules about the use of scouting services. Those who say they know the endgame are lying. Nonetheless, there's been lots of guessing that Oregon and Kelly are in big trouble, with a couple of columns suggesting Kelly will be fired.

"I hope whoever wrote that, and I didn't read it, isn't our athletic director or our president," Kelly said. "I'm very confident in everything that will happen."

It's sometimes hard to believe that Kelly has been a coach in FBS football for just four seasons. Recall that in 2006, he was the offensive coordinator at New Hampshire, a guy only a handful of offensive aficionados knew of. His two-plus years of leading Oregon have been more eventful than entire careers for many head coaches.

When asked if Kelly has shown any stress or strain during his tumultuous tenure, James almost seems amused. "He always seems the same to me," James said. "He maybe seems a little more relaxed."

James also called Kelly "a phenomenal coach." While Rich Brooks made Oregon respectable, and Mike Bellotti created a consistent winner, it's fair to say that Kelly's dynamic leadership has pushed the program to heights that no Ducks fans imagined it could reach, even mega-booster Phil Knight. And for that, James said, Kelly deserves predominant credit.

"Coach Kelly changed the whole identity of the program," said James, who redshirted in 2008, Bellotti's final season as head coach. "Everything is 100 percent different from when I was a true freshman."

What did Kelly change? "I literally mean every single thing," James said.

Of course, Brooks and Bellotti were able to avoid any major NCAA issues, too.

What's next for the Ducks? A win over LSU, a third consecutive conference title and another run at a national championship? NCAA sanctions?

Said Kelly, "I don't know what is going to happen next. No one knows what happens in the future."

One thing is likely: With Kelly and the Ducks, it at least figures to be interesting.

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Only five teams in the rugged SEC have been to bowl games each of the past five years.

Four of those teams are staples in this league -- Alabama, Florida, Georgia and LSU.

Kentucky is the little-known fifth member of that group, and the guy entering his second season as the coach of the Wildcats is growing weary of hearing about it.

Joker Phillips, who returned to his alma mater in 2003 when Rich Brooks was hired, said it’s time the Wildcats move past the whole idea of merely getting to bowl games.

He’s confident, and so are his players, that there’s a lot more out there for a program that has made huge strides since Brooks took over the probation-ridden wreck eight years ago.

“We expect to compete for titles here,” Phillip said. “There’s been a lot of talk here about us having a chance to play in our sixth straight bowl game. That’s something we want to be in the past, strings of bowl games. We want to be talking about how long we can be in the title race.

“You look at last year, and we beat the team that won the East (South Carolina) and played the team that won the West (Auburn) toe-to-toe. The thing we have to do is be consistent in our play and be consistent in everything that we do here.”

The bewitching word there is “consistent.”

After rallying from an 18-point halftime deficit and upsetting South Carolina last season, Kentucky wound up losing four of its last six games and finishing 6-7, its first losing season since 2005.

For perspective, the Wildcats have suffered through 13 losing seasons since 1990.

But from 2006 through 2009, they won seven or more games every season, including three straight bowl games.

“The one thing we haven’t been able to do is get enough talent on both sides of the ball,” Phillips said. “When our offense has been up, our defense has been down. When our defense has been up, we were down offensively for a couple of years.

“We feel now that our defense has a chance to play at a championship level. The thing we have to do is make sure our offense is ready to compete at a championship level with all the production that we lost last year.”

Phillips has made a number of changes to his staff after taking the reins from Brooks following the 2009 season, and one of the most significant moves he made was bringing in Rick Minter to run the Wildcats’ defense.

Minter put in a whole new scheme this spring, one that will use several variations of hybrid players and will be predicated upon getting Kentucky’s best athletes closer to the line of scrimmage.

“We want to create more turnovers and create more negative plays, and this is going to give us a chance to use our talent on defense,” Phillips said.

Speaking of talent, the Wildcats lost a ton of it on offense, starting with Randall Cobb, who scored touchdowns four different ways last season and broke Darren McFadden’s SEC single-season record for all-purpose yardage.

Also gone are quarterback Mike Hartline, running back Derrick Locke and receiver Chris Matthews.

Combined, Cobb, Hartline, Locke and Matthews pretty much were Kentucky’s offense last season.

“Not having those guys is going to be different, no question,” said junior quarterback Morgan Newton, who will take over for Hartline. “But there’s a lot of young talent in this program and more coming. We have guys who can make plays. They just haven’t had a lot of chances in games.”

And as Phillips correctly points out, it wasn’t like Cobb, Locke and Matthews were household names when they came to Kentucky. Cobb wasn’t heavily recruited. Locke was a track athlete and Matthews was a junior college signee.

One of the best things the Wildcats have done in the Brooks-Phillips era is develop players.

“We just have to continue to develop, and that’s what we’ve been good at, developing players, and then utilizing those players’ talents,” said Phillips, who was Kentucky’s offensive coordinator before taking over the head coaching duties. “We’ve been good at getting players in position to make plays.”

Phillips spent a large part of his first season as head coach at Kentucky selling his vision for the program … to fans and to his players.

He doesn’t feel as much pressure to do that as he’s entering his second season. Plus, he’s confident his players got the message a while back.

“I think I’ll be a better coach because I’m not out there as much trying to sell the program,” Phillips said. “I’ve been able concentrate more on football this year, especially having a staff in place now that can also sell the plan.”

Any questions about whether or not Phillips had what it took to rule with an iron fist went out the window last season when he suspended Hartline for the bowl game.

Hartline, who had never previously been in trouble, was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and alcohol intoxication in December following a disturbance in a residential neighborhood.

He was coming off his best season after throwing for 3,178 yards and 23 touchdowns, but Phillips didn’t blink. He suspended his senior quarterback, saying that there was a standard all players would be held to when they embarrassed the program.

It’s the kind of move very few coaches would have the guts to make right before a bowl game, especially with the charges being what they were.

But, then, Phillips also suspended starters Danny Trevathan, DeQuin Evans, Winston Guy, Ronnie Sneed and Matthews for portions of games earlier in the season. Phillips also suspended his starting defensive tackle, Mark Crawford, for the remainder of the season just prior to the Tennessee game.

Trevathan, the SEC’s leading tackler a year ago and the Wildcats’ top returning defensive player, said last season was eye-opening for everybody.

“I missed a meeting by accident, and he sat me down (for the first quarter) against Florida,” Trevathan said. “He might be named Joker, but he ain’t no joke.”

And neither is Phillips’ stated challenge of getting the Wildcats past what has seemed to be a ceiling of seven- and eight-win seasons.

Doing that will entail breaking through in the SEC, which is an ominous task in itself considering the Wildcats haven’t finished with a winning league record since 1977.

What’s more, Trevathan figures people will dismiss Kentucky more than ever now that Hartline, Cobb and Locke are gone.

“We like when people think like that,” he said. “That’s just going to make us hungrier.

“It’s time for us to make that right turn in the right direction and go ahead and be one of the top teams in the SEC … instead of just being mediocre.”

Randall Cobb, Kentucky’s Mr. Do-It-All, figures he’s seen 30 games or more in Neyland Stadium.

Growing up 15 minutes away in nearby Alcoa, Tenn., Cobb caught the Big Orange fever at an early age thanks to his father, Randall Cobb, Sr.

“I was a Tennessee fan and took him to the games when he was little,” Cobb Sr. said. “He got a chance to see Tee Martin play, to see Charlie Garner play, to see some of the great players who’ve come through there.”

At one point, Cobb even sold hot dogs during Tennessee games, although he jokes that he wasn’t cut out for sales when there was a football game being played.

“I sold hot dogs for about two weeks at the stadium until I got tired of carrying the little pale around,” Cobb said. “It was pretty heavy. Whenever I got tired of doing it or bored, I’d sit on the steps and start watching the game.”

As a fundraiser, his high school basketball team also worked the concession stands at Neyland Stadium.

“I’ve got a few memories from Neyland,” Cobb said. “I need one more good one.”

How about the ultimate one?

Cobb gets his final shot at the Vols in Neyland Stadium on Saturday. He wasn’t even born the last time Kentucky beat Tennessee in a football game. For that, matter, nobody on Kentucky’s team was.

The Vols have won 25 straight games in the series, the longest active winning streak in the country involving rivals that play every year.

And it just so happens this year that Tennessee (5-6, 2-5) needs to win this game to go to a bowl. Kentucky (6-5, 2-5) has already qualified for a bowl game.

Cobb admits that he was probably too stoked as a freshman when the Wildcats came to Neyland Stadium, and it affected his play.

“One of the things I’ve learned over the years is that you can’t get too hyped up for these type of games because you don’t play as well,” said Cobb, who’s second nationally with 2,047 all-purpose yards. “So I’ve been trying to stay as cool and collected as I can, just to make sure I’m ready to handle my business on Saturday.”

Make no mistake, though. Inside, the fire will burn as brightly as ever for one of college football’s finest all-around players.

Cobb’s recruitment, or lack thereof, by Tennessee has been well-documented. The Vols didn’t offer a scholarship until late in the process and did so only after Cobb put on a show in the state playoffs.

“We really didn’t hear anything from Tennessee until right before the state championship game,” Cobb Sr. said. “We received a brochure about their camp, but that’s about it. They never really showed any interest in him until there at the end.”

By that time, Cobb was already committed to Kentucky. He did so that summer prior to his senior year of high school after attending one of the Wildcats’ camps.

Kentucky had promised him a chance to play quarterback, and Tennessee made that same promise when the Vols finally got around to offering.

But neither father nor son were ever completely sold that the Vols were being genuine.

“We didn’t feel they were being upfront and honest,” Cobb Sr. said. “They said they were going to change their system and go to a spread to fit Randall’s talents. But then later on, they wanted to know why he didn’t come to camp so they could see him play. That was a red flag right there.

“Coach (Rich) Brooks told Randall he would like to have him as a receiver, and Randall told him his heart was at quarterback. Coach Brooks told him they would give him a chance at quarterback, and that’s where Randall played his freshman year.

“I really think Randall just felt more at ease with everything and everybody at Kentucky and more at home, too.”

The clincher for Cobb was that Kentucky was there from the beginning and Tennessee got to the party so late, especially with his being right there in the shadow of Neyland Stadium.

“I mean, coach (Phillip) Fulmer practically drove by my house every day on his way to work,” said Cobb, who helped lead his high school to four straight state championships.

He insists he’s not bitter, and in Tennessee’s defense, says the Vols’ staff did what a lot of coaching staffs do when they miss on a player during the recruiting process.

They got too caught up in all the measurables and forgot about the intangibles.

“They didn’t realize how much heart I play with and how much the game means to me,” Cobb said. “I think they overlooked some of the qualities I have as a player that make me who I am. But that happens. It happens all the time in recruiting.

“That’s something I can’t control. I don’t know how they feel about it right now at Tennessee. All I can tell you is that I’m excited to be where I am.

“I believe things work out for a reason, and I wouldn’t want to be any place else but Kentucky.”

His family has been able to scrounge up 42 tickets for this game. Relatives are coming in from out of town, while several others will be making the short drive from Alcoa to Neyland Stadium.

Cobb was back home last week to have his high school jersey retired. He was peppered then with questions about Tennessee.

He’s said repeatedly this week that he wants to let his pads do the talking.

They’ve already had plenty to say this season.

Cobb needs 264 yards in his next two games to break Darren McFadden’s SEC record for all-purpose yardage (2,310) in a season. He’s accounted for 16 touchdowns – seven receiving, five rushing, three passing and one on a punt return.

His 66 catches are second in the SEC to South Carolina’s Alshon Jeffery. And with 839 receiving yards and 376 rushing yards, he has a chance to become the first player in SEC history to collect 1,000 receiving yards and 500 rushing yards in the same season.

It all culminates this weekend at a place where Cobb spent more than a few fall Saturday afternoons as a kid.

“It’s in the back of my mind, something you can’t ignore,” Cobb said of his last shot at the Vols in Neyland Stadium. “But if I can just find a way to control my emotions before the game, I think we’ve got a great chance to get a win, and it will mean that much more in the end.

“I want to feel it, not sit around thinking about it.”

Shy Huntington surely never guessed it would take this long for Oregon to become a national power. After he grabbed three interceptions in the Ducks' 14-0 Rose Bowl victory over the Pennsylvania Quakers, he probably thought things were just beginning for the Ducks.

It was 1917.

From 1918 through 1988, however, Oregon would play in just five bowl games, winning one. Its first coach to win more than 33 games was Len Casanova, who went 82-73-8 from 1951-66. Oregon's next coach to post a winning record? Mike Bellotti.

Oregon is one of only 10 programs nationally to have played in at least 17 bowl games over the past 21 years, but it's clearly a member of the nouveau riche. The Ducks haven't finished unbeaten in the modern era and they've never won a national championship.

Yet now they are two wins away from doing the former and three from accomplishing the latter, starting with a home date with No. 21 Arizona on Friday.

This is uncharted territory for Oregon, but it also feels as if the arrival isn't temporary. The momentum -- having the right coach, great facilities, passionate fan base, national recruiting, a sugar daddy billionaire booster -- suggests Oregon is starting construction on a mansion in the neighborhood with programs like Florida, Alabama, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Texas and USC.

A character in "The Sun Also Rises" was asked how he went bankrupt. “Two ways,” he replies. “Gradually and then suddenly.” That description is apt for the Ducks, only in the opposite direction. Oregon broke through in the 1990s under Rich Brooks. Bellotti won 116 games from 1995-2008 -- the most in program history by a wide margin -- and created a Pac-10 and national contender.

Second-year coach Chip Kelly? He's on the cusp of winning a second consecutive Pac-10 title and earning a second BCS bowl berth, only this time in the national championship game on Jan. 10 in Glendale, Ariz. That qualifies as a good start to a career as a head coach.

For an Oregon fan in his or her 50s or 60s, this is a fairly shocking development. You remember cold, rainy days with only a few thousand fans on hand to watch the Ducks lose. You remember going down to Washington 58-0 (1973). Or tying rival Oregon State 0-0 in the 1983 Civil War (two bad teams, pouring rain, eleven fumbles, five interceptions, and four missed field goals, the last Division I game to end in a scoreless tie).

If you are, say, a 19-year-old freshman at Oregon, you grew up with the Ducks as a Pac-10 contender and a team that regularly appeared in the national rankings. Your first memory might be of Kenny Wheaton returning an interception 97 yards for a touchdown to beat Washington in 1994, the celebrated linchpin play of the Ducks' first Rose Bowl season in 37 years. You see your team headed for its sixth season with 10 or more wins since 2000.

You read about the construction of a new, $41 million, six-story, 130,000 square foot operations building for the football program that will begin early next year, and you (maybe) think, "About time."

"There is a difference between the people who have seen this program for 40 years and the people that have seen us for four years," Kelly said. "They obviously see it through a different set of eyes. This program wasn't always one of the top programs in the country... I still talk to some of the people who can remember the days gone by, when having a winning season was a big deal and making it to a bowl game was a really big deal."

Kelly adds that he's only known the good days. He arrived in 2007 as offensive coordinator, and Oregon has won 39 games -- and counting -- since then and finished each season nationally ranked, the last two in the top 11. Contemplating the present versus the past with nostalgia for days gone by? As he will tell you -- over and over and over and over -- he's only about winning the day, which is today and nothing else. Still.

"That's hard for me to fathom, this team struggling just to be bowl eligible," he said. "That's not the Oregon I know."

There is some respectful jealousy among other Pac-10 coaches. Want to know why California coach Jeff Tedford gets perhaps more understanding from sportswriters than Bears fans? Compare and contrast Oregon's facilities and the Bears'. It's major league vs. single-A (though Cal is -- finally -- in the process of a major stadium project that should help that).

Mike Stoops has led Arizona out of the Pac-10 cellar, but his facilities don't compare with Oregon's either. He noted -- indirectly -- that the Big 12's nouveau riche power, Oklahoma State, became a contender shortly after its billionaire sugar daddy, T. Boone Pickens, started to churn hundreds of millions of dollars into the program.

"They are both great examples of investing in your program, investing in your players and bringing first-class facilities to your program, and putting a lot of value to that," Stoops said. "You can see what's happened with Oregon. They continually won seven, eight, nine [games]. Now, all of a sudden, the last few years, they are competing for championships and competing for the national championship... Certainly, we are trying to do the same thing here in rebuilding our facilities as well."

Asked about whether he felt the powers-that-be at Arizona understood the value of facility upgrades, Stoops replied, "I can't erase 125 years of not going to the Rose Bowl. As much pressure as I can put on myself, I can't take all that responsibility. It can't be just all bad playing and all coaching."

(We, obviously, could start to debate the ethics and institutional value of the arms race in big-time college football when there are budget shortfalls on the academic side of things, but that prickly topic is for another day.)

Oregon's ascension also is fortuitously timed alongside the fall of USC. While the Ducks have won three of four versus the Trojans, the departure of Pete Carroll and the arrival of NCAA sanctions figure to benefit the Ducks as they tighten their moorings among the national elite.

Of course, the deal is not yet done. Irritated Washington fans, who have seen their Northwest supremacy taken away, would quibble: "Hey, win a Rose Bowl in the facemask era, would 'ya!" The Ducks haven't done that since Huntington's heroics. Two games remain in the regular season, and then there's the matter of closing the deal in Glendale.

But it's hard not to feel that Oregon is on the cusp of arriving. Consider this: Even if the Ducks don't win the national title game, when you look at what they have coming back in 2011, they are a good bet to begin next fall as the preseason No. 1.

1. Rich Brooks, the former head coach at Oregon and Kentucky, has seen the No. 5 Ducks play the past two weeks. “They’re a very, very good football team,” Brooks said. “They have a lot of speed and skill on offense and they are very quick on defense. I’m not sure they can stand up to Stanford. Arizona is a physical team, too.” The Cardinal, the only Pac-10 team to beat the Ducks a year ago, play at Oregon on Oct. 2.

2. I admire how WAC commissioner Karl Benson has talked tough about holding Fresno State and Nevada to their league commitment into 2012. The parties are negotiating. It’s encouraging to see what happened in the Big 12. Nebraska and Colorado said they didn’t owe the league anything. The Big 12 said they owed $35 million. The parties settled on about $15 million from the two schools combined. The one difference: The Big 12 wants to move on to its lucrative future. No one is describing the WAC’s future as lucrative.

3. I’m guessing that Tulane coach Bob Toledo, discussing how hard the Green Wave played in their Sept. 11 loss to Ole Miss, didn’t intend to comment on the intelligence of anyone playing Monday Night Football. Said Toledo, “I’ve never been one of those guys to come away with moral victories. It’s kind of like the Saints and the 49ers last night, you either win or you lose. There is no gray matter.”

Joker Phillips opened his first game-week SEC teleconference as Kentucky’s head coach Wednesday raving about his team’s attitude.

That’s fitting, because it’s Phillips’ attitude that most people who really know him point to as one of the main reasons he’ll be successful in maintaining what Rich Brooks built at Kentucky and maybe even taking it another step or two.

“He keeps it real, and there are never any excuses with Coach Phillips,” Kentucky junior receiver Randall Cobb said. “He’s been very clear about what his goals are for this program, and we’re all on the same page.

“There’s definitely another level for this program, and we’re working every day to get there.”

Phillips has branded his vision for getting there as “Operation Win.”

Needless to say, a win this Saturday against in-state rival Louisville would go a long way toward getting Phillips’ new regime off to a good start.

The Wildcats have won three straight in this series. That’s after losing four in a row when Brooks first arrived.

Already, Phillips has generated a lot of momentum on the recruiting trail. The Wildcats have commitments from three of the state’s top four prospects. A win over the Cardinals would only underscore to recruits in that state and elsewhere that Phillips is serious about making Kentucky a serious contender in the SEC.

That’s not going to happen overnight. Even with all that Brooks accomplished at Kentucky, the Wildcats were just 16-40 in the SEC and never finished with a winning record in the league.

There were certainly gains, in particular road wins at Auburn and Georgia, and the four consecutive bowl appearances. The talent and depth on defense also got better.

And that’s precisely the area where Phillips feels best about this team, not only for this season, but on down the road.

One of his goals for this preseason was to have an extremely physical camp, to see how guys responded. He’s encouraged by what he saw from a speed, athleticism and overall strength standpoint in the defensive front.

“We’re a lot faster than we’ve been in the past few years,” Phillips said. “We’ve got a lot more team speed on defense. We’ve got a lot more defensive linemen in the program. Usually programs like ours struggle to find those guys, because they’re so hard to come by. But we’ve gone out and been able to attract a lot of defensive linemen. We have been one of the few teams in the last two years in this league to put three guys in the NFL up front. That’s been one of our strong points, getting defensive linemen here at Kentucky.

“I just think this team will be a lot faster and have more depth than we’ve had in a long time here.”

Phillips has downplayed the fact that he’s only the second black head football coach in SEC history.

With close friend Charlie Strong being on the other sideline Saturday and making his head coaching debut as well, Phillips understands the significance of two black head coaches squaring off against each other, especially when there are only five in the BCS ranks.

There’s absolutely a sense of pride for Phillips in helping to break down some of the barriers that prevented black coaches before him from landing head jobs in this league.

There's also a sense of pride in being able to do it at a place he calls home.

“That’s exciting [to be Kentucky's first black head football coach], but it’s more important being the head coach at Kentucky, a place that I grew up loving,” Phillips said. “Being from Kentucky, being an alumnus, being a letterman, it’s a dream come true.

“To me, it gives every little kid in Kentucky -- black, white, green -- a chance to be the coach here some day.”

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- As just the second black head football coach in SEC history, Joker Phillips hasn’t had much time to ponder the bigger picture and what it all means.

He’s operating at light speed right now, having taken over a Kentucky program that Rich Brooks guided from the depths of NCAA probation to four straight bowl appearances.

Now, before anybody huffs at the Wildcats’ success the last four years and says everybody goes to a bowl game these days, take a look at who’s actually done it in the SEC.

Only four other teams in the league -- Alabama, Florida, Georgia and LSU -- can say they’ve been to the postseason each of the last four years.

Some pretty lofty company, indeed.

Phillips’ first order of business is keeping the Wildcats there, or as senior defensive end DeQuin Evans says, foregoing the water faucet route.

“We don’t want to be that team where you can turn us on one season and then turn us off the next season like a water faucet,” said Evans, who led the Wildcats in sacks (6) and tackles for loss (12.5) last season.

“That’s not what we’re looking for. Coach Phillips wants to elevate us. We want to be somewhere warm playing in the bowl game. The main thing is winning, and that’s winning in the classroom, in the community and out on the football field. It’s what we call ‘Operation Win.’ ”

Phillips, 47, was named the Wildcats’ coach-in-waiting following the 2007 season. Brooks was the one pushing for Phillips to be his successor, and it was important to him that he hand the program over to Phillips in good shape.

Under Brooks, Kentucky was able to upgrade its talent level significantly, particularly on defense, and built the kind of depth across the board the Wildcats have rarely possessed in the past.

The result: 30 wins over the last four years, three bowl victories and four consecutive seasons of at least seven wins -- something that previously hadn’t been accomplished at Kentucky in nearly 100 years.

Phillips, who grew up in the Bluegrass and played at Kentucky, thinks there’s still another level for the program.

“It will be difficult to get there,” he said. “But it was difficult to get to where we are now. It’s going to be difficult to climb these next couple of steps. We felt like we had to, and this is something Rich left us with, but we felt like we had to up the intensity level a little more, demand a little bit more.

“We do have more athletes now, and our athletes expect to win. We’ve been a little bit more demanding and have brought a little more intensity into the program to give the guys the belief that we’re just as good as that next tier of guys we have to cross over in this league.”

The Wildcats brought in former strength and conditioning coordinator Ray “Rock” Oliver to run their strength program, and the players say the results this offseason have been obvious. The other staff changes included Mike Summers coming over from from Arkansas to coach the offensive line, David Turner coming over from Mississippi State to coach the defensive line and former Tennessee quarterback Tee Martin coming over from New Mexico to coach the receivers.

“The only way to improve a program is to win football games,” senior quarterback Mike Hartline said. “We brought in a great strength coach who pushes us to levels you never thought you could go to, and then you transfer that over to the field in practice.

“I don’t think a lot has changed with coach Phillips and how the program is run, but there is a whole new intensity and atmosphere to Kentucky football. We’re putting that extra time in and working a little more. That’s how you go from that seven-win season to that 10-win season like we should have had last year.”

Hartline’s knee injury in the South Carolina last season handcuffed the Wildcats, who had to turn to true freshman Morgan Newton at quarterback the rest of the way. Randall Cobb also played back there some, but more as a runner, and Kentucky’s passing game dropped to the bottom of the league.

Not surprisingly, the emphasis this spring has been improving the passing game and making it more efficient, and Phillips thinks the Wildcats will be much more diverse when it comes to throwing the football in 2010.

“Seeing the development of our skill people and Mike in his third year now and Morgan in his second year, we feel like we’ll be better in the passing game and know that we have to be better at it,” Phillips said. “We know we have to throw the football. We want to be balanced. We haven’t been balanced the last two years.”

For all of Brooks’ success in leading the Wildcats back to respectability, they still had a losing record in the SEC in seven of his eight seasons in Lexington.

So if there is a proverbial next step for Phillips and the program, it’s winning more consistently against SEC foes and taking down a few more nationally ranked teams. The triple-overtime win over eventual national champion LSU in 2007 was easily Brooks’ biggest win, but it was also one of only two wins the Wildcats managed against Top 25 teams during his tenure.

“We want to be in those names when you talk about SEC championship teams,” Cobb said. “We want to be in the notable games whenever they show them on ESPN. We’re still not getting the respect that we want. That’s one of the biggest things with this team. If we don’t get that respect, we want to make sure we go out and get it.

“We’ve beaten Georgia on the road, beaten LSU and won some big games, but we need to win more of them. We have to be consistent. We have to win five and six games in the league every year before we get to that status.”

Phillips counts his blessings every day to be taking over a program that has such a strong foundation. There’s nothing to clean up, because Brooks did it the right way.

“If you know the history behind this program, it seems like every year they’ve had some success, there have been some (NCAA) sanctions come behind it,” Phillips said. “This is a clean place. Rich has built a foundation of doing it the right way, and I want to build it the same way on that strong foundation he built for us.”

Phillips takes seriously his role in opening doors for other black head coaches, particularly in the SEC, but he’s not fixated on it. He’s fixated on elevating Kentucky’s program, recruiting and developing great players, graduating his players … and winning games.

“There’s no doubt we can open up doors,” Phillips said. “But again, it has to show up in the win column. If you look at Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy and Mike Tomlin, they’re opening doors because they’re winning. If they were losing, those doors would be closing behind them. The best thing we can do is win games.”

Phillips says “we” because the three FBS head coaching jobs in the state of Kentucky are currently held by black men. Charlie Strong’s at Louisville and Willie Taggart at Western Kentucky.

As fate would have it, Phillips and Strong once worked together on the South Carolina staff and have remained close over the years.

Just recently, the three of them all signed footballs for each other with the year and each of their schools' logos.

“We cherish this moment,” Phillips said. “I play both of them. I wish Charlie would play Willie also. I’m looking forward to competing against those guys. We’ve already competed some in recruiting or as coordinators, but having a chance for all three of us to lead our own programs is a dream come true.”

With LSU opening spring practice Monday, I thought it might be wise to go over all the coaching changes in the SEC this year.

As usual, it was a revolving door this past offseason. In fact, Auburn was the only school in the league that didn’t have any staff turnover. The final number of head coaches or assistants departing for various reasons was 31.

Some were fired. Others got better gigs, while there were a few that were swayed elsewhere (within the conference) for more money.

Here’s an Eastern Division breakdown of who’s out and who’s in for the 2010 season. We'll do the Western Division a little bit later:

FLORIDA

Who’s out: Associate head coach/defensive coordinator Charlie Strong, defensive coordinator George Edwards, recruiting coordinator/receivers coach Billy Gonzales, cornerbacks coach Vance Bedford and running backs coach Kenny Carter.

Who’s in: Teryl Austin, who spent the last seven seasons as the Arizona Cardinals’ defensive backs coach, is Florida’s new defensive coordinator. He replaces George Edwards, who held the job for less than a month before going back to the NFL with the Buffalo Bills. Edwards replaced Charlie Strong, who left following the season to take the Louisville head job. Stan Drayton returns to coach running backs. He was at Florida earlier this decade before moving on to Tennessee and most recently Syracuse. D.J. Durkin will coach defensive ends and special teams after spending the last three seasons at Stanford. Zach Azzanni will coach receivers. He was previously the assistant head coach/receivers coach at Central Michigan.

GEORGIA

Who’s out: Defensive coordinator/secondary coach Willie Martinez, co-defensive coordinator/linebackers coach John Jancek and defensive ends coach Jon Fabris.

Who’s in: Former Cleveland Browns defensive coordinator Todd Grantham takes over as Georgia’s defensive coordinator. He was the Dallas Cowboys’ defensive line coach the last two seasons. Scott Lakatos will coach the defensive backs after spending the last six seasons on the Connecticut staff, and Warren Belin will coach linebackers after spending the last eight seasons on the Vanderbilt staff.

KENTUCKY

Who’s out: Head coach Rich Brooks, offensive line coach Jimmy Heggins and defensive line coach Rick Petri.

Who’s in: Joker Phillips, who was already the Wildcats’ coach-in-waiting, takes over the head-coaching reins. Mike Summers will coach the offensive line after serving as assistant head coach/offensive line coach at Arkansas the last two seasons. Former Tennessee quarterback Tee Martin will coach the receivers. Martin was the quarterbacks coach at New Mexico last season. David Turner, who has coached at four different SEC schools, will coach the defensive line. Turner was at Mississippi State the last three seasons.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Who’s out: Offensive line coach/running game coordinator Eric Wolford.

Who’s in: Shawn Elliott replaces Wolford, who left to take the head coaching job at Youngstown State. Elliott has spent his entire coaching career at Appalachian State, including the last nine seasons as offensive line coach.

TENNESSEE

Who’s out: Head coach Lane Kiffin, defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, recruiting coordinator/defensive line coach Ed Orgeron, quarterbacks coach David Reaves, receivers coach Frank Wilson, offensive line coach James Cregg, running backs coach/special teams coordinator Eddie Gran and defensive backs coach Willie Mack Garza.

Who’s in: Derek Dooley was hired as the Vols’ head coach after Lane Kiffin left to take the Southern California head job. Justin Wilcox comes over from Boise State to be the defensive coordinator. Charlie Baggett will serve as assistant head coach and coach the receivers. He has 11 years of NFL experience and was on the St. Louis Rams’ staff last season. Harry Hiestand will coach the offensive line. He was the offensive line coach for the Chicago Bears the past five seasons. Darin Hinshaw will coach quarterbacks. He was the receivers coach at Memphis the past three seasons. Terry Joseph will coach the secondary and special tams. He was with Dooley at Louisiana Tech. Eric Russell will coach tight ends and coordinate special teams. He was also at Louisiana Tech with Dooley. Former Tennessee All-SEC performer Chuck Smith will coach the defensive line. He worked as an assistant defensive line coach with the New York Jets last season and has also tutored several defensive linemen over the years. He played professionally for the Atlanta Falcons.

VANDERBILT

Who’s out: Linebackers coach/special teams coordinator Warren Belin.

Who’s in: Vanderbilt coach Bobby Johnson is still working to replace Belin, who left to join the Georgia staff. Johnson promoted Jimmy Kiser to offensive coordinator, and Kiser will call all of the Commodores’ plays this season. Ted Cain remains on staff as the tight ends coach and special teams coordinator.

How’s this for balance?

Alabama recently won the SEC’s fifth national championship of the last decade, but the Crimson Tide weren’t able to crack the top 4 programs of the decade.

That’s because Alabama did most of its damage at the end of the decade.

Florida edged out LSU as the program of the decade, mostly because the Tigers fell off the last two years.

There were some tough calls after that.

Here’s what we came up with as far as ranking the SEC programs 1-12 over the last decade:

1. Florida: The Gators won three SEC titles, including one at the beginning of the decade under Steve Spurrier and two more toward the end of the decade under Urban Meyer. The two national titles were the same number as LSU, but the Gators finished in the Top 25 all 10 seasons and had more SEC wins (64) and more wins against Top 25 opponents (36) than anybody else in the league.

2. LSU: Nick Saban won a national title at LSU in 2003, and Les Miles won one in 2007. It was truly a memorable decade on the Bayou, and the Tigers could have made a strong case as the team of the decade had they not gone 17-9 over the last two seasons. They won three SEC titles and had five top-10 finishes. Miles had also won four straight bowl games until the loss to Penn State last month in the Capital One Bowl.

3. Georgia: Even though Alabama had such a strong close to the decade, Georgia was a pretty easy choice for the No. 3 spot. The Bulldogs won SEC titles in 2002 and 2005 and recorded six top-10 finishes, which was more than any other team in the league. They also finished the decade with a 30-22 record against nationally ranked foes.

4. Auburn: The Tigers were unlucky in 2004 in that they never got a chance to play for the national title despite finishing 13-0. They were also a game over .500 (22-21) against nationally ranked teams for the decade and had six more SEC wins than Alabama. Equally important, Auburn was 7-3 against Alabama head-to-head, which is the reason the Tigers beat out the Crimson Tide for the No. 4 spot.

5. Alabama: The Crimson Tide made the biggest move thanks to the last two years of the decade. They won the 2009 national title and have now gone two straight years where they haven’t lost an SEC regular-season game. Three top-10 finishes also helped push them past Tennessee and overcome four non-winning seasons during the decade.

6. Tennessee: The 1990s were so prosperous for Tennessee that this last decade really looks barren by comparison. The Vols failed to win an SEC title, although they got there three different times. Their record against nationally ranked foes really declined. They were just 18-29 and haven’t been to a BCS bowl since 1999. Losing seasons in 2005 and 2008 led to Phillip Fulmer’s ouster.

7. Arkansas: It really gets difficult to separate the teams in the bottom half of the league. The Hogs check in at No. 7 thanks to their two trips to the SEC championship game under Houston Nutt in 2002 and 2006. Winning the bowl game this season under Bobby Petrino also helps.

8. Ole Miss: The Rebels closed the decade by winning nine games in back-to-back seasons for the first time in nearly 50 years. They also won the Cotton Bowl each of the past two years. The other thing that pushed Ole Miss past South Carolina was the 2003 season when Eli Manning and Co. tied for the Western Division crown. Naturally, Ole Miss fans try to forget the Ed Orgeron years (3-21 in the SEC).

9. South Carolina: The reality is that South Carolina has been consistently average during its entire history, and that held true last decade. The Gamecocks were able to beat Florida, Georgia and Tennessee under Steve Spurrier and had a couple of Outback Bowl wins under Lou Holtz. That’s about where it ends. In eight of the 10 seasons last decade, the Gamecocks finished with five or more losses.

10. Kentucky: After going back and forth between Kentucky and Mississippi State for the No. 10 spot, I went with the Wildcats based on their 6-4 head-to-head record against the Bulldogs. There wasn’t a lot of difference otherwise. Rich Brooks getting Kentucky to four straight bowls played a role, not to mention the fact that the Wildcats won three in a row in the postseason.

11. Mississippi State: It seems like forever ago that Jackie Sherrill was running the show in Starkville, but the Bulldogs did record a Top 25 finish on his watch in 2000. Sylvester Croom brought them a Liberty Bowl victory in 2007, and Dan Mullen spanked Ole Miss in the regular-season finale this past season. That was about the extent of the highlights, although Mississippi State fans are genuinely excited about the future under Mullen.

12. Vanderbilt: The program has certainly made strides under Bobby Johnson and his staff, but not enough strides to climb out of the No. 12 spot. This past season was a step back. It’s the first time the Commodores had gone winless in the league since Johnson’s first season as coach in 2002. The highlight of the decade was the seven-win season in 2008 and Music City Bowl victory over Boston College. The Commodores also beat Auburn, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee last decade.

There’s only one coach in college football in the AP poll era (since 1936) who’s won national championships at two different schools.

And he did it in the SEC.

It’s safe to say that coach -- Nick Saban -- is our coach of the decade. Here’s how the top 10 came out:

1. Nick Saban, Alabama/LSU: He’s rebuilt two proud programs in the SEC into national championship teams. He did it at LSU in 2003 and Alabama in 2009. Saban also won a third SEC title in 2001 during his second season at LSU. He’s an easy choice to top this list and is really just getting started at Alabama.

2. Urban Meyer, Florida: Meyer looked a like a cinch to top this list until Saban ran the table this season and won the national title. Still, Meyer has won two national titles in his five seasons with the Gators, who reeled off a 22-game winning streak over the last two seasons. He also revolutionized the league to a degree with his spread offense.

3. Mark Richt, Georgia: Despite some of the grumbling this past season in Athens, Richt’s consistency has been what sets him apart. He won SEC titles in 2002 and 2005 and has finished in the top 10 in the final polls in six of his nine seasons. He’s also won 10 or more games in six of his nine seasons.

4. Les Miles, LSU: The last two seasons are what dropped Miles to fourth. His three-year run from 2005-07 was spectacular. He won 34 games, including the 2007 national championship and the Sugar Bowl at the end of the 2006 season. But to be fair, he was playing predominantly with players Nick Saban recruited those first three years. Miles has lost nine games the last two seasons.

5. Tommy Tuberville, Auburn: Recently hired as Texas Tech’s coach, Tuberville was pushed out at Auburn following a 5-7 season in 2008. That was the exception, though. He was a stellar big-game coach and led the Tigers to a 13-0 season and SEC championship in 2004, although they were squeezed out of the BCS equation. Tuberville also beat Alabama six straight times during his time on the Plains.

6. Steve Spurrier, South Carolina/Florida: The Head Ball Coach has been average at best during his time at South Carolina. The Gamecocks are just 18-22 against SEC foes on his watch, but he has beaten Florida, Georgia and Tennessee during his five seasons in Columbia. And we can’t forget about his final two seasons at Florida. The 2000 Gators won the SEC title.

7. Phillip Fulmer, Tennessee: The dean of SEC coaches when he was fired following the 2008 season, Fulmer enjoyed his greatest success in the 1990s when he won a national title. He still managed to get to the SEC championship game three times last decade, but the Vols never won. What got him were too many lopsided losses to Alabama and Florida and losing seasons in 2005 and 2008.

8. Houston Nutt, Ole Miss/Arkansas: Nutt’s divorce from Arkansas was a messy one. The fans were over him, and he was over some of the unrealistic expectations. He did take the Hogs to two SEC championship games, and he’s won nine games -- including a pair of Cotton Bowls -- each of the past two years at Ole Miss. His challenge now will be winning with his own players.

9. Rich Brooks, Kentucky: There’s nothing real impressive about Brooks’ SEC record, but he took over a program reeling from NCAA sanctions and restored it to respectability before retiring following last season. The Wildcats went to four straight bowls last decade and won three in a row. He also upgraded their talent and depth significantly, which has shown up in recent seasons.

10. Bobby Johnson, Vanderbilt: There may be a few eyebrows raised to see Johnson’s name on this list, but he belongs. Despite the disappointing season this past year, Johnson has dramatically improved the program across the board. The Commodores won their first bowl game in 53 years in 2008 when they defeated Boston College in the Music City Bowl. No longer are they an easy out for anybody.

1. Boise State’s 17-10 defeat of TCU in the Fiesta Bowl proved there’s something to be said for having been there before. The Broncos played a solid, unspectacular game on offense and great defense. The Horned Frogs looked tight from the beginning and never relaxed. Boise State used only one trick play but the fourth-quarter fake punt blew open the game. Those of us who advocated TCU for the BCS National Championship Game don’t look so bright.

2. Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram said he knew his life had changed when he people stopped him for an autograph or a cell-phone photo in cities like Atlanta or Chicago. The Alabama sophomore said he wasn’t ashamed that he cried on national television as he accepted the trophy. The emotion overwhelmed him. When was the last time he cried? Ingram thought. “I don’t know. Probably gettin’ a whuppin’ or something when I was little,” he said.

3. In Rich Brooks’ case, the numbers not only fail to tell the story, they flat out lie. In 25 seasons as a head coach at Oregon and Kentucky, Brooks went 130-156-4 (.455). That winning percentage would get you fired in most places. But Brooks took hollowed-out programs, tore them down and built them back up. At both schools, his best years came at the end of his tenure. Brooks retired Monday and college football is a less talented place.

LOS ANGELES -- Look up and down Oregon's roster: Jeremiah Masoli, Ed Dickson, LaMichael James, etc. Mike Bellotti recruited every one of those guys.

But Bellotti, 59, stepped aside as head coach last year and his offensive coordinator, Chip Kelly, stepped in. Bellotti became Oregon's athletic director, giving up the work he'd done his entire adult life.

Then those players and first-year coach stepped up and earned a berth in the Rose Bowl Game presented by Citi.

Bellotti and the Ducks had some great seasons during his 14 years as head coach -- they finished ranked No. 2 in the country in 2001 -- but they didn't play in a Rose Bowl together.

It's obvious, isn't it? Bellotti has to ache a little, right?

"A little bit but I knew what I was getting myself into," he said.

Bellotti seems far more thrilled that the Ducks are here in Pasadena than disappointed that he won't lead them onto the field on New Year's Day.

He said he thought Oregon might be pretty good this year. His stepping aside, though, wasn't about football. It was a personal and family decision.

"I had family and friends tell me -- football people -- that, 'You're not going to walk away. You've got a quarterback coming back. You've got a good team. USC is going to be down. All the stars are aligned,'" he said.

But he did. And he said he's fine with it. He noted that he did coach in a Rose Bowl -- he was the Ducks' offensive coordinator under Rich Brooks in 1994.

"I have that experience indelibly etched in my heart and my brain," he said. "I will really enjoy going in as the AD. It's still going to be the same pride factor."

It should. Those are his guys out there.

Rich Brooks said following Kentucky’s 21-13 loss to Clemson on Sunday night in the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl that he’s “80 percent” sure that he won’t be back next season as the Wildcats’ coach.

He wants to take a week or so to be sure.

I wasn’t surprised to hear the news because I knew the 68-year-old Brooks was pretty close to saying "so long" to a fine coaching career that goes all the way back to 1963 when he was an assistant freshman coach at Oregon State.

But I was saddened.

College football (college sports, for that matter) needs more people like Rich Brooks.

He’s an old-school guy who treats people the way they deserve to be treated. He’s not afraid to speak his mind, not afraid to step on toes if he thinks it’s justified and not afraid to stick up for his football team.

But everything he does, he does with class and grace.

In this era of rock-star coaches, it’s never been about Brooks. He doesn’t mug for the cameras or seek the spotlight. He just coaches, recruits, develops young men and does it in such a way that he commands the respect of all of his peers.

Don’t be misled, though. Brooks is a funny guy. He’s also one of the wittiest coaches in the SEC. It’s a dry wit and usually pretty direct.

But the thing that’s so refreshing about Brooks is that he’s the same way all the time, and that’s whether there’s a bank of cameras on him or not a camera anywhere in sight. He'll answer your questions when he wins, and he'll answer them when he loses. And almost always, he has a keen perspective on things.

What he’s done for the Kentucky program speaks for itself. The Wildcats obviously didn’t play their best game against Clemson. But go back and look at where this program was when Brooks arrived -- with the NCAA sanctions and losing seasons becoming the norm -- and look at where it is right now.

Brooks changed the defeatist attitude that had permeated football at Kentucky. He improved the depth. He improved the talent level, particularly on defense.

Sure, he would have liked to have won more SEC games, but the Wildcats had some epic wins on his watch -- the triple-overtime thriller over LSU in 2007 and the road wins at Auburn and Georgia this season.

Nobody on this Kentucky team was even born the last time Kentucky won in those locales.

There were also the three straight bowl victories prior to the loss to Clemson in Nashville.

Brooks’ greatest accomplishment, though, was the way he elevated expectations at a place where basketball has been and always will be king.

A lot of people wondered what Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart was doing when he announced Brooks as his coach in 2003. But Brooks proved to be just the man for the job, one they weren’t exactly lining up for around the country at the time.

Give Barnhart credit, too, for sticking by Brooks through some of the lean years. It paid off because Kentucky football has rarely been in better shape now that Joker Phillips gets set to move into the lead role.

How many games Phillips wins and loses remains to be seen. But one thing’s for sure: He has a definitive road map on how to build and maintain a football program … and do it with class.

A quick look at Clemson’s 21-13 victory over Kentucky on Sunday in the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl:

How the game was won: Kentucky’s offense went belly-up after driving for a touchdown on its opening possession and managed just two field goals the rest of the way. The Wildcats had their chances and moved into Clemson territory a couple of different times in the second half, but were pretty unimaginative on offense and couldn’t get anything going in the passing game.

Turning point: With Clemson leading 14-13, Kentucky receiver Gene McCaskill lost a fumble at the Wildcats’ 19-yard line with 11:33 left in the fourth quarter. Three plays later, Clemson's C.J. Spiller scooted 8 yards for a touchdown to make it a 21-13 game.

Stat of the game: The Wildcats drove 61 yards for a touchdown on their first possession of the game. On their next eight possessions, they managed a total of 216 yards and no touchdowns.

Stat of the game II: Randall Cobb, one of the most feared all-purpose players in the SEC this season, was held to 56 total yards on 10 rushing attempts and two receptions.

What it means: Kentucky (7-6) failed in its attempt to win a fourth straight bowl game, which would have been a first for the Wildcats. They also had their 18-game non-conference winning streak snapped. The bigger picture is whether this was Rich Brooks’ final game at Kentucky.

Best call: Kentucky called for a fake punt with just under seven minutes remaining, and punter Ryan Tydlacka rambled 9 yards for the first down to the Clemson 34. But the Wildcats couldn’t capitalize and failed on their next fourth-down attempt.

Breaking down the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl on Sunday (ESPN, 8:30 p.m. ET) between Clemson (8-5) and Kentucky (7-5):

WHO TO WATCH: Sophomore Randall Cobb was the SEC’s most versatile player this season, and Kentucky would like to get him at least 20 touches. He’ll get eight to 10 touches in the Wildcat formation and is also the go-to receiver. If that’s not enough, he’s the deep man on kickoffs and punts. Cobb was beaten up at the end of the regular season with a painful shoulder injury, but should be as healthy as he’s been against Clemson. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a player anywhere else in college football that impacts the game in as many different ways as Cobb. He's not exceptionally fast and isn't going to wow you over with power or size. He's just one terrific football player who can beat you a number of different ways.

WHAT TO WATCH: Kentucky’s defense was hit and miss this season. Much of that stemmed from losing star defensive end Jeremy Jarmon to an NCAA suspension back in May and All-SEC cornerback Trevard Lindley to a high ankle sprain for four games during the middle of the season. Senior defensive tackle Corey Peters had a big season in the middle, but this game hinges on whether or not the Wildcats can slow down Clemson’s C.J. Spiller. If Spiller hits the Wildcats up with a bunch of big plays, they’re in trouble. But if they make Clemson go the distance with longer drives and don’t allow Spiller to get cranked up early, they should be able to dictate the flow of this game.

WHY TO WATCH: The Wildcats are shooting for their fourth straight bowl victory, which has never happened at Kentucky. Ironically enough, their first bowl win in 22 years was against Clemson in this same bowl game following the 2006 season. And regardless of whether Kentucky wins or loses, all eyes will be on coach Rich Brooks afterward to see if he’s ready to turn it over to Joker Phillips full time.

PREDICTION: The Music City Bowl has been like a winter home for the Wildcats. They’ve already won twice in Nashville under Brooks, and even though the aura of going to a bowl game has probably worn off, the desire to finish off this season the right way is as strong as ever. Basically, that’s what it gets down to. Clemson was a game away from playing in a BCS bowl, but lost to Georgia Tech in the ACC championship game. The week before that, the Tigers lost badly to arch-rival South Carolina. This is not where the Tigers wanted to be or expected to be in the postseason. The Wildcats, meanwhile, are chasing history. Kentucky 28, Clemson 24.