First things first, Settle made a lot of sense when he was hired. Coming from Wisconsin, a developmental program with running backs who had much the same kind of success as Benny Snell and Chris Rodriguez, it seemed like a natural fit.
No issues with Settle as a position coach. C Rod was outstanding and McClain looked good in his opportunities this year, too.
This appears to be overwhelmingly about recruiting and Stoops needing to make the staff stronger in that respect. Running back coaches are typically some of your better recruiters and I don't want to say Settle was a "zero" there because you are sometimes the secondary recruiter and also your role as a position coach does influence RB recruits, but he definitely didn't have a track record of going out and pulling in big-time recruits.
My belief is that any non-coordinator assistant coaching turnover for Kentucky this year will be largely driven with recruiting in mind. In particular, recruiting in the South. You simply have to get good players from that region to compete at the SEC at a high level. With Marrow in KY and OH primarily but also MI and Woodward doing good work in Tennessee, they really need to boost the recruiting operation outside of those areas and in particular to the South.
Somebody like Cadillac would be a grand slam but I'm sure he's going to be a guy that a lot of schools are talking about.
There's an immediate impact for UK now. It makes sense that Stoops would move rather quickly here because it's a pivotal season for the future of the running back position. They need two running back recruits and don't have any following the parting of ways with Moorman and Keith's decommitment. We're talking about Jamarion Wilcox, Jordan Louie, Trey Cornist, and Robert Henry as the four primary backs they are looking at and with no RB coach you'd expect Stoops to move as quickly as possible to give those prospects some comfort. I'm sure they are communicating with them behind the scenes and were shrewd enough not to make it just a 1-on-1 Settle/recruit situation.
We also would not be surprised to see Kentucky bring in a running back from the portal this year. Travis recently heard about someone who has already had success as a staring running back at the Power Five level and it sounds very interesting. Don't want to give you the impression that it's only one guy they would be focusing on.
Of course the elephant in the room is that Gran is on staff. Personally, I think he'd be a very good running backs coach and he is a better recruiter than Settle. They wouldn't be doing the sweeping approach in Florida but he ID'ed some good players other places, too. Not saying it will be him, I haven't heard anything about that, but it's not an insane idea.
No issues with Settle as a position coach. C Rod was outstanding and McClain looked good in his opportunities this year, too.
This appears to be overwhelmingly about recruiting and Stoops needing to make the staff stronger in that respect. Running back coaches are typically some of your better recruiters and I don't want to say Settle was a "zero" there because you are sometimes the secondary recruiter and also your role as a position coach does influence RB recruits, but he definitely didn't have a track record of going out and pulling in big-time recruits.
My belief is that any non-coordinator assistant coaching turnover for Kentucky this year will be largely driven with recruiting in mind. In particular, recruiting in the South. You simply have to get good players from that region to compete at the SEC at a high level. With Marrow in KY and OH primarily but also MI and Woodward doing good work in Tennessee, they really need to boost the recruiting operation outside of those areas and in particular to the South.
Somebody like Cadillac would be a grand slam but I'm sure he's going to be a guy that a lot of schools are talking about.
There's an immediate impact for UK now. It makes sense that Stoops would move rather quickly here because it's a pivotal season for the future of the running back position. They need two running back recruits and don't have any following the parting of ways with Moorman and Keith's decommitment. We're talking about Jamarion Wilcox, Jordan Louie, Trey Cornist, and Robert Henry as the four primary backs they are looking at and with no RB coach you'd expect Stoops to move as quickly as possible to give those prospects some comfort. I'm sure they are communicating with them behind the scenes and were shrewd enough not to make it just a 1-on-1 Settle/recruit situation.
We also would not be surprised to see Kentucky bring in a running back from the portal this year. Travis recently heard about someone who has already had success as a staring running back at the Power Five level and it sounds very interesting. Don't want to give you the impression that it's only one guy they would be focusing on.
Of course the elephant in the room is that Gran is on staff. Personally, I think he'd be a very good running backs coach and he is a better recruiter than Settle. They wouldn't be doing the sweeping approach in Florida but he ID'ed some good players other places, too. Not saying it will be him, I haven't heard anything about that, but it's not an insane idea.
