I disagree on the Portal/NIL killing momentum. It was a failure of the recruiting and developing. We had a whole bunch of highly rated recruits - particularly on the offensive line - that were total busts. We went to the portal BECAUSE our momentum had already been killed.
He was and is a bigger loss! If he doesn't come back - he is truly the death nail to next season - at least psychologically! Coach Stoops doesn't have a clue about UK football and his future at the moment. People need to remember he was a field goal away from being let go in year 3 at UK. He had a much better chance of building a winner at UK then than he does now. Only Mississippi State is even close to being in as bad of shape as UK is in football at the moment. Can a winner be built thru NIL - YES! How much money would it take now? Well, let's put it this way - Stoop's entire buyout is NOT enough money to do it now. He will never see a scheduled again where he can win more than 5 games here - hate to see it but I'm serious! 3 out of conference wins with the patsies - might be able to beat Vanderbilt or Mississippi State the year he gets to play them and then every few years might be able to beat Louisville - however, doubt he will here long enough for that - because it would take Stoops at least 4 more years to build a team with winning season possiblity at UK again.
Agree but the problem is the COLLEGES have no say so in fixing anything. It was taken away from them. There is a reason why the fought so long to keep it somewhat amateur sport. Because the more money comes in the less it has to do wtih COLLEGE football at all. What you have now happening the reverse of things where its a PROFESSIONAL game where they are just using the colleges facilities and traidtions to package it around because they know thats the real appeal of the sport. Take away the college atmosphere and the sports not the same. But the truth is that same atmosphere will be hard for the new professional game to hang on to as mrore and more fans lose interest in it as it gets pulled more and more away from any connection to their school.
I wish I could like this post 1,000 times.
Glad he is coming back, he has the potential you look for. I hate the game that is being played nowadays.
Mizzou and USC-Lite has beaten us the past 2 and 3 seasons. Ever since Coach Stoops mouthed off about his "culture" compared to Beamer's, he has lost to him 3 straight seasons!!! Considering Coach Stoops is the longest tenured coach in the SEC, isn't it concerning that we have dropped down to the bottom of the league??? Heck, Vandy has beaten us 2 out of the last 3 and BOTH of those were at home.
You said the program “lost its identity”, a statement I definitely agree with. Where was the “identity” you speak of between 1953 and 2012?
It's "identity" was that the administration didn't put enough support behind the football program.
Great way to avoid answering the question. Maybe admitting the very culture we “lost” has only existed with the very coach you want to burn at the stake isn’t a good tactic. Such a thing shows our blatant hypocrisy on this topic. The expectations that Stoops failed to reach are expectations brought about by the regime led by the very same man. I can’t control what fans want but hoping someone on the fence sees all this and can be honest…this is a farce
The coach that has been given MORE than ANY other coach in the history of the program "lost" everything he had built. We are right back where we were when he arrived, near the bottom of the SEC. How did he do that????
I didn’t like the A&M move but I totally understand why he wanted to make that move. I personally will pull for Stoops until he is no longer coaching here, to me, he has earned that.
KSR gets their 'inside scoop' from Marrow. So, Marrow most likely told them that nonsense to make the coaching staff look like they were getting rid of the problem kids and not losing them from jumping off a sinking ship.
I will cheer for Stoops as long as he is here, he gave us the best seasons of my life. I do think he is trending downwards and isn’t showing much as far as building a winner again so he has next year or else most people will rightfully(IMO) want him gone. If we win only 1 or 0 conference games a year it’s time for a change, He’s trending down pretty hard.
I agree he is trending downwards but I feel like the man should have earned a whole lot longer leash than we are giving. Feels like bloodhounds on a bone, when Stoops is our guy who got those expectations higher.
I think he deserves a leash but it’s been a couple subpar years and his almost leaving shows his desire wasn’t here. It seems to me like he’s coasting on the back end of his career since his contract is guaranteed and so impossible to move on from.
Once the ball got rolling with Stoops, he has had one year where we weren’t competitive, which is last year. Did he perform lower than expectations sometimes in between? Yes and that happens to literally everyone. That’s sports. I don’t like that stoops almost left, that upset me. Doesn’t change that he is far and away the best thing we’ve had in 50 years and fans want to force him out as soon as he doesn’t reach expectations he cultivated
Then you’re not listening. Stay in your lane.
Blah, blah, blah. Just like UK won’t be outbid in basketball that is not the case in football. Until limits are placed and fans are taken out of the mix it’s gonna get worse for UK.Why ? Because follow the money is the rule. To hell with an education.
Thanks Bob. Tell the rest of the Stoops family happy new year when you all gather tonight.
we’ve never had the history of Bamas and other schools and I’m not arguing that. But it’s commonplace for people to just argue for stoops by saying ‘bowl games…’ or whatever about past teams and even without resources then the reality is that while that specific stretch of time wouldn’t be lauded as incredible or anything the truth is it isn’t as bad as people make it out to be. if you took the bowl and schedule structure stoops has coached under we would’ve gone to a bowl about 50% of the time. 18 seasons better than .500 another 6 at .500 and another several seasons that only needed one more win to qualify for bowls…give them todays 12 game schedule they control 3 buy games at the level that is accepted now to do it. collier had better w/l percentage both in and out of conference than stoops. I’m not alleging anything was ‘great’ but our rep for a totally bad history is essentially produced by the triumvirate of Ray, Bradshaw and Curry who only reached .500 in 3 of 16 seasons and their non .500 seasons never got within a win of it. Heck, give Claiborne the modern schedule and he likely only posts a losing season in his first year. Thats still mediocre but this whole ‘how many bowls in 1963 did we go to’ doesn’t measure anything to the current circumstances because roads have been paved for these current teams. Stoops has done well in ways but to take a more detailed perspective view of it there are other coaches that would have succeeded at least as well or possibly better if they traded circumstances with him. My negativity toward him is predominantly driven by him being mostly checked out in the last few years after winning his pr battle with cal and getting one raise too many. That and people going with the ‘he’s the only guy that can do this’ is misplaced. Yeah we can’t have bad hires because nobody can. But there are other people that can coach.
I love how we act like UK only started being disadvantaged in football when NIL came along.
