Oh I agree but if you want to sustain being good you better bring in top talent. That's what we're seeing at UK, dip/flops in recruiting, bad luck with injuries, lack of development. Hope it turns around but a lot of work to do. Without the ability to sustain, peaks and valleys will continue.
Talent
- Thread starter TNCatfanforever
- Start date
I know we've been battling a bit on this thread....but your comment is patently wrong. There has been zero dip in UK recruiting if we use the team rankings as a proxy for talent.
- Now guys like Kiyante Goodwin, Christian Lewis, Jakobi Albert, etc....have left and maybe those ratings were not as accurate for them
- But I see a significant decline in player development year over year as more the issue than recruiting as to why we are dipping back to losing at home to USC, Mizzou, Vandy and less competitive with top tier SEC teams.
The Oline development has been abysmal. We are now to needing 2+ starters a year from portal to maintain even a lower level of Oline performance. Maybe it's loss of Schlarman....but something is way off as Jager Burton didn't have a good year yet again as he's a 4* kid.
The DBs are not developing like they did in years past. Baity, Edwards, West, Coker, etc...improved year over year.
- Lovett didn't play as good this year as last year
- Childress was an utter disaster to be frank. He probably never should have won the job
- Vito flamed out and we couldn't develop him into the top tier safety we hoped we got
Edge backers have not seen incremental improvement like Josh Allen, Boogie Watson showed in past. JJ Weaver has been really bad this year. Chris Wright wasn't a good edge rusher in his final year as well.
To me...the development of position coaches like Buffano, Chris Collins, Brad White as Edge backer position coach, Yenser, etc... has been a step back from Clinksdale, Dean Hood, Schlarman...I think we also miss Sumrall. But we can't keep letting Stoops overhaul the staff....at some point it's on him more than positional coaches.
I don't know about "really simple", but you are largely right. In terms of talent, UK's current problem is mainly on the OL. It is a better OL than in 2022, but still not good enough. Here, Coach Yenser finds himself on the hot seat because he has come up practically empty as a recruiter. We don't have a talent problem in our secondary. That is an experience problem and I am still not sold on Coach Buffano. The rest of our roster is SEC caliber, and I have to caution again that online star ratings do not necessarily correlate in a linear fashion with talent. If they did, Josh Allen, Bunchy Stallings, and Luke Fortner would have been lousy SEC football players. That's the part that isn't simple.
Look at it this way. Losing to AL and GA doesn't mean we have a talent problem. It only means we aren't on the same talent level with two national top 5 teams, one of which will probably win the NC. MO just blew TN out, which lends a lot of rational perspective to our season. If we finish 8-4 against this schedule, that will not put us in the playoffs but it would not be a result for reasonable people to complain about. If we finish 6-6, even I will be complaining, although maybe not about the same elements others will complain about.
I want to see this coaching staff tweaked. IMO Stoops should replace Yenser, Woodward, and probably Buffano.
Last edited:
While recruiting may be up by Kentucky standards, our overall coaching has taken a significant step backwards over the last two seasons.
The most shocking disappointment for me this year has been the defense. Absolutely awful. I'm completely disillusioned with Brad White and the whole bunch. We held UGA to what? 16 points last season? We were tough in coverage and we were very good (most of the time) in open field tackling...now we are embarrassing. Blown coverage everywhere. What in the HELL happened to our defense?
And it's things like watching our blabbermouth receivers run their mouths and act stupid all the time...or absurd cheap-shot penalties that kill drives like against UGA. We looked like undisciplined fools against UGA.
IMO Stoops had a sloppy-ass off-season...I guess going home and sleeping on a gigantic pile of cash and heating his home with burning money will do that to a guy. He's nearly at Calipari levels of disillusionment with me right now. $8.6 million he owes it the program to get this crap figured out or go coach freaking Iowa or something.
The most shocking disappointment for me this year has been the defense. Absolutely awful. I'm completely disillusioned with Brad White and the whole bunch. We held UGA to what? 16 points last season? We were tough in coverage and we were very good (most of the time) in open field tackling...now we are embarrassing. Blown coverage everywhere. What in the HELL happened to our defense?
And it's things like watching our blabbermouth receivers run their mouths and act stupid all the time...or absurd cheap-shot penalties that kill drives like against UGA. We looked like undisciplined fools against UGA.
IMO Stoops had a sloppy-ass off-season...I guess going home and sleeping on a gigantic pile of cash and heating his home with burning money will do that to a guy. He's nearly at Calipari levels of disillusionment with me right now. $8.6 million he owes it the program to get this crap figured out or go coach freaking Iowa or something.
A lot of what happened to the defense is better players graduated.
Valentine
K.Smirh
J.Jones
Our defense has no depth whatsoever.
I consider Phillips a bottom tier SEC corner but his backup JQ Hardaway had no business in that game Sat other than necessity.
As far as Brad White, FWIW Freddy kind of defended him on KSR this morning by pointing out that he tried numerous configurations and nothing worked.
White's defense is supposed to funnel tackles to the linebackers but yet Wallace,Jackson, and Weaver only had 8 tackles combined.
How do you use the bench as motivation with such a thin team.
By UK standards, recruiting is WAY up. Who recruits? Our coaches do.
Our defense is not "absolutely awful". UK's defense is in the middle of the SEC pack. We have a better defense than LSU, SCar, and AR among others. Our defense has performed roughly equal to MO's defense, giving up only 6 more yards per game. For goodness sakes, take a few moments to educate yourself before catharsing your toxic nonsense in public.
You really do need a different hobby.
You'll get no argument from me on that. Horrible start. I thought Kentucky was competitive for about 2.5 quarter but the two flubs in the redzone in the first qtr did them in. It's not exactly the norm but it sure has happened in our games against UGA and Bama this season. We were very competitive in the Georgia game last year.
Can agree with this. Stoops pointed out in his postgame comments that they tried many different Ds but nothing worked. That can be because of poor prep by UK.....and that Alabama's pretty good.
Lack of depth at LB has been a problem all year. Gig the staff that they didn't bring in more numbers, that what they have wasn't or hasn't been developed if you wish. Wallace was abused in coverage Sat, he now has a huge target on his back, SCAR's coming after him, will he respond? Jackson left his man uncovered to chase Melroe, a cardinal sin, Melroe dumped a pass to Jackson's man for a big gain. Was that poor coaching or a player trying to make a play? Looking at the '24 recruiting class we see a large number of LBs committed.
Pointed out elsewhere that 3 of the top 5 tacklers in recent weeks has been DBs and it's never good when your DBs are your leading tacklers. Ty Bryant had 14 tackles vs GA, 8 vs Bama. He got picked on but being a true freshman, surely that experience will eventually pay off.
our coaches did not forget how to coach in the last two years, but I agree with you that stoops had a sloppy ass offseason. Hopefully he finds his footing in the NIL era because we've heard him do a lot of whining so far.
Brad White has had a really poor year....no need to sugar coach it up for him.
1. Mizzou is a much better D than UK....they have not played FLorida and Arkansas yet to pad their D stats...we had a miserable MSU offense that is already in our stats....and they had to deal with LSU/Jayden Daniels that hurt their stats. Mizzou held Ten to 7 pts, UGA scored 30pts, USC 12 pts (they'll at least double that on UK)....
2. I don't think White is a bad coach...he's done a solid job for years. But this year his group has been a mess.
- Safeties have been allowed to play with no accountability all year
- White has done a bad job with his own position group in JJ Weaver adn Chris Wright never panned out
- Was dumb to not move Walker to NG......he is a natural NG and get Ox to beef backup and develop Rybka
UK has a plethora of young talent so I'm hopeful. But White needs to coach that side a ton better and quit with the terrified to send pressure (3rd and 17 bullcrap). Let some athletes run a looser. BUt I think it's a good bit of Stoops fingerprints on being scared to death out there.
According to 24/7 sports. UK recruiting rankings in the SEC is 12th for 2016, 2019, 2023 and 2024. 5th in 2022, 9th in 2020, 11th in 2017 and 2018. So for the most part, the bottom half of the SEC. So you either have to out scheme or out execute to compensate.
We keep hearing the same old things from Stoops about being more disciplined, executing better.....blah blah blah. I'm personally starting to think Stoops has done about as well as he can do at UK. 7-8 wins per season. Get lucky and land a better QB and maybe 9-10 wins.
We keep hearing the same old things from Stoops about being more disciplined, executing better.....blah blah blah. I'm personally starting to think Stoops has done about as well as he can do at UK. 7-8 wins per season. Get lucky and land a better QB and maybe 9-10 wins.
You can think whatever you want. I think there is more upside, but our coaching staff needs a tweak. Yenser and Woodward need to be replaced. They aren't contributing on the recruiting trail, and their players are mainly underachieving.
Is talent the reason we run the slowest, most predictable offense in America? Is talent the reason they struggle with MAC teams every year? Is talent the reason they rarely if ever blow much lesser teams out? Is talent the reason QB’s pick our soft zone defense apart?
lol, we have a better defense than LSU? Well thank goodness for that! Great point! Really bolsters your case.
How's this for "educating myself":
We gave up on average 43 points per game against ranked opponents UGA, TN, MO and AL. That is nearly Bill Curry, Joker Phillips stuff right there...I mean we are just inside the top 60 tho so yeah, great progress?
Comparing us to MO defense is laughable. MO held UGA to 21 points less than KY did - and MO held TN to 26 points less than KY did while running TN into the ground and actually winning the game. Fewest points by a Heupel team, lol...Heupel/TN teams average 41 points a game on Kentucky's defense.
I can't tell you how much I appreciate this.
Do you have any good suggestions? I really envy people who are into golf, they seem pretty happy about it but I was never able to get into it, personally.
The people that matter at UGA don't care about basketball, if the did we wouldn't be playing in a 60 year old facility, would embrace the AAU rograms in the metro Atlanta area, get behind the shoe companies. But instead coaches are warned to steer clear of the kids with multiple uncles and tied to shoe companies and above all else don't get us on probation. Before the coach retired the gymnastics team was sold out every meet in the Steg, not the Basketball team. Indifference is why UGA isn't competitive in basketball, Bobby Knight campaigned for the job one year and was told no.
Folks, it's not about the 4–5-star kids, it's about where our 3-star kids are coming from.
I've said it before, I'll say it again, the ranking system is not equal. A Texas, California, and Florida 3 is a Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee etc 4 maybe even 5 in some cases.
Stoops recruits too much Ohio, and I hate to say it Kentucky. That's where your gap in talent is.
Football from level of competition to level of coaching is just different. Our Ohio and Kentucky kids just aren't being coached or consistently going up against talent like the kids from those 3 key states.
The 3-star kid from a big Texas football school has at the very least been practicing and playing against 4–5-star talent since pee wee. His coach is probably making a lot more money and that may be his only job which means he's got all the time in the world to spend on it unlike a lot of places where the coach is basically a teacher whose main gig is teaching.
Then at some point it is coaching, development, game planning, play calling. Specifically, offense/passing game. A good passing game can mitigate even overcome some talent and depth.
Kind of like 3 pointers in basketball. The game forever was dominated and oriented around front court/post. Then the 3 ball came along and all of sudden lesser teams and players could compete and win.
I've said it before, I'll say it again, the ranking system is not equal. A Texas, California, and Florida 3 is a Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee etc 4 maybe even 5 in some cases.
Stoops recruits too much Ohio, and I hate to say it Kentucky. That's where your gap in talent is.
Football from level of competition to level of coaching is just different. Our Ohio and Kentucky kids just aren't being coached or consistently going up against talent like the kids from those 3 key states.
The 3-star kid from a big Texas football school has at the very least been practicing and playing against 4–5-star talent since pee wee. His coach is probably making a lot more money and that may be his only job which means he's got all the time in the world to spend on it unlike a lot of places where the coach is basically a teacher whose main gig is teaching.
Then at some point it is coaching, development, game planning, play calling. Specifically, offense/passing game. A good passing game can mitigate even overcome some talent and depth.
Kind of like 3 pointers in basketball. The game forever was dominated and oriented around front court/post. Then the 3 ball came along and all of sudden lesser teams and players could compete and win.
Last edited:
Tell Louisville that......through the years they've seemed to recruit Florida quite well
Through the years they have sucked ass and Kentucky has beaten the breaks off of them with superior athletes. Through the years they played in the big east and metro. They are having a great season but that schedule is a gift from heaven.
