John Clay's Sidelines

Steve Ortmayer

Steve Ortmayer entered the visiting media room Saturday wearing a semi-scowl.

The visiting media room at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium is actually in back of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. It’s a small room, up some stairs, with a podium and a few folding chairs. Aside from its location, which requires you to actually leave the stadium, the room is pretty much standard fare for opposing teams, i.e. a small out-of-the-way closet. But requesting the special teams coach’s presence at the visiting media room is not standard fare.

Being that Steve Ortmayer is Kentucky’s special teams coach, that’s what he had to be thinking Saturday. What am I doing here? The media didn’t ask for a post-game interview after Derrick Locke returned a kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown against Western Kentucky. The media didn’t ask for post-game interviews when Tim Masthay kept booming kickoffs out of the end zones for touchbacks. But the media wanted to talk to Ortmayer now.

After all, it is not every day that a team has back-to-back punts blocked, and a field goal blocked, in the same game.

Special teams coaches are a lot like offensive linemen. No one bothers to learn their name until they mess up.

So there Ortmayer sat late Saturday afternoon on a brown folding chair in a small room surrounded by media.

The first question had to do with what happened.

“Poor preparation by us, I guess,” said Ortmayer.

As a media member, immediately the thought went through my head, this isn’t going to be good.

But it improved. Ortmayer loosened up a little. You could tell he wasn’t happy to be there, but he took the bullet. He made some good points. Florida had been a punt-return team all season. The Gators rarely went for the blocked kick. They had sprung Brandon James for a pair of punt return touchdowns on the year, so Kentucky had worked long and hard on making sure James didn’t ring up the Cats for No. 3. But the Gators had an off week to prepare for the Kentucky game. They put in some new things. One was a punt block. They were ready. Kentucky wasn’t ready.

Specifically, Ortmayer wasn’t ready.

“It’s a poor plan by me,” said the coach. “Poor demand of the plan by me.”

You could maybe write it off as just one game if it were not for the fact that it was not just one game. The Cats have now had five kicks blocked in eight games. Middle Tennessee blocked a late UK field goal attempt. South Carolina blocked an early UK field goal attempt and turned the loose ball into a touchdown. In last year’s regular-season finale, Kentucky lined up for the game-winning field goal in overtime, only to see the Vols block the kick.

Head coaches have been known to be-head assistants with a shorter record of futility. But Ortmayer and head coach Rich Brooks have a long history. Ortmayer was the St. Louis Rams vice president for football operations when Brooks was the head coach of the NFL franchise. When Brooks was named Kentucky’s coach in 2003, one of the first assistants he hired was his old friend of his days in the pro ranks.

Plus, Brooks has a history of clinging tight to assistants. Depsite piddling results and rampant fan complaints, Brooks held on to first offensive coordinator, Ron Hudson, until athletics director Mitch Barnhart forced the head coach to make a move.

Might the same thing happen with Coach O?

We shall see.

But Saturday, with a look of pain on his face, Steve Ortmayer sat in the visiting media room and answered questions.

“I probably never have had a year like this,” he said.