When Mark Stoops was hired, I never dreamed that the culture around UK football would shift this DRAMATICALLY.
I am in my 40s. My entire life, UK fans (and seemingly players and coaches) expected to lose close games. And we usually did.
The other team always had faster players and they would use that speed to exploit our slowness in the fourth quarter. Now we have wandale.
The other team always had bigger and stronger players. So, our miniature lines would wear down in the second half. Now, we are a line of scrimmage team with some of the best offensive and defensive linemen in the country and we are now a Destination for top linemen.
UK NEVER won on the road. We literally went years with zero road wins, even in nashville. NOw, we routinely win in nashville, columbia (x2), and louisville. Now, we have won four straight bowl games at neutral sites. Now, we have managed to win in Knoxville and Gainesville.
UK sometimes had a good home environment but we would get demoralized and "here we go again" at hte first sign of trouble. We would be drowned out by 20,000 orange fans singing rocky top or gator fans doing the chomp in our faces. Now, we have a great homefiled advantage and the other team false starts 8 times. Now, we beat name teams at home and we dominate the bottom half of the east at home.
Then, we RARELY won close games and it was the stuff of legend when we did. Now, we constantly win close games. Check out stoops' record in one score games. it's unreal. We used to play a pretty game now and then but would pull defeat from the jaws of victory. Now, we can go -11 on turnover margin and go 10-3. Now, we go to columbia SC and lose the turnover margin 0-3 and win the game anyway (ask Florida and auburn about playing them this year at night).
Other teams have players opt out (hell, Ohio had 3 players opt out of the frigging ROSE BOWL). UK Players rarely opt out. I don't get offended when players do and am not trying to start a debate on that - but it says something about this program that they don't WANT TO.
This is culture. Yes, we have (much) better players. But, Stoops has instilled something intangible here. We expect to win (coaches, players, FANS). We stick together. We show up at home and on the road. He has built a rock solid program and i don't think he's hit a ceiling yet.
It's a great time to be a wildcat.
I am in my 40s. My entire life, UK fans (and seemingly players and coaches) expected to lose close games. And we usually did.
The other team always had faster players and they would use that speed to exploit our slowness in the fourth quarter. Now we have wandale.
The other team always had bigger and stronger players. So, our miniature lines would wear down in the second half. Now, we are a line of scrimmage team with some of the best offensive and defensive linemen in the country and we are now a Destination for top linemen.
UK NEVER won on the road. We literally went years with zero road wins, even in nashville. NOw, we routinely win in nashville, columbia (x2), and louisville. Now, we have won four straight bowl games at neutral sites. Now, we have managed to win in Knoxville and Gainesville.
UK sometimes had a good home environment but we would get demoralized and "here we go again" at hte first sign of trouble. We would be drowned out by 20,000 orange fans singing rocky top or gator fans doing the chomp in our faces. Now, we have a great homefiled advantage and the other team false starts 8 times. Now, we beat name teams at home and we dominate the bottom half of the east at home.
Then, we RARELY won close games and it was the stuff of legend when we did. Now, we constantly win close games. Check out stoops' record in one score games. it's unreal. We used to play a pretty game now and then but would pull defeat from the jaws of victory. Now, we can go -11 on turnover margin and go 10-3. Now, we go to columbia SC and lose the turnover margin 0-3 and win the game anyway (ask Florida and auburn about playing them this year at night).
Other teams have players opt out (hell, Ohio had 3 players opt out of the frigging ROSE BOWL). UK Players rarely opt out. I don't get offended when players do and am not trying to start a debate on that - but it says something about this program that they don't WANT TO.
This is culture. Yes, we have (much) better players. But, Stoops has instilled something intangible here. We expect to win (coaches, players, FANS). We stick together. We show up at home and on the road. He has built a rock solid program and i don't think he's hit a ceiling yet.
It's a great time to be a wildcat.
