Sept. 17, 2002
President Lee T. Todd Jr.
“When the University of Kentucky first received the NCAA Infractions Committee report and the resulting sanctions at the end of January, the one issue that I questioned was the ban on the bowl appearance for the 2002 football season. In April we submitted our appeal to the Infractions Appeals Committee regarding that ban. I have not wavered on that one issue since that time. From the beginning, I felt that this appeal was important for the athletes and for our coaches. The vast majority of our coaches and football players were not involved in the violations and these are the individuals that are trying to rebuild this program the right way.
“This effort to overturn the post-season ban was about supporting them and providing an incentive for their efforts to restore credibility to the UK football program. From my view, every coach and every student-athlete on that football team is working well over 110 percent to earn that credibility back and to bring us back to where we need to be. And they’re doing an outstanding job.
“I stated earlier in this process that the University of Kentucky respects the NCAA enforcement process, the enforcement staff and the Committee on Infractions (COI). Throughout this process, this university was open and extremely cooperative with the committee. Never did we dispute or appeal any of the infractions that were presented. We found all of them ourselves anyway. In fact, we share a similar goal – upholding the integrity of intercollegiate athletics.
“Our appeal was based on the belief that the post-season ban was simply too severe a penalty when you consider all the other penalties that we recommended ourselves and the ones that they added to it. We also felt that the Committee on Infractions was incorrect in its position that the university received this significant recruitment advantage which dictated the impositions of the post-season ban. However, despite our best efforts, the Infractions Appeals Committee obviously did not agree with our thinking.
“I am very disappointed in this ruling. The prospect of postseason play in any sport is what drives the hope and optimism of all of us and especially these guys who are putting out everything they can put out. To not have that carrot at the end of the season, I’m extremely disappointed.
“I’m disappointed for our fans. I’m disappointed for our coaches. But most of all I’m disappointed for the student-athletes. That was the reason for this appeal. They’re trying to restore this program to an area of competitiveness and cleanliness that we want to take forward. It’s a pivotal year for the UK football program and this group is making a difference.
“But from the beginning we admitted our mistakes. We now accept our full punishment. The University of Kentucky football program is already way down the road. The athletic department as a whole is way down the road on rebuilding our efforts to make ourselves what we want to be. These outstanding young men and quality coaches have been through a lot of turmoil the last couple of years. From where I’m looking today, with their 3-0 start, the program has made a very strong comeback. I can’t tell you how proud I am of this team and how proud I am of Coach Morriss and his staff and how proud I am of the way they’re receiving this information. Every week they’re proving just what kind of a team and what kind of individuals they are. I’m confident they’re going to learn from this and it will be helpful to them as they succeed through life.
“But I also believe that it’s prudent for us – and when I say ‘us’ I mean UK, every university, every athletic conference and the NCAA itself – to look beyond any single case and reassess how full accountability of the college athletic program can be obtained.
“I will have to tell you that I have a real problem when programs get a sanction of ‘lack of institutional control’ and the head coach of that program walks away free-and-clear and moves on to another coaching position while the students are left to pay the price. Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. Institutions must be held accountable. But I believe too many times, in too many cases, the full range of accountability is not applied. If our goal is to remedy an NCAA infraction and keep infractions from occurring, I think one method of prevention is to make sure that the person who is at the helm of that program – the head coach – is held responsible for everyone in that program. I offer this idea to create some debate and discussion from administrators across the country as we all work together to improve the integrity of college athletics and the student experience in our programs.
“I just spoke to (Southeastern Conference) Commissioner Mike Slive and told him a few moments ago that I’m going to recommend to the SEC a task force that considers this issue of full accountability and including everyone in the food chain responsible for misalignment in a program. And I would hope that the task force would then consider a recommendation to the NCAA that they take seriously the full accountability recommendation and make sure that everybody who’s there understands that it is their responsible to watch what happens.
“I’m very proud that the contract that Guy Morriss now carries says in it that if something wrong happens in our program and he should have known about it, then he can be relieved of his duty at no expense to the University of Kentucky. I think that’s the right way to handle it. The person in that main chair should be responsible. That has not been the history of decision-making with the NCAA in my recollection.
“I believe Guy Morriss and his staff are doing what is right and what is necessary to build UK football into a program that we’re proud of and he has my full support. I believe Mitch Barnhart is doing what is right and what is necessary to strengthen the entire UK athletics program and ensure that we are not back in front of this infractions committee in the future.
“I’ve said it before. I like winning as much as any coach or any player in this program, but we’re going to be diligent in our efforts to do it the legal way, the right way and the fair way. From here we have no choice but to take our penalty and keep on moving and work even harder. That’s hard to ask of these people but that’s how I think they’ll respond.”
Mitch Barnhart – Director of Athletics
Opening remarks…
“I concur with the comments Dr. Todd made. I’d like, first of all, to thank him for his tremendous support of our program, and for the energy, effort and finances that he put into this appeal, trying to get something done for our student-athletes and our program. I appreciate all his efforts in trying to salvage post-season play for this team, and specifically our seniors.”
On news of the NCAA’s decision…
“I told [the team] the news this afternoon. It wasn’t pleasant. They’re extremely disappointed, and you can’t blame them. They’ve put a lot of sweat equity into the last two years to try to rebuild the program with this coaching staff, working hard this summer and coming out this fall with a 3-0 start. For all they have put into it, they had high hopes of being able to participate in post-season play. To take that away from them is extremely harmful and hurtful. They did nothing wrong.”
On the senior class…
“The group I’m most disappointed for, from our end of it, is the seniors. For them I am extremely sorry. I have told them we will do whatever we can, within the rules and within good judgment, to make this an extremely special year for them off the field. We will go the extra mile for this group for all the things they have given this program. We will do all we can to make sure they remember UK athletics in the right way.”
On the coaching staff…
“I also want to commend Guy Morriss. Through this whole process, he and his staff have never complained. They’ve met the challenges of this program and the circumstances they have inherited head-on, and for that I’m very appreciative. We need to honor and applaud that.”
On his message to the fans…
“For this team, the best thing that our fans can do is get on the bus right now and support them the right way. Come to the game, be supportive, be 70,000 strong every game and loud. Let these kids know that all the effort they’ve put out for the last six months, the last two years for a lot of them, all that they’ve worked through is not vain, is not without appreciation. That’s what I’m asking our fans to do.”
Head Coach Guy Morriss
On his initial reaction…
“I found out yesterday afternoon. I was pretty numb for a while, but you just have to deal with it. It’s out of our control, so we have to move on. You go through all the emotions in the beginning, but you realize that we can’t change what’s been done.”
On his team’s positive outlook…
“They are a very resilient team. I know they are disappointed, but we’ve had this over our heads all year and it hasn’t seemed to affect them. I think they’re trying to prove to everyone that they deserve better.”
Jared Lorenzen
On the team’s reaction to the NCAA’s decision…
“We came into the season expecting this. We knew it was going to happen. Now it’s the end of the puzzle. Let’s get past it and move on to Middle Tennessee.
On the team’s attitude this season…
“We had heard through the grapevine that we were going to be denied. We’ve played very hard up to this point knowing that there was a very good possibility of us getting denied. We did and that’s fine.”
On the team’s outlook…
“At first I was a little disappointed, but we expected this. We knew it would happen. It’s less of a blow. Obviously, we want to go to a bowl. But, since we can’t, we’ll just win as many games as we can and try to win the East. We still have an open week before Tennessee, so we’ll just treat the Tennessee game as a bowl week.”
Ronnie Riley
On the team’s reaction to the NCAA’s decision…
“It was a bit disappointing. We kind of expected it, though. We didn’t come in ignorant to the fact that we might not be able to go to a bowl game. It’s not a total shock. We’re going to deal with it better than people think.”
On returning this season after an injury…
“You want to play in a bowl game, but you also just want to have a good season. Winning games like Louisville, winning games like Florida, Georgia and Tennessee, those are games, in and of themselves, that I came back to play in.”
On the team proving itself…
“Some people were asking why we had even petitioned in the first place. I think the first three games showed them why, and we want to build the season around that now.”
On the team’s goals…
“Now, we have to have a winning season. That’s what we’re going to do. That’s our bowl game now – the whole season. We want the note for this year to be that the 2002 Kentucky Wildcats are still a good team. We’re still going to come out and win games. We want to win games. We’re going to come out and do our best to do that.”
Glenn Pakulak
On whether he was disappointed about the decision…
“Of course it’s disappointing. I’m a senior and I would have loved to go to a bowl game. But I know we’re going to treat every game like a bowl game and do the best we can.”
On the team’s motivation…
“We can still shoot for the best record in the SEC and a top 25 ranking. We’re all excited about the season ahead of us. Just because we lost the chance to go to a bowl game doesn’t mean we don’t have a lot to shoot for as the season goes on and progresses. We play every game like it’s a bowl game.”
