South Carolina fans have the arrival of Steve Spurrier to fire the imagination.

Louisville backers have perhaps the hottest rising coach in all of football — and realistic hope of playing in the BCS next season.

Mississippi State reaped a bounty of positive national publicity from hiring Sylvester Croom as head coach - and MSU followers have an upset of Florida upon which to ignite dreams of better days.

Kentucky fans?

They get the departure of Ron Hudson to fuel their hopes.

Notice a disparity?

The resignation announcement Monday by Hudson, the UK offensive coordinator who had become the symbol of fan frustration with the failings of the Rich Brooks regime, was inevitable.

Kentucky fans are insanely loyal to a football program that has rendered precious little return on their financial and emotional investment. But even Cat fans have limits.

UK has failed to gain more than 300 yards total offense in 10 of its past 12 games.

With a fan base that had gotten used to the pyrotechnics of the Mumme/Couch era and the production of Abney and Pinner, it's doubtful the university could've sold tickets or raised money for 2005 had the architect of the nation's No. 114-ranked attack (out of 117) returned.

After Hudson's departure was announced, Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart said that Brooks will be back for his third season as head coach.

That had appeared in doubt after last Friday, when neither Barnhart nor UK President Lee Todd would publicly commit to Brooks' return.

In retrospect, it looks like the pair were sending a message to Rich and Ron: For the head coach to stay, the OC had to go.

"I feel sick to my stomach over this," Brooks said, noting that he had personally cajoled Hudson to give up a secure place on Bill Snyder's staff at Kansas State to come to Lexington.

So now Kentucky is back again on Bill Curry Blvd. - changing coordinators to buy time for a struggling head coach.

In this case, it looks like picking the least tumultuous from a series of bad options.

Had UK totally cleaned house, you were looking at a buyout in excess of $2 million to Brooks. Furthermore, Todd likely would have had to let Barnhart go, too. (Not that that would be unpopular.)

Otherwise, Kentucky would've had not one, but two full ex-coaching staffs - that of Guy Morriss and Brooks - who had left the employ of Barnhart and Kentucky on foul terms.

There are few more in-bred worlds than that of college coaches. With two disgruntled ex-staffs to badmouth Kentucky and Barnhart to potential replacements, what were the odds of attracting a premier candidate?

Apparently, Todd decided that was more turmoil and change - and more admission of failure from his major hires - than he could stomach.

So, Kentucky fans will turn their eyes to Hudson's successor.

I think it's fair to say a good number of Kentucky backers would like to see something closer to the pass-friendly offenses run by former coaches Hal Mumme and Morriss than what they've watched the past two seasons.

Barnhart danced around questions of offensive philosophy last night, more or less saying it was up to Brooks.

The UK coach did not talk like a guy entertaining a drastically new offensive plan.

"You always tweak offenses," he said. "Mostly, as a staff, we've talked in terms of simplifying what we're doing."

Already, there are rumblings that UK receivers coach/recruiting coordinator Joker Phillips will get strong consideration as Hudson's replacement.

The ex-UK receiver is easily the most popular member of the coaching staff. But he would be making his debut as an offensive coordinator in the SEC, a little like taking your driver's test in the Daytona 500.

Meanwhile, at a time when so many of UK football's peers are clearly on the move upward, Kentucky is left making the safest play from a very bad hand.

Why are UK's cards so bad? It's not the overused crutch of NCAA probation.

Unlike South Carolina's hiring of Spurrier or MSU's of Croom, Barnhart's choice of Brooks two years ago generated little-to-no positive buzz.

Unlike Louisville's Bobby Petrino, Brooks has produced nothing on the field in two years to generate realistic hopes for a better tomorrow.

At the time Brooks was hired, many thought it defined the concept "bad hire."

By falling on his sword this week, Ron Hudson bought Rich and Mitch a little more time to prove the critics wrong.