One more reason to doubt the future of this offense under Bush Hamden. When the youngest kids with the highest potential for success leave the program, it gives me very little hope for improvement. It's one thing when kids that have one year left leave for a big pay day, it's another when the kids looked at as the "new beginning" for your program leave.
It's another thing when that isn't as cut and dried given fake NIL and free agency.
......
Was hanging out with a buddy of mine at a sports bar while the Bears choked against the Seahawks. He's a Bears fan from way back, like me, but still follows the team a little more closely than I do.
We were talking about the Bears and their perennial QB nightmare of the past (nearly) 40 years. The perfect example of their quandary is that their best success since the super bowl victory has been delivered by (ridiculously disparagingly named) "game manager" rather than (ridiculously overhypingly named) "gunslinger" types. They got into Super Bowl contention by having decent QB play that didn't hurt the team. They lost by the reversion of the QB position into taking chances that didn't need to be and shouldn't have been taken.
Same happened to the Carolina Panthers when Cam reverted to selfish/"it's.all.about.Cam" Newton. Cutler, Grossman, (Cam at Carolina), and (hopefully not long term) Williams were seen as the "gunslinger" types, and when they tried to do too much they hurt their team.
Kentucky has done better when they've had a QB that can read defenses and options when necessary, rather than try to make the big play. They do better with a leader and a hard working mentality at QB and an offense that reflects that at the other skill positions. That kid of QB can make an OL look better, and keep a defense tested and energized.
When the QB has to take chances or fixates on one WR instead of progressing through their reads, the odds of success diminish exponentially. That's what we had this past year. The offense didn't play to its strengths, and the QB didn't read the defense or progress through the reads properly.
We were too focused on the big play at too many positions- OC, WR, QB, and even RB at times.
Getting back to the winning football we've enjoyed will not be enough for most UK fans who want the hype and the glamour that bigger football programs have earned or bought. That's UKs biggest problem I've seen since I've been living here.
The majority of UK fans are never happy being UK when it comes to football. They always want to be or be seen as someone or something else without putting in the time or the effort. They talk a lot of sht, but they don't even know much about the team itself. One of them asked a friend of mine a few days ago, "How is UK going to recruit now that Marrow has left for Louisville?!" I kid you not.
Contrast that with Georgia fans throughout the Mark Richt and early Smart years. Iowa fans. VTech fans. So many other programs... They know who they are and embrace it. Championships or no championships.
But not UK fans. They change like the wind. Superstitious and/or negative first, optimistic rarely or for the first few minutes after a 10 win season. They love the gunslinger types and big play offenses, just like most of Chicago, regardless of where it takes them.
