Exactly two weeks after Joker Phillips was fired as Kentucky head coach in 2012, a media report out of Ohio said the UK job had been offered to then-Cincinnati head man Butch Jones.
At the time, Wildcats backers was debating the idea of Kentucky hiring the polarizing Bobby Petrino — then unemployed after a career self-destruction at Arkansas.
Other UK fans, with fond memories of the pass-happy excitement of the Hal Mumme Air Raid era, wanted former Wildcats assistant Sonny Dykes brought back to Lexington.
Before UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart announced that Florida State defensive coordinator Mark Stoops would replace Phillips, there were seven other names prominently linked with the Wildcats head coaching job in the rumor mill.