Just wondering if this is a make or break year for him? I never thought a coach could come here and win with zero head coaching experience because it is such a hard job. I hope I am wrong though.
If Stoops does not get to a bowl game this year, will he lose the fans?
- Thread starter joester5612
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If we get blown out 6 in a row like last year, it won't be good.
I want to see a team that gets better as the season goes on.
More depth and a lighter schedule this year brings higher expectations.
I want to see a team that gets better as the season goes on.
More depth and a lighter schedule this year brings higher expectations.
My prediction is that he will get full support from fans as long as he's here... We have known for a long time that we weren't recruiting well and he seems to be way ahead of other UK HC's consistently.. I fit happens that he doesn't cut the mustard after five years and we are still bumping our butts along the SEC trail like toad frogs then maybe he busts a move somewhere else or we move on... It's then I think things get real... Yes we might loose a few but I think the flood gates open if he leave or looks to have peaked at 5 wins 5 years.
He may lose some band wagon fans, or the "I want it all, and I want it now" types. But he won't lose the loyal TRUE BLUE fans.
People will start bitching and moaning but it will be the ones who are more dense to what it actually takes to build a football program. In football, most will say 4 years is what it takes to get it going, but I actually think it's 5 but the 4th year, you should have the ground work fully laid out. Joker and Gillispie were exceptions to the rule and justified in getting the axe early. Those were lost causes.
This year, I do think we should see progress and in all honesty, should be a bowl year. I'll be upset if we don't make a bowl, but next year is the real season that I think the progress should be made. The reason that I throw this season out there is because we have a REALLY REALLY REALLY favorable schedule, especially with 8 home games.
This year, I do think we should see progress and in all honesty, should be a bowl year. I'll be upset if we don't make a bowl, but next year is the real season that I think the progress should be made. The reason that I throw this season out there is because we have a REALLY REALLY REALLY favorable schedule, especially with 8 home games.
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He will lose some fan support, justified or not. people feel we should make a bowl game and they're probably right.
I think we'll be bowl eligible. But if we arent, for me it depends on how it happened. Key injuries? Blowout losses? Losing games we should win?
I think we'll be bowl eligible. But if we arent, for me it depends on how it happened. Key injuries? Blowout losses? Losing games we should win?
I do not feel that the coaching staff will in any way be on the hot seat this year if they don't make a bowl but I do feel that they should make a bowl this season and that recruiting will take a down turn if they do not. Having an 8 game home schedule and not getting at least 6 wins would be very disappointing.
Like it or not, this is fact. The loyal fans will always be there. The casual fans will jump off the train. Media will also add heat to his seat. Most important, recruiting will take a hit because rival recruiters are waiting in the wings to swoop in like vultures. The first person that will tell you KY needs to make a bowl game is Stoops himself. The overall KY fan base needs to raise the expectation bar a bit as well.
If we don't win six this year IMO it will be becasue the injury bug hits unusually hard, something that so far has not been the case since Stoops has been here with Erik Korem running the HP Program. In fact we have stayed much healthier then in previous year - a fact that get's little attention.
Stoops has established himself as a great recruiter of players and coaches, but his on-field coaching acumen is still somewhat of a question. This is his third year and the majority of the players on the field will be ones he recruited. It's basically his time. To keep the programs momentum going forward a 500 season is the absolute bottom rung with 7 wins being a reasonable expectation.
Stoops has established himself as a great recruiter of players and coaches, but his on-field coaching acumen is still somewhat of a question. This is his third year and the majority of the players on the field will be ones he recruited. It's basically his time. To keep the programs momentum going forward a 500 season is the absolute bottom rung with 7 wins being a reasonable expectation.
Depends. if we are 5-7 with 4 losses by a touchdown or less, most fans will still believe and be patient. If we are 4-8 with 6 losses by 35+ points, then yeah enthusiasm and support is probably gonna drop off.
There will be a portion of the fanbase that will cause a little stir, but Stoops likely would win most back the yr following.
It's not so much IF we don't get to a bowl game, but what was the reason for not making it. Like it was previously stated, we can't lose 6 games in row with a bowl game on the line again and not lose some fans.
As long as they keep making improvement, I will be there to support them. I don't look at the win/loss record that much.
As long as they keep making improvement, I will be there to support them. I don't look at the win/loss record that much.
5 wins will not cut it this season. 6 or more wins and I'll be happy. I look for 6 or more wins from here on out for UK.
If he only wins 5 games but was so competitive in SEC games that we could have won most of them, no. But I do worry about recruiting suffering before I do him losing fans.
On this site, yes. People were going bonkers last year when they finished out the year the way they did. He won't lose me, but no bowl this year and I'm staring to become suspect of what UK is doing and start asking the question "Are we getting better?" UK was in such a big hole but Stoops has started to dig out of it quite a bit so time to get better and getting to a bowl would prove that.
Make or break? No, that would probably be the 2017 season. But it would definitely blunt the momentum built up since his arrival. Sometimes you get that big season turnaround but the watchword here is Incremental progress. And that basically translates into 6 wins or maybe a 5 win season with some very close, well played losses. It took Brooks' 4 years to crack the .500 mark but, in all fairness, he was starting off in much worse shape than CMS. JMO.
Peace
Anything less than 7 wins and a decent bowl game may not "cost him attendance" this season but it would definitely start waves of doubt among the faithful. And certainly cost some valuable recruits. Stoops knows that this is THE key year in his UK re-build effort.
As tough as the UK job is, even for good coaches with plenty of HC experience, it has to be expected that a guy with no HC experience would struggle in some areas for a while. So this shouldn't be a make or break season--unless it somehow turned into a complete disaster--and that just ain't going to happen.
Along with many in the BBN, I expect a 7-5 season and a further upturn in the program with such concrete evidence that the program continues to get better.
As tough as the UK job is, even for good coaches with plenty of HC experience, it has to be expected that a guy with no HC experience would struggle in some areas for a while. So this shouldn't be a make or break season--unless it somehow turned into a complete disaster--and that just ain't going to happen.
Along with many in the BBN, I expect a 7-5 season and a further upturn in the program with such concrete evidence that the program continues to get better.
He has a real shot at building this Kentucky program. The players were over matched by better teams last year BUT they never stopped competing. They fought for sixty minutes and that's a very good sign. It's going to take time to build this program from the ground floor. If he keeps pulling in good football players then Kentucky will get there.
Good question - with 3 cup cakes, UL, and Vandy, that should be 4-5 wins every year. So that's 1-2 wins, when we now play in the lesser side of the SEC. Either this year or next should be a bowl year.
But, as always, it will depend on QB play. Not ready to give up on Stoops yet, but I am ready for better coached football.
But, as always, it will depend on QB play. Not ready to give up on Stoops yet, but I am ready for better coached football.
These have been the most exciting of times for football. Even recruiting is now exciting. It is for the first time in my memory truly a yearlong ride in football we should give Stoops however long it takes him. Much like KState Duke Oregon etc.
No. The danger is losing recruits. If we post a losing season this next class will most likely be a very poor class. Maybe not as bad as Joker's classes but bad.
I don't think so, not me anyway. Need to finish better though, hopefully more depth will help that. Really, we were only 2 should be INT's from 7 wins.
With three built in cupcakes, now is the time. That means you can get away with going 3-5 in conference play to achieve that distinguished bowl invitation. I think the future trend will be for the power 5 to seperate from the rest of the pack and all non-conference games, or at least two, will need to be against a power conference team. Some of these non-conference matchups are a joke.
3 and 5 in the league and you deserve to go bowling. You should end up in a really good one as well. UK played something like 4 teams that spent part of the year in the top 10. The schedule is ridiculously difficult as it is. Anyone saying the schedule needs to be more difficult should have their heads examined. If you play 8 games per year against the likes of Georgia, LSU, Florida and Missouri you have earned at least 3 winnable games. Whose interest does it server to eliminate those games? Right now UK, Arkansas and Tennessee have serious shots at building strong competitive teams. If we had put together a schedule similar to what was described over the past few years none of those teams would have any wins for 3 years running. Or atleast no more than 1 per year. Those programs would be effectively dead right now and not rebuilding. No other sport that I am aware of schedules that brutally. Kentucky didn't play that kind of schedule in basketball. We still played the likes of Montana. I don't think college football is being harmed in anyway in having power 5 schools playing the likes of Ohio U once or twice per year. If you play an SEC schedule you have earned the right to schedule 2 or 3 likely wins per year. Keep in mind that's just discussing wins and not the physical beating you take playing 8 SEC games per year. Just look at how much UK tailed off at the end. Trying to toughen the schedule even more than last years would be bordering on idiotic.
This season as long as we won at least 5 and was very competitive In the others then I don't think he loses too much support as long as the recruiting is still solid after the season. It's the following year that I think he has to go bowling and win 7
I don't necessarily think this season is make or break. But if this season is a disappointment (i.e., no bowl) ... next year is really everything.
I'm not worried about whether we get it done this year, so I am not fretting over this question.
This season--year 3--is pivotal. At some point on the path to a winning program, you have to beat someone who is favored against you.....win more games than you lose. If we don't win six....it will be disappointing because it will most likely mean we still haven't straightened out our O&D line play.....which makes for just bad FB. Finally, the bloom will be off the rose with regards to recruiting. We will no longer be able to sell ourselves as "a program on the rise." We will be "same old UK FB" to recruits, the CFB world in general, and unfortunately in the minds of many long-suffering Kentucky FB fans.
What worries me is the fact that Tennessee should be really good next year, which could remove that one from one of our possible wins. I do not see South Carolina being bad again this year, so I doubt we will go to Columbia and win. I am hoping that this will finally be the year that we beat Florida, that I think is the key game in determining how this season will go; if we finally beat them it will be an exciting day for UK football and should lead to a bowl game.
6 wins or it's a disappointing season. I don't think that's asking for too much in year 3.
UK Football as an institution will never lose me. I'll be very disappointed with Coach Stoops and the staff, but I'm not going anywhere.
To me our success or lack thereof will all depend on our ability to stop people. If our defense can just become average, which should not be asking to much since Stoops is a defensive guy, then we should have the offensive talent to have a good year.
Those that think that UK should schedule 3 more possible losses are complete idiots. I think if UK doesn't win at least 6 or 7 games this year that recruiting takes a nose dive. The honey moon is over and it is time to put up or shut up at least I believe that is what the recruits are going to think.
I think this pretty much nails it. It's been said many times before, but fans are just going to have to be patient awhile longer to see if this thing turns around. Quality depth (plenty of JRs and SRs on the two-deep) cannot be achieved in three years. Add that to a yearly death-march of a schedule, and you have to be a grinder...
Well, he won't lose me. I've been going to UK games since my freshman year in 1975.
Stoops is a good of a coach as we've had IMHO.
Now, I'll be disappointed if we are giving up 50 points in a game again, but I'm not giving up on Stoops.
Still a ways to go. Heard him on the radio this week and a fan asked him to rate our lines on a scale of 1-10 (10 highest) and he said above a five. Well, that means we will be going against 8 and 9 rated lines in the SEC but he does see improvement. Just a long ways still to go.
Stoops is a good of a coach as we've had IMHO.
Now, I'll be disappointed if we are giving up 50 points in a game again, but I'm not giving up on Stoops.
Still a ways to go. Heard him on the radio this week and a fan asked him to rate our lines on a scale of 1-10 (10 highest) and he said above a five. Well, that means we will be going against 8 and 9 rated lines in the SEC but he does see improvement. Just a long ways still to go.
I would love to win every game.. as long as I see improvement every year, then I am satisfied as a fan.
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