Excellent article on the importance of the new recruiting room

[*Bleedingblue*]

"Before the new recruiting room (I'll get to more on that later), Kentucky visitors checked in at the Nutter Field House adjacent to the stadium. They walked across the indoor track to the corner of that building, which served as a makeshift recruiting room.

"No game day atmosphere, no music," explained Dan Berezowitz, UK's director of football recruiting operations. "You couldn't hear what was going on in the stadium. You couldn't see warm-ups. You couldn't experience any of it."

Cats coaches would have to wind their way through game-day traffic and crowds to meet up with recruits in the room before games.

"The coaches really couldn't spend time with kids because they've gotten so far away from the locker room and then walking through the fans," Berezowitz said. "You're in the indoor and it's hot."

The last couple of seasons, Coach Mark Stoops' support staff had to scramble to get recruits onto the field as the team ran out of the tunnel. Then the recruits would be herded up to their seats before the game.

(emphisis mine)
Oh, and their seats were behind the visiting team's bench, which created its own set of problems. Berezowitz would have to stand between opponent benches and UK's recruits.

"Their coaches would basically try to talk to our top recruits every game," he said. "They didn't care. They'd just sit there, 'Call me,' trying to recruit them, which is against the rules, but they didn't care."


Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/08/15/3990472_uk-footballs-new-vip-recruiting.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

 

[FusterCluck]

Odd how the few fans that wanted Petrino at UK take a constant beating here, yet, those that scoffed and laughed (for years) at the need for a recruiting room/facility are never called into question, even when facts are presented.

 

[Poetax]

Odd how the few fans that wanted Petrino at UK take a constant beating here, yet, those that scoffed and laughed (for years) at the need for a recruiting room/facility are never called into question, even when facts are presented.

You may have to give me names of those that didn't think that we didn't need a recruiting room. I will say many were shocked at what we had in place but I never heard anyone blatantly say it was never needed. Now with petrino, it was easy to see why he wasn't needed.

 

[FusterCluck]

Even if I could remember names, what good would it do to list them? It wouldn't be verifiable since archived posts of those years are long gone with the format changeover, and even if they were available, you'd likely still find a way to discredit them.

I was here before and during the Brooks years. I remember the posts with the pic of the "recruiting corner" with the pull-down projector screen and foldout chairs and card tables. I also remember that there were 2 very clear-cut sides to the idea that spending money on a recruiting facility (per Brooks' request) would help UK sell its program. Those people know who they are. They don't need me to point them out. If you don't remember that, I'd have to question if that may have been before your time here.

As for Petrino, I remember that battle, as well. As I remember, the folks who wanted him here were well aware of his shortcomings and the impending resulting damage he represented, but they wanted nothing more than success for UKFB after decades of failure, no matter the cost. Might I remind you that that argument was taking place months prior to Mark Stoops contacting Mitch with his plan to succeed at UK.

You can question my take here, but let's not use revisionist history to do so, please.

 

[Poetax]

Even if I could remember names, what good would it do to list them? It wouldn't be verifiable since archived posts of those years are long gone with the format changeover, and even if they were available, you'd likely still find a way to discredit them.

I was here before and during the Brooks years. I remember the posts with the pic of the "recruiting corner" with the pull-down projector screen and foldout chairs and card tables. I also remember that there were 2 very clear-cut sides to the idea that spending money on a recruiting facility (per Brooks' request) would help UK sell its program. Those people know who they are. They don't need me to point them out. If you don't remember that, I'd have to question if that may have been before your time here.

As for Petrino, I remember that battle, as well. As I remember, the folks who wanted him here were well aware of his shortcomings and the impending resulting damage he represented, but they wanted nothing more than success for UKFB after decades of failure, no matter the cost. Might I remind you that that argument was taking place months prior to Mark Stoops contacting Mitch with his plan to succeed at UK.

You can question my take here, but let's not use revisionist history to do so, please.

Not sure how old you are but I have been here since we played at Stoll Field. Actually listened to Brooks plead to the media after several practices on the need of a recruiting room for his staff to use. Every fan I knew, knew we needed this. Now was there an occasional UK fan who disagreed? Maybe but there was never the negativity against it that you seem to remember. Plus there was a group who wanted petrino but you don't hear from them anymore.

 

[hmt5000]

i wanted petrino to be interviewed. i wanted us to make sure we got a good coach that time or we were gonna be i real big trouble for several years. i knew he was a good coach but a scumbag person so i just wanted barnhardt to bring him in and see how it went. if he didn't hire him i wasn't gonna be mad but i didn't want to end up with another reach or an aging guy looking to retire soon. i didn't want to feel like we didn't try to get the best guy we could.

im absolutely thrilled in stoops and the whole direction football is heading in from all levels. i want to win but it is nice to have a coach that you respect and like. i still remember the afternoon underdogs show the day petrino left for atlanta. it's hilarious that now these same people act like bobby is cool when that show made it clear that the only reason people that knew him, put up with him, was because he won games. if he'd of had a losing season they would of run him out wayyyy faster than krags.... at least krags was a decent human being. they had caller after caller coming on just ripping him... and not the way that UK fans ripped pitino when he left for the nba... they were ripping his charachter, his personality, his sons brushes with the law that apparently got swept under the rug, his treatment of ladys in the athletic dept and the media.

i always wanted a recruiting room and don't remember anyone saying we didn't need one or it wouldn't be nice i think there were just a laundry list of things we needed and that was about #18 on the list.