This is a honest question. He gets paid $9 million per year so I’m curious what he does to earn that top 15 salary. What are his strengths and weaknesses?
What does Stoops do well?
- Thread starter PensacolaBlue
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Win a lot more games than any other coach we have had in my lifetime
/lock thread
/lock thread
Turn 2-4 win seasons into 8-10 win seasons at a place that's rarely won that consistently before. Prove recruiting can go up an echelon at a place nowhere thought it could. Contribute to improving the facilities. Just get more casual football fans to care.
Some context. I know he’s a great defensive mind but it would appear he is overly conservative from an offensive standpoint and that rubs off on the offensive coordinator. We’ve been through 5 coordinators now? We have recruited at a pretty high level so I’m assuming either he is a good recruiter or it’s the staff. I don’t know. He has trouble getting players up for certain games (after bye weeks for instance) and mentioned he couldn’t get through to the players this year. He has poor game time management skills. We’ve struggled on special teams off an on. What else?
The facilities is a good point. Previous coaches struck out from that stand point. That also is huge for recruiting.
Tom Leach ran off a long list of records for UK football since Stoops has been here. It was earlier in the year and I didn't write them down but when I heard them I remember thinking that a lot of fans don't know how far we have come in ten years. It was a pretty amazing list, enough that I remember thinking that MS may get the big head because he wasn't even aware of most of them. MS definitely deserves this job, just needs to adjust when needed to keep it growing more and more.
I don’t know how much he is or isn’t constricting the Offense. Just going off of 10 years of evidence, probably more then he should.
Going off of Stoops comments following I think the UT game. He said it’s time for him to look inward some. My hopes are that his comment was meant to be, he’s willing to adjust his view on the Offense. He’s done a world of great things here, and he’s exceptionally tuned in to his team and how to be successful with his team. I personally hope and think he will get this figured out and find a way to compete for the top prize in the SEC.
Going off of Stoops comments following I think the UT game. He said it’s time for him to look inward some. My hopes are that his comment was meant to be, he’s willing to adjust his view on the Offense. He’s done a world of great things here, and he’s exceptionally tuned in to his team and how to be successful with his team. I personally hope and think he will get this figured out and find a way to compete for the top prize in the SEC.
Not just compared to old Kentucky.
Past 5 years, Mark Stoops has the 7th best winning percentage of all p5 coaches.
Couple dummies create a false debate that meaningless bowl games elevate his reputation
No, it's all the winning.
I think the 21 game non conference winning streak is pretty damn impressive, longest active streak in the country, and it has not all been MAC and Div IAA teams either, e.g., Louisville (4), Penn State, Va Tech, NC State and Iowa
Why hasn't the most successful coach since Bear been more successful?!
Because of some of the extreme critics on Rupp's Rafters!
And because of the curse o the Bear!
He's the only coach we've had since Bear Bryant who can consistently field a team that wins more games each season than they lose. That has to count for something.
Stoops has brought physicality to our football program. That is more than a concept. He had to turn over the roster and recruit players who play physical football. He has completely turned the culture in the program around. After all, winning games is the objective. Right?
I don't buy all the criticisms of Stoops with regard to the offense. When Stoops was rebuilding our roster, it is true that he clashed with Shannon Dawson at times about tempo. In those days, we did not have any defensive depth, so Stoops wanted offensive possessions to serve as a rest for our defense. We have gone uptempo at times in 2021 and 2022. Uptempo is not as simple as everyone seems to think. Without huddling, everyone needs to be on the same page on play calls, formations, and snap counts. We have not always done that very well, which basically lost the Ole Miss game for us. That is the OC's and the QB's responsibility. But most of the criticisms about Stoops "interfering" with our offense is coming from people who will never like Stoops no matter what he accomplishes here. A reasonable person can easily see that Stoops has turned our program from the SEC doormat into a team that goes to bowl games every year and wins most of them. And when was the last time UK had a football recruiting class like 2022? If anyone cannot see how much Stoops has improved recruiting, then they are only looking at the year of 2022 up to Thanksgiving, and missing some of the collateral factors there.
Based on the theme of your posts, it is obvious that you don't like Stoops. I get that. Suit yourself, but there is really no need to start thread after thread to reiterate that you are blind and closed to what he has accomplished here. Stoops is under contract at UK for the rest of this decade. So it seems you have three choices. Learn to appreciate what he has accomplished, or at least show some respect to the school and its fans, or keep on throwing a winning coach under the bus. The rest is just rationalizing.
Better yet, why has he succeeded at a far higher rate than Hall of Fame Jerry Claiborne, and well respected Rich Brooks, NFL Championship coach Blanton Collier, and six other coaches since 1954?
And why is his record better than Frank Beamer's after 10 seasons at Virginia Tech?
We have a lot of feisty newbies as of late. Whether it coincides with the Louisville game being recent or not, who knows? Our new friend from Pensacola joined on Saturday.
Yeah.
Oddly, many of our more verbose newbies sort-of reflect the twisted attitudes of our feathered friends on their forum: make fun of Stoops, yet they wish like Hell he'd go away.
Our 3rd Florida Bowl in program history (2016).
Our 4th Florida Bowl in program history (2019).
Our 5th Florida Bowl in program history (2020).
Our 6th Florida Bowl in program history (2022).
Our Third Bowl victory on New Year's Day in program history (2019).
Our Fourth Bowl victory on New Year's Day in program history (2022).
The nations longest Out-Of-Conference Winning Streak.
The longest annual winning streaks against SEC Opponents not named Vandy in program history (Mizzou and USCe).
Our longest modern winning streak over U of L.
More wins against Top 25 opponents in ten years than in the prior 30 years.
A .500 conference record over a six year stretch.
Our longest Bowl winning streak.
Our longest Bowl appearance streak.
Our first Coach in 70 years to end two seasons ranked in the Top 15.
First Coach in decades to sign a 5 Star recruit from Out-of-State.
Three signing classes ranked in the Top 20.
First Coach in 44 years to have a pre-season AP Top 25 rank.
What was the question?
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This. Just close the thread right now.
He make the University a hell of a lot of money as well as all the above.
Strength- Gets these young guys to buy into his vision.
Weakness- while it's gotten better...his ability to let shit go and play the next play.
Weakness- while it's gotten better...his ability to let shit go and play the next play.
I don't think you want a serious answer but I'll give you a list
1. UK's physicality on both LOS trenches is exponentially better. The days of teams just running down our throat to win games....does not really happen any more.
2. Recruiting. In his tenure at UK...top 2 rushers in UK history. Single season WR record in Wandale. Top 5 all time in Juice Johnson. Top sacker in school history in josh Allen. Best kicker in school history in McGinnis. Don't have defensive stats....but I'd imagine Bohanna, McCall, Paschal....Deonne Walker will be on that list. I'd imagine guys like Jamin Davis, Square, etc... will be looked at as top notch inside Lbers. Mike Edwards is the best safety ever to play at UK to me. Baity, Lonnie Johnson, etc... pretty damn good players as well.
3. D is pretty stout by UK standards IMO.
- UK finished 12 scoring D in 2022
- Uk finished 26th in scoring D in 2021
- UK finished 14th in scoring D in 2019
- UK finished 6th in scoring D in 2018
Those stats have never happened in this school's history on this side fo the ball. I remember a great year was top 30 D every now and then at UK. Schools is basically doing that every year and next year's D looks to be as good as this year's to be honest.
I get we want better offense. But some of you need to realize you can score 34 pts a game and lose a lot. And you can give up less than 20 pts a game and win a lot. You call it ugly but it can be a winning formula. I'm more than content to allow Stoops to take a stab at seeing if he can find Coen II to stack with his D as opposed to starting it all over and having crap D at UK. It was very bad luck for us to lose Coen the way we did. Let's stay the course with Stoops on another OC and if another one bites the dust then maybe it's Stoops time to go..
1. UK's physicality on both LOS trenches is exponentially better. The days of teams just running down our throat to win games....does not really happen any more.
2. Recruiting. In his tenure at UK...top 2 rushers in UK history. Single season WR record in Wandale. Top 5 all time in Juice Johnson. Top sacker in school history in josh Allen. Best kicker in school history in McGinnis. Don't have defensive stats....but I'd imagine Bohanna, McCall, Paschal....Deonne Walker will be on that list. I'd imagine guys like Jamin Davis, Square, etc... will be looked at as top notch inside Lbers. Mike Edwards is the best safety ever to play at UK to me. Baity, Lonnie Johnson, etc... pretty damn good players as well.
3. D is pretty stout by UK standards IMO.
- UK finished 12 scoring D in 2022
- Uk finished 26th in scoring D in 2021
- UK finished 14th in scoring D in 2019
- UK finished 6th in scoring D in 2018
Those stats have never happened in this school's history on this side fo the ball. I remember a great year was top 30 D every now and then at UK. Schools is basically doing that every year and next year's D looks to be as good as this year's to be honest.
I get we want better offense. But some of you need to realize you can score 34 pts a game and lose a lot. And you can give up less than 20 pts a game and win a lot. You call it ugly but it can be a winning formula. I'm more than content to allow Stoops to take a stab at seeing if he can find Coen II to stack with his D as opposed to starting it all over and having crap D at UK. It was very bad luck for us to lose Coen the way we did. Let's stay the course with Stoops on another OC and if another one bites the dust then maybe it's Stoops time to go..
Counselor, what a closing argument! Case closed.
I'm all for dissenting opinions and Stoops deserves his share of criticism but when I see a new member post a useless take like this one I just go ahead and add them to the ignore list. I've never seen the posts get any better when they start out like this one.
#1....owns the Dirty Birds. I mean owns em.
#2, maybe 1A. Negotiates well.
#2, maybe 1A. Negotiates well.
He doesn't waste time on message boards answering questions from people posing as UK Football fans.
Stoops has done a respectable job even if the product on the field is difficult to watch most of the time. Until he changes his philosophy of "complementary football" on offense we've reached our ceiling, which is much better than our history. So just learn to love 1980's Big 10 keepaway, plowball.
It is beyond ridiculous that we still have fans that don't appreciate what he's done here. I mean honestly, how pathetic is your life that are unhappy with his results? His bad year, 7-5, would be a high water mark for last coaches. You're either clinically retarded or a fan of another team if you have a problem with Stoops
Stoops is a great GM. He is responsible for the current culture of the program. He built it from the ashes.
Unfortunately he manages games with a defensive mind set. IF he could ever let loose control of the offense to the right person, Stoops carries the program up off this plateau.
Unfortunately he manages games with a defensive mind set. IF he could ever let loose control of the offense to the right person, Stoops carries the program up off this plateau.
Yeah, he gets pretty animated on the sidelines, maybe as bad as Muschamp was. But that's his style. His reams are a tough matchup for UGA because we play the same way, very physical.
Wow, tough crowd. Who knew I was a UL fan all these years. Anyway, the purpose of the post was to draw out what he has done well which I think several of you did successfully…albeit with little details of HOW Stoops has had his success. Of course the majority of posts provided nothing. I think the norm on social media unfortunately is when you have nothing good to say you resort to personal attacks. But I digress. After feeling pretty bummed about the direction of the program heading into the off-season and being confused about the salary bump, I do feel better being reminded of where we were when he took over to where we’re at now. I’m not sold he will ever take us to the promise land, but he definitely deserves the benefit of the doubt. One thing that has really been in our favor of late is the stability we’ve had over other schools that give up on their coaches after 1-2 years. I wish we could have stability in our offense coordinator though.
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