UK alum Tom Leach has been the play-by-play “Voice of the Wildcats” for the football Cats for 13 years and 10 years for men’s basketball. He is a four-time winner of the Kentucky Sportscaster of the Year award. Tom offers an entertaining and insightful perspective into UK athletics. Column entries will be posted twice per week through April. Read Tom’s full biography
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One of the keys for Kentucky to have a chance to upset Florida this Saturday is for the players who were on the field at The Swamp two years ago to erase the memory of that 63-5 drubbing. That’s especially true for quarterback Mike Hartline, who lost his starting job after that game.
Now it’s worth noting that Hartline and company had just lost Derrick Locke and Dicky Lyons to season-ending injuries in the two weeks that preceded the game in Gainesville, Fla. And getting two punts blocked on the way to a 28-0 first-quarter deficit was a prescription for disaster.
But these Wildcats say they believe they can win at Florida, and it’s certain Mike Hartline is different quarterback than the one that took the field that day.
His brother, Brian, knows that as well as anyone. And Brian Hartline, the former Ohio State wideout who now plays for the Miami Dolphins, wants to see his little brother take a “I’ll show you I’m better than that” mindset into Gainesville.
“Knowing Mike and the type of guy he is, there is a part of him that wants to prove that ‘Hey, this is the guy I really am,’ and there is nothing wrong with that,” Brian Hartline said. “That is the type of guy he is and the type of guy I am. I hope he has that attitude in him. It will help with his focus throughout the week, it will help prepare for the hostile environment of playing in the Swamp and it will help knowing that this is a whole new year and a whole new team. They have a new coaching staff and they are a whole different organization to this point and have proven that. It is the same with Florida. Florida is a different team as well and it is a great test to see where UK is at and see if they can make a great start and a good stamp early in the season with what team they are going to be.”
This summer, Mike Hartline traveled to South Florida to spend some time with his older brother. Brian Hartline said he quickly noticed some significant improvement in Mike’s game.
“It was his motion and his high release point,” Brian Hartline said he observed. “It was a more fluid motion and I could see that from playing catch with him. I know he had a lot of work with that because it is great to be 6-foot-6, but if you don’t throw up above your head, then it is kind of worthless, so he was thinking about that and working on different things. I think the coaches over at UK have been working with him and Mike has always been a coachable guy, so it doesn’t surprise me with the growth he has had but it’s big with the coaching staff and himself.”
Some fans gave up on Mike Hartline after that game at Florida two years ago and their criticism still surfaces from time to time. How do parents and family members handle that?
Brian Hartline said they try to avoid the message boards and call-in shows and they do their best to keep Mike Hartline focused on the good things that are happening for him.
“What is really most important is how (Mike) feels because in our eyes — me, my brother , my sister — our own expectations are higher than anyone else’s,” Brian Hartline said. “In the end, if we know what we are doing and giving it our all then we can sleep at night. But we have always been raised on there is only one place and it is first place. That is always our mindset and there are times where mom and dad have their protective instincts if they hear something in the stands and I have to calm them down if I can. …
“You might stumble across something every now and then (in terms of critics). The booing in the stadium and different things like that, which is utterly ridiculous, you can’t avoid, but in the end, Mike has done a great job. He is doing great in school, he is doing really whatever has been asked of him and when he shows frustration, that is really just what you want sometimes and that isn’t always a bad thing. He has that fight in him and he has done a great job. It is amazing to see the growth he has had.”
Brian Hartline said Mike followed him as the quarterback of their high school team and the younger brother was a bit of a “late bloomer.”
“He was a guy that jumped from position to position,” Brian Hartline said. “He couldn’t run very well. He was always my backup. I played quarterback up until he took my job. He was always Brian’s little brother — he was never Mike. So the opportunity to go to Kentucky and create his own path was awesome. The lights came on for Mike his sophomore year. He grew six inches and could run hurdles, compete with me and that is where we created a great relationship because we had sports in common and that is how we do things.”
So who’s the best at the Madden Football video game?
“He is, no doubt,” Brian Hartline said.
