ADVERTISEMENT

Expectations vs Reality

Dec 17, 2003
458
7
18
Regarding fans losing confidence in the coaching staff if there isn't a bowl game this year. Losing 6 in a row at the end of 2014 season was hard to swallow, but the schedule was brutal. Losing committments at signing time was very disappointing. The coaching staff has improved recruiting significantly over the previous 'train wreck'.
Expectations of six or more wins in 2015, are great but will be difficult to accomplish, consider
2015 recruiting class
35th in nation, 13th in SEC
2014
17th in nation, 9th in SEC
2013
29th in nation, 13th in SEC
The coaching staff and administration has committed to overall improvements, $$, training facilities, recruiting, strength, stadium,etc.
Our SEC competition has had all the above for years, and has been red shirting outstanding players, for years and UK /coach Stoops still needs 2 more years of RS's to be on somewhat of equal footing with the rest of the SEC.
I graduated UK in '57, and I believe this is the best chance for UK football since Fran Curci.
Support coach Stoops and staff.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mayoman
EVERY win in the SEC is difficult to accomplish, that's why we play in this league, becasue it's the best and we want to be the best.

Also the outcome of games is not determined by some sort of numerical calculation of recruiting rankings from web sites. It it were, Florida would have won the SEC East, Missouri would have finished near the bottom and South Carolina would have beaten us by 3 touchdowns.

The truth of the matter is, we are in much better shape then last year, much deeper across the board and more talented and experienced at several key positions. WE also are putting a large number of redshirts on the field this year to help with the depth. Have you looked at our competition? Teams like Missouri and Mississippi State have lost a lot more in the way of starters and off the two deep than we have, and Florida is not in great shape at all offensively.

This team has a great chance to make a statement this year and in my mind the bar can certainly be set a notch or two higher than last year.

I just don't understand this relentless attempt by several posters to dampen enthusiasm before the season has even started. Can't we ever get past this type of loser attitude?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mayoman
The coaching staff and administration has committed to overall improvements, $$, training facilities, recruiting, strength, stadium,etc.

Brooks couldn't get that type of commitment from the administration, not even a recruitment room.
I think UK has missed the only time I've seen that they could have made an impact in the SEC prestige and get a jump of Florida and UT, as they floundered the past half decade.
 
Regarding fans losing confidence in the coaching staff if there isn't a bowl game this year. Losing 6 in a row at the end of 2014 season was hard to swallow, but the schedule was brutal. Losing committments at signing time was very disappointing. The coaching staff has improved recruiting significantly over the previous 'train wreck'.
Expectations of six or more wins in 2015, are great but will be difficult to accomplish, consider
2015 recruiting class
35th in nation, 13th in SEC
2014
17th in nation, 9th in SEC
2013
29th in nation, 13th in SEC
The coaching staff and administration has committed to overall improvements, $$, training facilities, recruiting, strength, stadium,etc.
Our SEC competition has had all the above for years, and has been red shirting outstanding players, for years and UK /coach Stoops still needs 2 more years of RS's to be on somewhat of equal footing with the rest of the SEC.
I graduated UK in '57, and I believe this is the best chance for UK football since Fran Curci.
Support coach Stoops and staff.
Thanks. From time to time, threads are started by people who are out to start a stampede against our coaches. I just try to remind myself that most of our fans aren't that dumb. Building a football program in a big 5 conference is a stepwise process. We have some fans who don't understand what is involved, but won't settle for anything less than a New Years weekend bowl every year. Even now, there is a guy on another thread, guaranteeing that Mark Stoops will be fired if he doesn't win a certain number of games in 2015. Completely clueless. The truth is that UK has made a big investment in Stoops. His contract has been extended with raises for him and everyone on his staff. Over the winter, UK also went all out to keep Vince Marrow when Michigan tried to hire him away. Our stadium is being upgraded, including massive AV systems, modern corporate suites, a state of the art recruiting room, and everything else the downer crowd told us would never happen. The Nutter Center has been completely upgraded. These steps are being taken because Stoops has shown that he can recruit a real SEC roster. Typically, a college player is on campus for 5 years. That means most players recruited in Stoops' 2013 class will be seniors in 2017. Stoops' 2014 class, generally regarded as his best so far, will mostly be around until 2018. I could get into a lot of other reasons why Stoops' coaching career will not hinge on what happens in 2015. A year ago, I predicted 5 wins in 2014. At this point, I see 6-7 wins and a minor bowl in 2015. For Stoops, the best is yet to come. From fans' point of view, you just have to understand that our roster is deeper and better than it has been in 30 years. It isn't a matter of a couple of players decommitting. It isn't a matter of losing in OT to Florida. Those things happen. You can't win every battle. The important thing is the improvement in our roster. How well will our coaches develop our players and give them better chances to win games? From where I sit, they are getting the job done. But the SEC is a great conference, so people who expect this to be a piece of cake are just showing their naïveté.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mayoman
I think we just have a lot of chicken little fans. Am I calling them stupid? No, I'm just calling a lot of them defeatists. They may have some sort of reasoning as to why expectations should be so low. One main point that the OP mentioned was recruiting, but I don't follow that logic. We have good coaches, nobody other than Louisville fans argue that, which means nobody on intelligence argues that. A lot of the incredibly weak recruiting classes are whitewashed from the program at this point. We've added a lot of depth in important places, we've added an unconventional (yet incredibly effective) offense this season, which the QB's apparently love. That same coordinator that is providing us with that offense is known specifically for improving QB's to a very high level, which will also take the offense a long way. I've read and heard constantly that UK has improved all around already, opposed to last season, and it's only spring. I expect UK to improve quite a bit more come time for kickoff.
We had a pretty good offense last year, all things considered. A young QB, young receivers, young RB, list goes on. At times it had tendencies to go stagnant, but I believe a lot of that was a product of Brown reverting from an aggressive mindset to a conservative one in the middle of games.
Finally, I won't complain about recruiting. I'm actually content with it, but of course, always open to improving it, but that comes with time. If recruiting meant everything as some on this board imply, then Baylor would not be good, TCU would not be good, Michigan State would not be good, West Virginia would not have been tough, Arizona would be very sub-par, Wisconsin would be pretty weak, Georgia Tech would also be weak, Minnesota would be abysmal, Mizzou would be pitiful, and Kansas State would lose to some FCS teams.
But, that is not the case, is it? And also consider, Kentucky's recruiting is on par, and in a lot of cases, now better than a lot of those programs.
All that said, I project 7 wins with the possibility of 8, before the bowl season.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Deeeefense
Thanks. From time to time, threads are started by people who are out to start a stampede against our coaches. I just try to remind myself that most of our fans aren't that dumb. Building a football program in a big 5 conference is a stepwise process. We have some fans who don't understand what is involved, but won't settle for anything less than a New Years weekend bowl every year. Even now, there is a guy on another thread, guaranteeing that Mark Stoops will be fired if he doesn't win a certain number of games in 2015. Completely clueless. The truth is that UK has made a big investment in Stoops. His contract has been extended with raises for him and everyone on his staff. Over the winter, UK also went all out to keep Vince Marrow when Michigan tried to hire him away. Our stadium is being upgraded, including massive AV systems, modern corporate suites, a state of the art recruiting room, and everything else the downer crowd told us would never happen. The Nutter Center has been completely upgraded. These steps are being taken because Stoops has shown that he can recruit a real SEC roster. Typically, a college player is on campus for 5 years. That means most players recruited in Stoops' 2013 class will be seniors in 2017. Stoops' 2014 class, generally regarded as his best so far, will mostly be around until 2018. I could get into a lot of other reasons why Stoops' coaching career will not hinge on what happens in 2015. A year ago, I predicted 5 wins in 2014. At this point, I see 6-7 wins and a minor bowl in 2015. For Stoops, the best is yet to come. From fans' point of view, you just have to understand that our roster is deeper and better than it has been in 30 years. It isn't a matter of a couple of players decommitting. It isn't a matter of losing in OT to Florida. Those things happen. You can't win every battle. The important thing is the improvement in our roster. How well will our coaches develop our players and give them better chances to win games? From where I sit, they are getting the job done. But the SEC is a great conference, so people who expect this to be a piece of cake are just showing their naïveté.

I will never read a sea of text with no paragraphs.
 
That's semantics. The OP has a point.

You missed the part where I said "They may have some sort of reasoning", which ironically enough, is directly after the part of my post that you quoted.
It's a defeatist attitude to bank your entire reasoning on why UK can't be good solely on recruiting numbers, when we're on par with that, or ahead of that list of successful programs that I just listed in recruiting.
The difference between Kentucky and those programs? Those programs have maintained that level of recruiting for a longer period of time than UK has. Once Kentucky has a solid influx of recruits of the caliber that we're getting them, why can't UK potentially have that level of success? Once somebody can give me a good reason as to why we can't, I'll accept it, but you won't be able to find a good reason.
 
The UK football program and coaching staff are in the same catch 22 that has plagued UK football for decades. You can't recruit the great players unless you win and you can not win unless you recruit the great players.

IMO the coaching staff has moved in the right direction but IMO if they do not continue to show improvement this year and have at least a winning season the job is going to become much more difficult.


The UK football program could become a legitimate SEC football program but it is not going to be easy to overcome decades of futility. It definitely is not going to be a 3 year turnaround like some of our more ignorant fans seem to feel should happen or the coaching staff should be on a hot seat and fired.

The coaching staff should be here at least 6 to 7 years unless they just become hopeless like the Joker staff and have the program on a free fall to oblivion before there is talk of a coaching change.
 
The UK football program and coaching staff are in the same catch 22 that has plagued UK football for decades. You can't recruit the great players unless you win and you can not win unless you recruit the great players.

IMO the coaching staff has moved in the right direction but IMO if they do not continue to show improvement this year and have at least a winning season the job is going to become much more difficult.


The UK football program could become a legitimate SEC football program but it is not going to be easy to overcome decades of futility. It definitely is not going to be a 3 year turnaround like some of our more ignorant fans seem to feel should happen or the coaching staff should be on a hot seat and fired.

The coaching staff should be here at least 6 to 7 years unless they just become hopeless like the Joker staff and have the program on a free fall to oblivion before there is talk of a coaching change.

I feel like we will see a string of 7, maybe 8 win seasons before UK sees a big breakthrough (Contending for the SEC title).
It's definitely a tremendous improvement though.
 
there are areas that recruiting can be overcome by just a player or two. i still say that if you hit on a qb big, it will outpace your relative ranking in recruiting. dt, lb's, cb, and to some extent wr's and rb's have to have some good rankings but a team that gets 4 4* wr's every class is probably only gonna perform moderately better than a team that get 1 4* and a couple high 3* guys. the qb will make the difference way more than the 3 higher rated wr's.

i think the sec is notorious for missing on qb's and that's why i like our chances to punch above our weight. i just watched the bama spring game and no offense to their team or qb's but i wouldn't trade any of our qb's for any of theirs. just wouldn't. i'd love to have their o-line and a few of their db's and lb's though. lol uga and tex a&m seem to be the only 2 schools that are gonna consistently put out high production qb's. the rest of the league is very hit or miss.
 
Yes recruiting has been significantly better than in the past. Honestly what the staff has done recruiting the past 3 years has been nothing short of amazing. Yes were still at the back of the SEC, but the key is the gap has closed. Were not bringing in 50th/60th type recruiting classes, it's now top 35 or better.Missouri is a great example of this. The next step now is to make a few upsets, get some wins/bowls and show that we can be competitive in the SEC. If we do this along with the new facilities that are coming in there is no reason we can't bring in top 20 classes on a yearly bases maybe with some top 10 classes sprinkled in every now and then.
 
I have always thought as some one posted that UK football is a sleeping giant. IMO it only need one great season where it say wins the SEC East and plays in the SEC championship game and IMO it will explode. IMO that is what is needed to get rid of the perception that it is a perennial bottom feeder. They have the fan base, play in the best conference in college football, and have improved their facilities to a top notched level.

I also think they have the coaching staff in place to get the job done. I think the time is now in the next few years to awaken the sleeping giant. If the giant isn't awakened this time I am however afraid that the giant is in for another Rip Van Winkle sleep because there just isn't much else that can be done to awaken the giant from its slumber short of Kentucky high schools becoming a hot beds of football that turns out a lot of great SEC quality recruits.
 
Last edited:
5 wins last year (basically 6 with the robbing at Florida.

Significantly better team this year.

No, 5 wins should be the last thought on anyone's mind at this point.

Get the expectations up. I know we're used to getting the rug pulled out from under us when we think things are finally looking up, but that doesn't mean we have to accept mediocrity.

Being content with 5 wins (when we should clearly be winning more) solves nothing. Saying more time, more time, more time solves nothing when you have the players to win NOW.

We're going to win 7 games this year. Stop being so scared people. If we don't win 6 or 7 we don't have to (and shouldn't be) happy about it and say more time, more time, more time. If we don't win 6 or 7 (which I think is highly, highly unlikely considering what we return and the overall quality of the coaching staff) then we need to be saying new coach, not more time.

Things will be okay people. We'll get to 6 or 7 (possibly 8) wins this year, but if a Joker Phillips/Billy Gillispie nightmare situation occurs where we only win the amount of games we won last year (remember, I'm saying "IF" that happens--I don't think it will happen) we have to say new coach, not more time.

Honestly I just can't envision a scenario where we only win 5 games this year, but if we are so bad that we only win the same amount of games we won last year (which was considered disappointing for last year's team) some change will have to be made, that's just the bottom line.

5 wins was a pretty big disappointment for last year's team. I can't imagine how much of a catastrophic disappointment it would be if we only won 5 this year. Unless Towles and Barker get injured or something, I can't envision a scenario where we only win 5 games. We were two plays away from 7 wins last year, so just the thought of a much-improved '15 team winning the same amount as the '14 team hasn't even crossed my mind like it apparently has most of our experts on here.

But like I said, IF 5 wins happens, IF, (and that's an IF I just don't see happening) change will have to be made unless there are exceptional circumstances like key injuries. At this point, with how much we've improved this offseason, how much experience we've gained, how much size and strength we've gained, how much coaching experience we've gained, how much talent we've gained, only winning 5 games would be about as clear of an indication that this coaching staff can't get it done as there is. But I just don't see it happening. I have faith in this staff and I just don't see 5 wins happening like many of you. But if it does, they have to be gone, sorry. It's not called being a microwave fan, it's called being realistic.
 
Last edited:
Building an SEC is a stepwise production, as Blue Decade said.
The way I see it, we at the step where our recruiting is now at a place (closing the talent gap) where we are close to being able to upset someone at Commonwealth. Will it be this year? Remains to be seen.

We do now have more talent and more depth overall through the roster. Are we at mid SEC level yet? I don't know.
I did hear on the radio a fan ask Stoops to rate our line 1-10, with 10 being the best. Stoops replied that it was now about a 5. Very telling, IMHO. Means we've come a long way and have a very long way to go..... and we are not at an mid SEC level yet. Until the lines get there, it's tough for the skill players to shine.

I think we will defiantly see improvement this year. Is it going to be enough for a bowl? Again, I don't know but I do know we are getting better.
 
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest posts

ADVERTISEMENT