I like your posts, but I think you might be missing the mark in this 1. Jones didn't make this decision on a calculator. He says this is the chance of a lifetime, so that is what is in his heart. Maybe he becomes a star at Alabama, maybe he doesn't. Who cares? It is his decision to make, and he has made it. He isn't coming to Kentucky. Life goes on. Here is what bothers me. I did not see any Kentucky fans apply your logic when Trey Lyles decommitted for Indiana, Derek Willis decommitted from Purdue, Sacha Killeya-Jones decommitted from Virginia. Nobody here gives a hoot about Mac Jones' future unless it is in Lexington. Some posters openly hope now that Jones gets seriously injured, if you can believe that. A lot of fans view these kids as commodities for their entertainment, nothing else. If the kid doesn't pick Kentucky, they wish he fails it gets hurt. As a former athlete, I find that offensive. I also think Coach Hinshaw deserves a fair chance to recruit his own guy. Jones was a Shannon Dawson recruit. Let's see what Hinshaw does now. He must have known this was a possibility.
I'd agree with this, especially the part about Hinshaw and the possibility Jones would move on. These coaches can read these kids much better than we can. I think if truth be known, UK(read Stoops, Hinshaw/Gran, Morrow) are not the least bit surprised by Jones flip.
Reading all the threads about this I have to say I am as surprised as UK fans are that he flipped now. The path to seeing playing time, on paper anyway, was much easier than it will be at Bama. Not only will they have 4 4* on the roster this fall, at least 5 in 17, then they will take another 1 or 2 in 18. If Jones hasn't made progress by the end of his frosh year, 2nd year at the latest he will be a forgotten man and transfer. If he is lucky it will be after his first year and he can go JUCO, graduate and go wherever he wants. If its after his second year, he will be stuck, Bama will block an SEC transfer forcing him to sit 2 years or he can transfer out of the SEC and sit 1 year or transfer down a division and play immediately. But Jones and every kid they sign feels that is what will happen to some other guy, not them. But it is what it is, kids don't understand the word commitment and apparently some don't understand the word respect.
The playing time at Alabama doesn't matter. Going to Bama affords you a certain cache. If you don't win the job there, you're still assumed to be good and just a victim of the numbers game. Then, you can transfer to a USC, Texas, TAMU, or whatever big money program need a QB urgently. It's like a second recruitment. It's a smart decision by Jones, it just sucks for our snake bitten program.
No, I've seen about 25 years of first hand evidence (started watching football around 1990) that shows we have a truly good team once every 10 years or so. We never develop a consistently winning or even improving program. We bottom out about once even 10 years too. I see the cycle before my time too. It just sucks to try and get excited about a 1-2 year flash in the pan every decade or so. I think a lot of things like geography, state population, funding, facilities, stadium, basketball, state demographics, and administration have always counted against us when it comes to becoming a great program, and that amount of things are very difficult to overcome. As much as I want to see it, the light at the end of the tunnel gets fainter every year.
Reading all the threads about this I have to say I am as surprised as UK fans are that he flipped now. The path to seeing playing time, on paper anyway, was much easier than it will be at Bama. Not only will they have 4 4* on the roster this fall, at least 5 in 17, then they will take another 1 or 2 in 18. If Jones hasn't made progress by the end of his frosh year, 2nd year at the latest he will be a forgotten man and transfer. If he is lucky it will be after his first year and he can go JUCO, graduate and go wherever he wants. If its after his second year, he will be stuck, Bama will block an SEC transfer forcing him to sit 2 years or he can transfer out of the SEC and sit 1 year or transfer down a division and play immediately. But Jones and every kid they sign feels that is what will happen to some other guy, not them. But it is what it is, kids don't understand the word commitment and apparently some don't understand the word respect.
I can't believe anyone would make the argument that a quality player would make a choice out of high school to enhance the possibilities of transferring elsewhere and losing a year of eligibility in the process later on. That's certainly not what Grumpy was saying.
I would agree with this for every position except the QB position at UA. They are just not recognized as a school that produces or recruits the QBs you see in most spread offenses today. You even heard it from Mac Jones at the Elite 11, he is not a spread qb, he runs the wing in offense and maybe he realized going against spread type QBs in the competition that what UK would ask of him under Gran relies less on a steady running attack to help him on offense than UA and Nick served that up to him on a platter, of course that is speculative but reasonable.That's the thing. Don't progress well and transfer from UK? You're damaged goods. Transfer from Alabama? You're still great, numbers victim, just settin yourself in the best opportunity, NFL still interested. It's a smart choice. It sucks that we are who we are.
I would agree with this for every position except the QB position at UA. They are just not recognized as a school that produces or recruits the QBs you see in most spread offenses today. You even heard it from Mac Jones at the Elite 11, he is not a spread qb, he runs the wing in offense and maybe he realized going against spread type QBs in the competition that what UK would ask of him under Gran relies less on a steady running attack to help him on offense than UA and Nick served that up to him on a platter, of course that is speculative but reasonable.
Are you serious? The year of eligibility is a non issue since QBs often take redshirt years any way to mature.
Exactly right Sir. We have as much talent on the roster right now than anytime in a long time and all we need to do is come out of the gate and show it and the juice in recruiting will be right back quickly because everything else is in place now with the facilities etc. As you can see from the early commits we get every year and big interest from other big time players (committed or not), kids want to come here, but they just need to see theres a chance to be good and play in meaningful bowl games. Just gotta produce starting now.Man, this sounds depressing. There are still plenty of good qbs out there that want to play for a 'winning' program. That is the difference. Stoops & Co have just as good a recruiting pitch & facility investment to back it up. We have to start producing.
? You only get one redshirt year and it's just about a sure thing that they will use it their freshmen year especially at a place like Bama that has 5 other QBs on the roster.
Can't believe you would think that way. However, I would LMAO if Saban were to approach Jones a few weeks before NSD and ask him to grayshirt (as he has been known to do).I'll say it. I hope he tears an acl
It was hard but he wanted to help make a program great instead of being part of a great program. Can't blame Jones but I understand the frustration.
It was hard but he wanted to help make a program great instead of being part of a great program. Can't blame Jones but I understand the frustration.
No one wants to be here anymore, our program is a joke. And stoops can't win.
It is depressing. There's plenty of QBs, but very few who have (or pretended to have, right Jones?) a desire to play for UK. Hopefully Gran makes us an exciting offense for talent to play in. Like you said, we HAVE to start producing. Problem is we've had two coaches in 20 years that truly produced. One was Mumme and we all know why that was a sham. The other was Brooks, who turned a F program into a solid B, then Joker took it back to F faster than you can blink. I'd love to see some production, but historically (modern era) we've never really had it.
I know this is the way football recruiting goes, but... damn. Wow. Huge blow. He acted as committed as any recruit we've ever had. We'd been hyping and counting on this kid for what seems like forever, and now we get a gut check.
As echoed by others, I don't want to hear anything about a player until the LOI is in hand. It's just pointless. Especially when we're going after top tier guys. They're going to flip 80% of the time, so why do we bother acting like anyone is truly committed?
The more years go by, the more I feel like we're just destined to be mediocre to bad forever. Keep Stoops, fire Stoops, who cares? There isn't a change out there that's going to matter. Ugh. Football is basically just and excuse to get drunk around here.
Will do if stoops doesn't do shit this year. LolLooks like it is time for you to transfer to Bama also------please.
Jones will either hang around and play by his RS soph/jr year or end his career at UCF or USF.
As for UK I mentioned on another thread...they are in a classic Catch-22 when it comes to football. Need good players to win but need to win to get good players.
I can see that. No, Bama has not been a QB factory. But he can also say to new teams and to NFL suitors, "I spent 2 years under Lane Kiffin's tutelage (pro experience)" No one is going to hold your time at Alabama against you. It's like Kentucky basketball and how they all say "it prepared me to be a pro." That's basically what Alabama does (even though they've had a series of flops lately).
Having a starting OL that could possibly AVERAGE over a 5.9 in 17 says you are wrong, (that IS a change that matters) plus more than enough four stars to start at every other position.
Will do if stoops doesn't do shit this year. Lol
Yep yepGood riddance if it happens, but sorry to say we are probably stuck with you for a while.
Well, I just hope that Mac understands that the Alabama offense does not showcase its quarterbacks and the only reason AJ McCarron was a household name was because of Katherine Webb. He'll be handing the ball off more often than he'll be allowed to throw it.
I just don't understand why these kids feel the need to commit to a school if it's not the school they really want to play for. What is the point in that? I know Bama is considered elite and probably has the best coaching staff in college football, but why commit to Kentucky if you weren't interested in actually going there? Of course our fans are going to be mad. I don't think you deserve the respect you ask for if you commit to one school and then flip as soon as a better offer comes along. Just don't commit untl you are 100% confident you know where you are going to play college football. It's that simple. It stops fans from bashing you in situations like this. If you don't know for sure if you really want to play at whatever school, just keep your recruiting open and don't lead any fanbase on about wanting to play for their school. I know these are kids we're talking about, but still. Parents or someone should be there to tell them not to do something unless you know for sure. It's just annoying as heck to deal with things like this. It's not fair to the coaching staffs involved or the fans. Oh well. We will still move on and survive.
If you're single and ready to mingle lol then hell no you don't turn down a 10. But if you show up at the dance with another girl and ditch her to hook up with the 10 it sure does make you look like a $&$&!! I get the allure of playing for Alabama and Nick Saban. But all along Mac Jones went on social media and declared how committed to UK he was and how he was married to Mark Stoops. When you tell people bold faced lies I think you deserve any and all backlash you get.yeah...i'm shocked at how shocked people are and how some are acting...
maybe if he was a homegrown i could understand some of the soreness...maybe...
like i said earlier, kid was interested when we were the first and only girl at the dance...then the bombshell showed up casually late, hot as hell but cool as ice at the same time...the girl who has plenty of options...she asked him to dance and he said yes...
who among you says no to a 10?
Following the news, Kentucky’s co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Darin Hinshaw tweeted out a quote attributed to James E. Faust.
“In this life, we have to make many choices,” the message read. “Some are very important choices. Some are not. Many of our choices are between good and evil. The choices we make, however, determine to a large extent our happiness or our unhappiness, because we have to live with the consequences of our choices.”
Hinshaw subtweeting a teenager by quoting Faust is petty. He probably did it in a moment of frustration without thinking, but it looks bad IMO.
I think I posted this earlier and if so I'm sorry... Saban has been ay Alabama going on 9 years now and they have signed 13 Top Flite quarterbacks in those years...TWO of them have ended up as starters...something I think Jones should ponder before he signs papers in FebYeah, Bama puts a lot of players into the NFL. How have they done with QBs?
If you're single and ready to mingle lol then hell no you don't turn down a 10. But if you show up at the dance with another girl and ditch her to hook up with the 10 it sure does make you look like a $&$&!! I get the allure of playing for Alabama and Nick Saban. But all along Mac Jones went on social media and declared how committed to UK he was and how he was married to Mark Stoops. When you tell people bold faced lies I think you deserve any and all backlash you get.
that's high school...young love...growing up...being an indecisive kid...
which is why I like the analogy...perfectly applicable...
we were the first little puppy love...it was sweet for a while...cute...both uk and mac on the way up, neither one much of anybody yet...but Mac hit a growth spurt, developed a bit, started to gain some fame under the bright lights of friday night...here comes the head cheerleader...seasoned...knows how to seal the deal...
lots of boys start of the year with one girl...and end up with another one in the back of their truck after prom...
would anybody here have a problem if CMS snatched a 5* and told Mac to take a hike...nope...