Barney will be in a pickle after this football season...
- Thread starter Blueathletics
- Start date
He's already said. "If we go 2 or 3 MORE years like last year - we will have to take a closer look at the situation."
Go Big Blue!
Do you need for us to join in a circle and sing campfire songs?
That's because Coach Stoops' buyout won't be LOW enough for AT LEAST "2 or 3 more years"!!!!
Mitch will give ANY and EVERY excuse possible to shield HIMSELF from that HORRIBLE buyout!!!
The question will become, will our fans keep coming to games for "2 or 3 more years" if Coach Stoops can't win enough games???
If CMS has another bust season I’m almost willing to bet he walks.
Kind of like Cal.
Did MB fire Cal. No. However, I’m almost positive there were a lot of terms that he didn’t want to abide by should he return.
Tenured people with plush gigs don’t budge not only because of pay, but more so the control. Cal clearly didn’t need the money he opted to take less money and throw his golden parachute retirement plan down the toilet just so he could continue to do things his way.
CMS isn’t going to want to clean house, specifically tell his boys to bounce. He won’t want to bring in new staff and change style. Which will be all but mandated from brass.
The ole “so and so is sniffing around” routine won’t work. Nobody is going to get a bump or extension.
Kind of like Cal.
Did MB fire Cal. No. However, I’m almost positive there were a lot of terms that he didn’t want to abide by should he return.
Tenured people with plush gigs don’t budge not only because of pay, but more so the control. Cal clearly didn’t need the money he opted to take less money and throw his golden parachute retirement plan down the toilet just so he could continue to do things his way.
CMS isn’t going to want to clean house, specifically tell his boys to bounce. He won’t want to bring in new staff and change style. Which will be all but mandated from brass.
The ole “so and so is sniffing around” routine won’t work. Nobody is going to get a bump or extension.
How do you know how many wins we will get? What if it's a better season than you think?
You have a confirmation bias and nothing will change your mind. 9-4 or 4-8, your attitude is unchanged. It's boring.
Use your head. What Barnhart says about his coaches in public is not what he is saying to them privately. It doesn't take a genius. Just a little common sense.
And you REFUSE to face the FACTS. I am a high K-Fund season ticket holder and have been one for over 35 years!!! I support this program through good times and hard times!! So I speak from a place of REALISM.
I was ELATED 5 years ago when Mark Stoops Program was rolling by recruiting players that he could mold into SEC contenders through hard work AND discipline. Then, for some odd reason, he decided to let certain players SLIDE. I guess he was afraid of NIL and the transfer portal, but that was a HORRIBLE mistake.
So now we have a program that is fighting to get back to where it was with a coach that LOST his MOJO.
He is facing the HARDEST schedule I can remember in my 45 years of following UK Football. Mitch gave Coach Stoops a contract that tied the 2 together for these next few seasons and YOU know it!!!
I am hoping that Coach Stoops can turn it around, but I am skeptical. Would be THRILLED if he proved me wrong and got to 9-4 again!!! But I highly doubt it will be next season.
Actually, Calipari is alleged to have breached his contract, and was toast after he did so. As long as Stoops doesn't breach his contract, he's in no obligation to go anywhere without a massive buyout. Calipari absolutely had the ability to operate as he pleased, until he allegedly made a mistake and, then, he no longer had that ability and was tossed, or, at least, he was only allowed back under new terms- which he chose not to accept.
If Stoops doesn't make a similar alleged mistake, or some other mistake, he will either turn things around and stay as long as we wants, or go somewhere else; or he won’t turn things around, and he'll either be fired with a MASSIVE payout or he'll be kept and he'll try and try again to do better than 4-8 or 5-7 or whatever. Even if we suck next year, 4-8 or 5-7 will probably be good enough to keep him, whatwith that buyout, which is quite big.
But, if they go 2-10, with 9 P4 losses and a Toledo loss to boot, I'll bet he's out. 3-9, and it's 50/50, even better if one of the three wins is some massive upset against a Tennessee or Georgia, or if we somehow spank Louisville and I mean spank them like they just spanked us in November. That could save him even at 3-9.
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If Mitch fires him even with a 3-9 record, UK is on the hook for nearly $30 million!!! I just don’t see our big money donors forking up to pay that because I KNOW Mitch alone won’t. Plus you add in having to pay the next coach and ALL the players he wants to bring in and you are talking about A WHOLE LOT of money!!
We don’t have the money Texas A&M had to buyout Jimbo Fisher. Stoops buyout would be the 2nd highest EVER!!!
It's $37.5 million if done after the 2025 season and would have to be paid within 60 days of the notice to terminate.
They're not doing that.
They're not doing that.
You say you were "elated 5 years ago". Now you aren't, and your posts are usually cathartic and negative. Most of your "facts" are actually opinions. Your "realism" is almost always a defacto vote of no confidence for a coach and an AD who saved our football program and established its best performances in modern history. But what have they done for you lately, right? In your own words, you just described yourself as a fair weather fan. People believe what they want to believe, and many don't recognize the difference between a fact and an opinion.
You don't know Mark Stoops' opinion of NIL. All you know about this is that Stoops didn't receive enough help with NIL and it got bad enough in that particular respect that he spoke out. Were you helping?
Then, later, Stoops volunteered that we are in good shape now with NIL.
You are a season ticket holder and K FUND member. So am I. That is a "fact", Ben. So, by your stated "realism" standard, I too speak from a place of realism. Right?
Are you helping? Have you donated to 15 in 2023-25? If, as you say, you want Mark Stoops to succeed, then why do you always speak publicly against him? Why are you always bashing? Is that "realism"? No, it is unfiltered, compulsive complaining.
You may or may not be right about the schedule. Time will tell about that, but I don't ever remember UK's schedule being easy. It's always challenging. We don't whine about the schedule. We are an SEC school. Do you complain about our basketball schedule? We get stronger with the help of the BBN so we can overcome it. The benefit is that the SEC collects $billions in revenues and distributes the money equally among the member schools. That makes ompetitive facilities and payroll possible at every member school.
To be clear again, I agree that Mark Stoops got burned out and struggled with his focus. His divorce involved a lot of personal upheaval that has still not been publicly reported. It affected the program in ways that were unfortunate, but temporary. Stoops thinks he knows what needs to be done. I believe him. How do you know this isn't "realism"? You don't.
My gut tells me that Stoops may struggle to restore certain intangibles, such as toughness and cohesion in the program. IDK if he can do it. But I'm not going to cry and throw my rattle in public. I love my University, and I see reasons for optimism in Stoops' management of the portal. In your mind, that adds up to me refusing to face reality. But it's really just a different way of facing uncertainty. I am hopeful. You can disagree, but don't talk down to me about realism. You have a different point of view.
You are the one “talking down to ME” over my opinion. I would love nothing other than for Coach Stoops to prove me wrong. But Mitch has put this program TOTALLY in his hands and he has allowed HIS program to slide back down to the bottom.
Just because I am skeptical that Mitch and Stoops can turn it BACK around, doesn’t make me any less of a fan than you. And YES, the REALISM is where we are as a program right now!!! I really hope he returns to discipline and hard work that brought HIS program the success EVERY UK fan wants.
But with the SEC adding 2 more traditional powers, that climb back is going to be even HARDER. That is a FACT. So it is on Coach Stoops and Mitch to convince ME and those that are skeptical to believe they can get UK Football back to where we were. I REALLY hope they can, but they are in SHOW ME time now.
You call it complaining, I call it realism. And what’s crazy is I hope YOU are right and I am wrong.
So, Ben, once more. Have you helped? Have you contributed to 15? Have you provided any public gestures of positive encouragement? I ask because you just made some demonstrably false claims about NIL while labeling them "realism" and histrionically insisting that I refuse to "face reality".
You find support here among the other miserable posters. Very sad. Call it whatever you want.
