Closing the Gap

[Deeeefense]

Originally posted by CatsFanGG24:
If you are running a race, it definitely matters whether you finish 1 second or an hour behind if you have to race the same people again...being 1 second behind is a lot less to make up than being an hour behind. The gap closer matters...and if you cant see the gap closing from 2-10 (0-8) x 2 to 5-7 (2-6) then you just don't want to see it.

And if you think recruiting anlaysts can predict how a player will perform at the next level with the accuracy of a timer's stop watch then you're clueless as to how rankings are determined.

 

[CatsFanGG24]

Originally posted by Deeeefense:

Originally posted by CatsFanGG24:

If you are running a race, it definitely matters whether you finish 1 second or an hour behind if you have to race the same people again...being 1 second behind is a lot less to make up than being an hour behind. The gap closer matters...and if you cant see the gap closing from 2-10 (0-8) x 2 to 5-7 (2-6) then you just don't want to see it.

And if you think recruiting anlaysts can predict how a player will perform at the next level with the accuracy of a timer's stop watch then you're clueless as to how rankings are determined.

Is this a shot at me? Lost in an analogy?.....

 

[AJ Blue]

Originally posted by STEVE!:

Originally posted by RV2:

Originally posted by STEVE!:
Stating that we are 13th but not as far away from 12th as we have been in the past is about as good news as saying the federal budget deficit this year is only $500 billion instead of $1.5 trillion. We are still falling further behind the rest of the SEC. I agree with the other posters that said "just win some games". That is the true measure of the recruiting success.

Did you even read the OP basically laying out in black and white that we ARE closing the gap and yet you say we're falling further behind. Based on what? The fact we won fewer ooc games in '14? No - wait - we won more ooc games.

OK - the fact we won fewer SEC games? No - that's not right either. We won more SEC games.

Unbelievable! SMH

13th is still 13th, RV2, whether we lost by 1 point or 1000 points. If you're running a race and are in 13th place, and the 12 runners ahead of you are running faster than you, aren't you falling further behind instead of closing the gap? We finished 13th in the SEC last season, and the 12 teams ahead of us - all of whom went to bowls - had better recruiting classes than us. There were 24 Freshmen and Sophomores on this year's all-SEC Team, and our only representative was our Place Kicker. Ramsey Meyers was our only representative on the all-SEC Freshman teams, and our last two classes were supposed to be better than this one. The only way we can argue that our recruiting is SEC caliber is to win some games against teams other than UT Martin, Ohio, ULM, and historically bad USC and Vandy squads. I hope Stoops can coach his guys up to do that this year.

Wow. I give up fellas but I appreciate the effort. For some this is like trying to get my dog to stop looking at the end of my finger when I'm pointing out the window.
This post was edited on 2/10 1:51 PM by AJ Blue

 

[STEVE!]

Originally posted by BlueChuck:

Originally posted by BigBluePhantom:

Originally posted by STEVE!:


13th is still 13th, RV2, whether we lost by 1 point or 1000 points. If you're running a race and are in 13th place, and the 12 runners ahead of you are running faster than you, aren't you falling further behind instead of closing the gap?

Absolutely Not! The starting point resets every year or in your poor analogy every race. Look at it this way, if runner X lost his first race by 20 yards and then the next race by 15 yards and then the next race by only 10 yards, what can we conclude? That runner X is improving more and the runners ahead of him and that if the trend continues, he will soon start passing the runners just ahead of him and that he is indeed closing that gap race by race. UK's recruiting classes have been much closer to the other SEC schools than they were prior to Stoops. Common sense dictates that this should result in in UK having a more competitive team compared to the teams that have not improved their recruiting and should translate into more wins than we previously have been getting. More wins should result in even better recruiting which should in turn create even more wins.

No guarantees that it will play out exactly like this but that has to be the plan and so far it is moving along right on schedule.

Great post Phantom, but quit trying to convince someone that simply wants to argue and complain. Anybody that can not see that we are indeed making progress, just as the original poster stated, either does not know a thing about football, or just simply wants to whine and complain. Stoops will get it done here. There is no doubt in my mind.

Well, I hope you guys are right and I'm wrong. I've been following and cheering for the Cats since the John Ray days, hoping eventually for a consistently good program, and I guess I've tired of hearing pretty much the same hype every few years. If finishing next to last in the conference every year is going to eventually translate into a winning program, then I'm all in. I just haven't seen this happen in 45 years.

 

[AJ Blue]

I do identify with you Steve and have been following just as long. The subject was just about recruits but I think most long sufferers agree that it is time to show it on the field as well. I think it will and believe the 13 and 14 classes that started closing the gap just needed some seasoning to show it. We shall see.

 

[Grumpyolddawg]

Originally posted by BigBluePhantom:

Originally posted by STEVE!:

13th is still 13th, RV2, whether we lost by 1 point or 1000 points. If you're running a race and are in 13th place, and the 12 runners ahead of you are running faster than you, aren't you falling further behind instead of closing the gap?

Absolutely Not! The starting point resets every year or in your poor analogy every race. Look at it this way, if runner X lost his first race by 20 yards and then the next race by 15 yards and then the next race by only 10 yards, what can we conclude? That runner X is improving more and the runners ahead of him and that if the trend continues, he will soon start passing the runners just ahead of him and that he is indeed closing that gap race by race. UK's recruiting classes have been much closer to the other SEC schools than they were prior to Stoops. Common sense dictates that this should result in in UK having a more competitive team compared to the teams that have not improved their recruiting and should translate into more wins than we previously have been getting. More wins should result in even better recruiting which should in turn create even more wins.

No guarantees that it will play out exactly like this but that has to be the plan and so far it is moving along right on schedule.

Thats not a good comparison, say race winner is running 9.0 100 meter, runner X would be running around 11.0. Sure runner X is going to improve more, because Runner A is running national record pace, how much more is he going to improve? While runner X is running a decent HS time. He will never catch runner A, will he be able to get beaten by a smaller margin, of course but I don't think that is what you are looking for.

 

[RV2]

Originally posted by Grumpyolddawg:

Originally posted by BigBluePhantom:

Originally posted by STEVE!:

13th is still 13th, RV2, whether we lost by 1 point or 1000 points. If you're running a race and are in 13th place, and the 12 runners ahead of you are running faster than you, aren't you falling further behind instead of closing the gap?

Absolutely Not! The starting point resets every year or in your poor analogy every race. Look at it this way, if runner X lost his first race by 20 yards and then the next race by 15 yards and then the next race by only 10 yards, what can we conclude? That runner X is improving more and the runners ahead of him and that if the trend continues, he will soon start passing the runners just ahead of him and that he is indeed closing that gap race by race. UK's recruiting classes have been much closer to the other SEC schools than they were prior to Stoops. Common sense dictates that this should result in in UK having a more competitive team compared to the teams that have not improved their recruiting and should translate into more wins than we previously have been getting. More wins should result in even better recruiting which should in turn create even more wins.

No guarantees that it will play out exactly like this but that has to be the plan and so far it is moving along right on schedule.

Thats not a good comparison, say race winner is running 9.0 100 meter, runner X would be running around 11.0. Sure runner X is going to improve more, because Runner A is running national record pace, how much more is he going to improve? While runner X is running a decent HS time. He will never catch runner A, will he be able to get beaten by a smaller margin, of course but I don't think that is what you are looking for.

Nice try dawg but I beg to differ. If you're running a 11 vs his 9 you're right but if you improve to 9.5 then you're in the hunt and on a given day ...

 

[Grumpyolddawg]

Originally posted by RV2:

Originally posted by Grumpyolddawg:

Originally posted by BigBluePhantom:

Originally posted by STEVE!:

13th is still 13th, RV2, whether we lost by 1 point or 1000 points. If you're running a race and are in 13th place, and the 12 runners ahead of you are running faster than you, aren't you falling further behind instead of closing the gap?

Absolutely Not! The starting point resets every year or in your poor analogy every race. Look at it this way, if runner X lost his first race by 20 yards and then the next race by 15 yards and then the next race by only 10 yards, what can we conclude? That runner X is improving more and the runners ahead of him and that if the trend continues, he will soon start passing the runners just ahead of him and that he is indeed closing that gap race by race. UK's recruiting classes have been much closer to the other SEC schools than they were prior to Stoops. Common sense dictates that this should result in in UK having a more competitive team compared to the teams that have not improved their recruiting and should translate into more wins than we previously have been getting. More wins should result in even better recruiting which should in turn create even more wins.

No guarantees that it will play out exactly like this but that has to be the plan and so far it is moving along right on schedule.

Thats not a good comparison, say race winner is running 9.0 100 meter, runner X would be running around 11.0. Sure runner X is going to improve more, because Runner A is running national record pace, how much more is he going to improve? While runner X is running a decent HS time. He will never catch runner A, will he be able to get beaten by a smaller margin, of course but I don't think that is what you are looking for.

Nice try dawg but I beg to differ. If you're running a 11 vs his 9 you're right but if you improve to 9.5 then you're in the hunt and on a given day ...

Not really,means you are getting beat 5 yards, better than 20, but you are not in the hunt at 100 meters losing by 5. It isn't a good comparison but have closed the gap and getting beat by less. That isn't what I think people here are hoping for, to be close.

 

[ukfanjh]

Thanks for the research and input. That is really closing the gap. Now we must out develop and out scheme the rest of the conference and start putting up some wins!

 

[BlueRaider22]

Originally posted by STEVE!:




Well, I hope you guys are right and I'm wrong. I've been following and cheering for the Cats since the John Ray days, hoping eventually for a consistently good program, and I guess I've tired of hearing pretty much the same hype every few years. If finishing next to last in the conference every year is going to eventually translate into a winning program, then I'm all in. I just haven't seen this happen in 45 years.

There are several reasons for this.
1st - The "hype" that you heard in the past was more fans venting wishes......rather than actual improvement.

2nd - Any improvement that had happened in the past was still woefully behind the rest. So let's say that we used to run a race and we finished 100 yds behind everyone else.....we get a new coach and now we are finishing 70 yds behind everyone else. We've improved, but we still have little chance to win on any given race. With Stoops, we are actually recruiting "on paper" as good as half of the SEC now.......meaning that, as far as talent goes, we should be able to compete/win with half the conference every single time we play. Basically this boils down that in a few yrs we should have enough talent to go 8-4 regularly.......as far as talent goes. The question becomes, is our coaching on par with the rest of the league? We have have decent talent, but if Stoops can't coach/develop then we've got another problem entirely.

 

[Grumpyolddawg]

Originally posted by BlueRaider22:

Originally posted by STEVE!:




Well, I hope you guys are right and I'm wrong. I've been following and cheering for the Cats since the John Ray days, hoping eventually for a consistently good program, and I guess I've tired of hearing pretty much the same hype every few years. If finishing next to last in the conference every year is going to eventually translate into a winning program, then I'm all in. I just haven't seen this happen in 45 years.

I don't think there is any question if Stoops can coach and develop talent, he has been able to do that at every place he has been. The question is can/will he be a good head coach where on the big time college level developing and coaching talent really isn't what he is doing as much. Some great position coaches and coordinators struggled at being a head coach, Muschamp and Penelli are 2 very recent examples of this. So far Stoops has been at a pretty big talent handicap and any judgement would be unfair to him and the program. But just look at what he has gone through already as a first time head coach, having to hire a staff, having to try and keep the staff together, having to replace staff members who leave for one reason or another, that was something new to him and a learning experience I am sure. UK is very likely to make it a bowl this year, his kids will make up 3 of 4 classes, talent is improving. In year 4 all will be his kids with 2 upper classes, that's the year UK should expect a big improvement, when starters and a good bit of the depth have been in the program multiple years. Stoops shouldn't have any judgement placed on him until after the 4th season.

There are several reasons for this.
1st - The "hype" that you heard in the past was more fans venting wishes......rather than actual improvement.

2nd - Any improvement that had happened in the past was still woefully behind the rest. So let's say that we used to run a race and we finished 100 yds behind everyone else.....we get a new coach and now we are finishing 70 yds behind everyone else. We've improved, but we still have little chance to win on any given race. With Stoops, we are actually recruiting "on paper" as good as half of the SEC now.......meaning that, as far as talent goes, we should be able to compete/win with half the conference every single time we play. Basically this boils down that in a few yrs we should have enough talent to go 8-4 regularly.......as far as talent goes. The question becomes, is our coaching on par with the rest of the league? We have have decent talent, but if Stoops can't coach/develop then we've got another problem entirely.