Unless there’s another Top 25 coach you know you can get it may be wise to go ahead and overpay to keep the one you already have.
Mark stoops contacted by lsu
- Thread starter Mulder14
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Yeah he wins 9 games 3 times every 10 years and people are wanting to build statues here. He has no pressure to ever win the east, much less anything more.
He could win 6/7 games a year for the next 5 years here and he won’t have an ounce of pressure on him in terms of job security. All while being one of the highest paid coaches in the game.
I was contacted by a highly respected underwriter of automobile extended warranties several times this week. I'm not interested in joining their organization, and I'm pretty certain their feelings aren't hurt.
I disagree. Going 3-6 in the SEC 5 years running would (and should) get him fired.
It should. I don’t think it would. I think there’s too large of a portion in our fan base that would still celebrate him having us better than Joker. If we’re going to bowl games at 6-6, I don’t see enough fans turning on him. I could be wrong, but that’s how I view it.
I am not pushing for Stoops to leave but OBrien may be Saban's worst hire at Bama. I agree I believe he would be awful and gone soon.
What’s the over/under on how long it would take Stoops to get fired there? I’m going 1.5 years. Heck, I can think of 10-15 clock management/in-game decisions alone that Stoops made this year that would’ve been firing worthy at LSU. Add to that the fact that he almost always plays down to his competition and his inability to make in-game adjustments. Even if he had a stacked roster like LSU he would take at least 2 or 3 losses a year and be gone in no time. Good luck Stoopsy.
LSU must be pretty desperate if they’re considering the guy, that’s all I’ll say. He’s good for UK, but he’s not elite. They expect elite. And let’s be honest, Stoops couldn’t handle that pressure cooker. Heck he can barely handle the softball questions he gets from the fawning UK basketball-loving media.
LSU must be pretty desperate if they’re considering the guy, that’s all I’ll say. He’s good for UK, but he’s not elite. They expect elite. And let’s be honest, Stoops couldn’t handle that pressure cooker. Heck he can barely handle the softball questions he gets from the fawning UK basketball-loving media.
Lot of fuss about something that won't happen. Stoops will be staying where he is.
Any site other than KSR reporting contact between Stoops and LSU?
I think Stoops talking to LSU helps UK and Stoops, if he stays at UK. But, I have not seen this story anywhere but KSR. The only other stories I see on this are citing Matt Jones are their source.
I think Stoops talking to LSU helps UK and Stoops, if he stays at UK. But, I have not seen this story anywhere but KSR. The only other stories I see on this are citing Matt Jones are their source.
For a program that expects elite, they sure haven’t hired elite guys the past couple of times…and both of them won national championships. Not sure what’s in the water down there, but bad/average/decent coaches have won there.
There’s a narrative growing (already in place?) that Stoops is the only reason UK is now competitive and that if he leaves we are doomed.
Both statements are nonsense.
He’s done an okay job here at a time that has coincided with the separation of the SEC, the decline of the SEC East, and the rise of the transfer portal.
But his performance here does not warrant this aura of irreplaceability that some people (and I’m sure his agent) are pushing. He’s not Steve Spurrier at South Carolina. There’s a lot of good coaches that would take top 15 pay to be in the best conference in America.
Both statements are nonsense.
He’s done an okay job here at a time that has coincided with the separation of the SEC, the decline of the SEC East, and the rise of the transfer portal.
But his performance here does not warrant this aura of irreplaceability that some people (and I’m sure his agent) are pushing. He’s not Steve Spurrier at South Carolina. There’s a lot of good coaches that would take top 15 pay to be in the best conference in America.
How about winning 8 games 3 of the last five years...
For a team that has won 8 games a handful of times combined over the last 70 years.
You think replacing the #2 tenured coach in the conference will be easy take a look at the coaching changes recently at Tennessee, Arkansas, Ole Miss, Miss State, South Carolina, and Auburn. You'll see a revolving door of "can't miss" type coaches that haven't been able to get the job done. It's very hard to get the right guy for your program.
The seniors on her like me have been waiting for 40, 50, 60 years for someone to come here and not be a flash in the pan but actually built a competitive program in the SEC. We finally have the guy and we would like to hold on to him for a while longer anyway.
Depends...
Are we 6-6 with ten 4/5* players?
Or are we 6-6 with thirty 4/5* players?
Or are we 6-6 with absolutely no named talent on the roster?
If you look around college football, the most likely result of hiring a new coach is that you have to fire them in a few years. There are top tier historic football programs that wind up with coaches that do not even live up to a level that would be acceptable at Kentucky.
I get the sentiment. And I’ve also enjoyed winning more than losing.
But let’s be honest here- we aren’t yet actually competitive in the SEC, if by that you mean actually competing to win the conference. Or even our side of the conference.
To be clear I’m not dying for him to leave- but UK will be 100% fine if he does.
By no means do I think Stoops is irreplaceable. But I also know that hiring coaches is a total crap shoot at Kentucky’s level. Some that I thought were really good hires in college football, sucked. I feel like we know what we are getting with Stoops…7/8 wins minimum with seasons of double digit win possibilities in there too. Do I want to get better than that? Yes. Am I worried we could take a major step back if he were to move on (which I don’t think he does)? Yes
I hate to draw the comparison, but people do this every day. How many spouses throw away everything they've built with their partner for just a piece of action? They do THIS, so why is it hard to believe they would set their partner aside for what seems like the best relationship they might ever get to have?
Relationships come with baggage. In this case, UK comes with the baggage of lifetimes that people REFUSE to set aside for fear of being let down. Every year, no matter the eventual outcome, the staff that leads Kentucky has to fight a battle with their own fans to overcome something with no bearing nor current relevance to the upcoming or current season.
You don't have that at LSU, or a good number of other jobs.
1- LSU as a job sucks because you have no time to build the personnel and implement the strategy you want to use.
2-You have a couple years to switch gears or go with what they already have in place, and 9-3 as a top end isn't going to cut it.
3-You are going to have greater struggles recruiting kids to LSU from Ohio and Michigan than you would to UK. Proximity is a huge factor in recruiting those kids.
4- Location. If you're recruiting to a mantra of protection and environment, family even, that's a hard sell for LSU. Midwest kids are fish out of water there, and the area is not known for safety. Much easier for a kid to travel out of LA and fit in elsewhere than the reverse. Some kids won't have an issue with it, but quote a few parents may.
5- With such demands hanging over the heads of coaches previously, and the fact that kids commit to coaches as much or more than to universities, are parents going to send their kids there with the huge likelihood that the coach won't be there for 5 years, even if they win a national title?
There's plenty to talk about in the negative for the LSU job, when you have a good contractual situation within the SEC already. But the notion that people aren't looking for greener grass because they have a nice lawn isn't a valid argument.
Exactly.
The perennially negative simply don't want to see improvement. They don't want to see the transformation. No offense to large people, but the negs want the 500lb spouse to walk out of the bath looking like miss or mister universe. It's psychotic really.
No one wanted this relationship, except Stoops and people that call themselves fans have sht on him for it for 10yrs. If there was an abort button that could drop such fans from UK it would've been pushed decades ago.
Well we finish second in the East again this year and that's not the first time. Not sure how much more competitive you can get unless your definition of competitive is just winning the conference. To me being competitive is being 500 or better within the conference and we are doing that now, and we never did before. If we aren't' competitive in the SEC right now that what are all the other teams not named Georgia or Bama? Their records are no better than ours.
Not sure what "being fine" means but the odds of getting another coach that can keep building this program like Stoops, are not on your side if you look at the the efforts and failures of other programs in finding a coach they can at least be competitive with, and within our own history where coach after coach has had maybe one decent season and the rest mostly sub par to failure.
I could see PSU, Michigan,osu, Fsu,ect.. LSU is just a wrong fit IMO!
I don't see it! Kiffen would ya Better fit at LSU then stoops!
Except he's a coach and really does want to, think, and believe this program can win the SEC, unlike a number of vocal fans.
You guys forget this dude is 55 years old, raising two boys. It’s not in their family lineage to work late into life. Maybe he goes there to try to win a title and if it doesn’t work out then he retires and lives the good life
Stoops brought Football Respectability to a program that was lacking it, and he's maintained that football respect since day one. Nobody in the SEC counts on a victory over the Cats before the game is played...nobody.
Can somebody else "maintain" that? Perhaps, but why gamble it away...just keep paying The Man.
Define “fine”, because the chances of the next coach being able to replicate or improve upon what Stoops has done here is waaaay below 100%. I’d say there’s about a 50% or better chance we would be firing the next coach within 4 years. Maybe a 25% chance the next coach would do just well enough to hang on for longer than that, and 25% chance the next coach can do as well or better than Stoops. And those estimates are probably too rosy.
And that isn’t just because it’s UK. It’s the reality of hiring a head coach. Look at what our peer programs have gone through. Look at what historically good programs have gone through. It’s really hard.
JMO , our present Wildcat coach would be a fish out of water in Bayou Country! And I know, like, and appreciate that culture. Lane Kiffen maybe Mark Stoops don't see it at all.
This, Stoops is a great recruiter and a decent coach. He’s done good things here, but far from an irreplaceable legend.
This, 1000 percent.
What too many of these youngsters don't understand is what a crapshoot hiring a new head coach is. Hiring a new head coach isn't as easy as just throwing money at the most successful coach that will take the job. There are only a handful of coaches, (Saban, Spurrier, etc) that can be successful anywhere. All the rest need to be in the right fit for everything to work, think Scott Frost at UCF. He killed it there and he's been a mess in Nebraska. Rich Rod at WVA, and then a train wreck at Michigan.
Hiring a new head coach is a scary proposition.
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I read a LSU site called Tigerdroppings and they have a page dedicated to just the coaching search and I haven't seen his name mentioned there. But that is just one site, they still have hopes of Jimbo even though he has denied it pretty hard. For some reason they thought they had Riley until midweek. Dabo was mentioned earlier and Tucker, Tucker so much that MSU grossly overpaid him for his resume. I personally think Stoops is a top lvl coach, his style isn't that of the coaches they have put at the top of their list when the search started and isn't exciting, but he wins a lot of games.
But who knows how this is going to turn, LSU has more NC than anyone not name Alabama in the 2000's, expectations are very high and they demand excellence quickly. Whoever it isn't might get to field an 8 or 9 win team the first year but the 2nd better be battling for the SEC championship.
I'm still greatly surprised we haven't seen very much mention of Aranda, really thought he would be their #1 guy.
He will never win a Title at KY. LSU he can and I believe if offered the job he will strongly consider it.
Only way he never wins a title at UK is if he leaves UK.
Forgive me if I don't listen to your or other people's negativity and blind squirrel prognosticating. Few on this board or any other thought we'd win 9 games in a season or 10 games after a bowl victory under Stoops. Maybe 3 people thought we could be 6-0 to start this season.
If ANYONE listened to 98% of UK fans about Stoops and the potential of this program and put all their money on what they said, there would be a LOT of homeless folks in Kentucky and around the country.
Fickell is going to Southern Cal. The AD that hired Fickell at UC is now the AD at Southern Cal
