As the excitment of the new football season approaches I thought I would point out some interesting things about this UK football season compared to our past and hopefully our future. I think you might have a different opinion about UK football is you think about these things and how it relates or co-ordinates to our future.
You can tell by Coach Stoop’s comments he believes we are going to be VERY competitive this year. Even though he says and knows we don't have a full deck of players here yet. We will be playing with around 50 of his recruits on the field this year. We are almost two deep now, when he started we didn’t even have enough quality players to play one full unit - now we have two plus. He talks about you need at least two deep to compete against the “big boys”.
Let me give you some key bio about Stoops, in case you didn’t know this. Coach Stoops was the defensive backs coach at Miami for three years - 2001 to 2003. Miami went 35-3. He moved to Arizona to be the defensive co-ordinator in 2004 - a team that had won 10 games total in the previous three seasons - when he left, after 5 years, they had won back to back bowl games. He then went to Florida State as the defensive backs coach and defensive co-ordinator in 2010. He built the nations number one defense and coached them the three years before they won the National Championship in 2013. It was Stoops recruits and players that were the backbone of that national championship team. By the way the Arizona program went backward after he left. His brother was let go 3 years after Mark went to Florida State - apparently Mark was the key guy. Mark Stoops credentials are very impressive.
I am so optimistic as I remember the “Thin Thirty” at UK. When Charlie Bradshaw took over at UK in the mid 60’s he took UK to a national rankings, after being so hard on the team conditioning wise that many of the kids quit - and Kentucky was not only not “two deep” - it had several players playing both ways because of lack of depth. That team went to Ole Miss and beat the number one Rebels on their home field. Injuries and lack of depth proved too much for that team late in the season. The team was invited to the Orange Bowl early and turned them down, wanting even more. So, the point is with decent depth teams can win. Last year we were 5-1 and very easily and should have been 6-0. We stumbled, but it was because of lack of depth and enough quality players - we essentially were almost a “thin thirty” team too. This year, while not perfect - we will have 60 plus players who are “SEC” type talent. A lot of the talent has never played a down at UK, but 25 plus players have been practicing, learning the system and improving their bodies for an SEC schedule here for two years. Many of these players were ranked in the top 500 or 300 of players in the country in their respective classes. We will not have experience as many SEC teams, but we will have “equal talent”. You can ask Coach Cal on his thoughts of talent versus experience. We have many starters and experienced reserves this season. One of the best place kicker in the SEC and an excellent proven punter. All key things when it comes to winning in the SEC.
Coach Stoops speaks about team depth. That is what we lacked at UK last year when we spiraled down. We got hurt and worn down by the big boys. If you followed the season, we didn’t have a break in the schedule, until the week before the UL game 12 weeks into the season - this year we have a break after the 5th game. Louisville won 10 games and a bowl game last year- they beat Notre Dame at Notre Dame. UL beat us by 4 on the last drive and they had a lot of breaks in that game while playing at home. The point was not “enough” guys to keep a decent team on the field if an injury occurred or if a player was winded. It was very exciting to hear Coach Stoops talk about this kind of thing if you didn’t see or know these facts about the personnel.
You can tell why Coach Stoops is well liked and I believe is going to succeed extremely well in the long run. This year’s schedule, while difficult, is actually not as difficult as most years. First, look at who we DON’T play - Alabama, Auburn, Mississippi, Texas A & M, Arkansas or LSU. When people say we can’t win - then will we win? Florida is rebuilding with a new coach and we play at home ( we lost to them in triple overtime at Florida last year), South Carolina was 7-6 last year - Spurrier is 70 years old and maybe his brain slows down like many others at this age - it is not going to be easy - but if we can’t win in South Carolina this year - then when?, Louisville lost 13 guys to the pros - second only to Florida State and we play them in commonwealth, Mississippi State lost 17 starters and had 25 seniors, who played a lot graduate - why not this year, Missouri lost 14 starters and all those great “huge” receivers and we have them at home this year and we will have depth in the defensive backfield - remember - Coach Stoops personal speciality is defensive backs.
Tennessee is loaded for sure - their Coach has recruited well, but is not known to be a great situation or “x” and “o’” coach - they caught UK after several injuries and the game was in Knoxville last year - depth a huge issue in that game, Georgia is always tough, but we have several kids from Georgia and if we don’t have a lot of injuries look out.
Everyone talks about Auburn being so good, they are picked to win the SEC and are pre-season top 5 to top 10 team - well they were 8-5 last year. Auburn lost 4 of their last 5 games last season - so why are they so prepared to win and we are not? 1-4 is not that much better than 0-6. We play Auburn on National TV on a Thursday night AT Commonwealth and after we have a bye week to re-energize and heal up from the first 5 weeks of the season. Look what happened to a heavy favorite last year when South Carolina played a night game on National TV at UK. Auburn has an open date the week before as well - but we are the team that is not deep by SEC standards. By the way people don’t remember this, but Kentucky had two key people, including the star running back - Boom Williams - not dressed for the game against South Carolina last year because of off field issues. So, South Carolina didn’t see our best that night as well.
You can tell I am excited about this season - we will be under dogs, we play teams with tradition - but if we are ever going to win it must start now - even though Stoops will still get a “pass” if we don’t win this year - we must win to keep the recruiting rolling on - when I listen to him, I believe in him and his staff. I believe he believes we will win at least 8 games and truly feels we will be competitive with EVERYONE. If this team “gels” early it could be 5-0 when Auburn comes to town. Where would Kentucky be ranked if are 5-0 and beat an unbeaten Auburn? I’m not going to Vegas and betting the ranch - but Kentucky is 100 to 1 win the SEC this year. A $100 bet could get you $10,000. This, for the first time in my life, could be a good “chance” bet. We have the depth and according to the pros the sixth best quarterback in the country this year. We have 14 starters back and we are two deep for the first time probably since Fran Curci was coach here - in the mid 70’s.
Do you remember us going 10-1 and finished ranked 4th in the Country? You want to know something else interesting - When Curci built UK football, it was just after UK moved to the new Commonwealth Stadium. In his third year at Kentucky his team was 2-8-1. The next year Kentucky went 8-4, won the SEC championship and the next year the team was 10 -1 and beat #4 Penn State AT Penn State. Curci was SEC coach of the year that year. Now we are playing just after getting Commonwealth totally renovated - some very interesting parallels in that area as well. Two years after 2-8-1 and Curci's Cats go 10-1. This IS year two after Stoops went 2-10! See any correlations? Things are aligning and I hope permanently this time!
Get ready for some football - UK has decided it wants to play!
Go Big Blue!
You can tell by Coach Stoop’s comments he believes we are going to be VERY competitive this year. Even though he says and knows we don't have a full deck of players here yet. We will be playing with around 50 of his recruits on the field this year. We are almost two deep now, when he started we didn’t even have enough quality players to play one full unit - now we have two plus. He talks about you need at least two deep to compete against the “big boys”.
Let me give you some key bio about Stoops, in case you didn’t know this. Coach Stoops was the defensive backs coach at Miami for three years - 2001 to 2003. Miami went 35-3. He moved to Arizona to be the defensive co-ordinator in 2004 - a team that had won 10 games total in the previous three seasons - when he left, after 5 years, they had won back to back bowl games. He then went to Florida State as the defensive backs coach and defensive co-ordinator in 2010. He built the nations number one defense and coached them the three years before they won the National Championship in 2013. It was Stoops recruits and players that were the backbone of that national championship team. By the way the Arizona program went backward after he left. His brother was let go 3 years after Mark went to Florida State - apparently Mark was the key guy. Mark Stoops credentials are very impressive.
I am so optimistic as I remember the “Thin Thirty” at UK. When Charlie Bradshaw took over at UK in the mid 60’s he took UK to a national rankings, after being so hard on the team conditioning wise that many of the kids quit - and Kentucky was not only not “two deep” - it had several players playing both ways because of lack of depth. That team went to Ole Miss and beat the number one Rebels on their home field. Injuries and lack of depth proved too much for that team late in the season. The team was invited to the Orange Bowl early and turned them down, wanting even more. So, the point is with decent depth teams can win. Last year we were 5-1 and very easily and should have been 6-0. We stumbled, but it was because of lack of depth and enough quality players - we essentially were almost a “thin thirty” team too. This year, while not perfect - we will have 60 plus players who are “SEC” type talent. A lot of the talent has never played a down at UK, but 25 plus players have been practicing, learning the system and improving their bodies for an SEC schedule here for two years. Many of these players were ranked in the top 500 or 300 of players in the country in their respective classes. We will not have experience as many SEC teams, but we will have “equal talent”. You can ask Coach Cal on his thoughts of talent versus experience. We have many starters and experienced reserves this season. One of the best place kicker in the SEC and an excellent proven punter. All key things when it comes to winning in the SEC.
Coach Stoops speaks about team depth. That is what we lacked at UK last year when we spiraled down. We got hurt and worn down by the big boys. If you followed the season, we didn’t have a break in the schedule, until the week before the UL game 12 weeks into the season - this year we have a break after the 5th game. Louisville won 10 games and a bowl game last year- they beat Notre Dame at Notre Dame. UL beat us by 4 on the last drive and they had a lot of breaks in that game while playing at home. The point was not “enough” guys to keep a decent team on the field if an injury occurred or if a player was winded. It was very exciting to hear Coach Stoops talk about this kind of thing if you didn’t see or know these facts about the personnel.
You can tell why Coach Stoops is well liked and I believe is going to succeed extremely well in the long run. This year’s schedule, while difficult, is actually not as difficult as most years. First, look at who we DON’T play - Alabama, Auburn, Mississippi, Texas A & M, Arkansas or LSU. When people say we can’t win - then will we win? Florida is rebuilding with a new coach and we play at home ( we lost to them in triple overtime at Florida last year), South Carolina was 7-6 last year - Spurrier is 70 years old and maybe his brain slows down like many others at this age - it is not going to be easy - but if we can’t win in South Carolina this year - then when?, Louisville lost 13 guys to the pros - second only to Florida State and we play them in commonwealth, Mississippi State lost 17 starters and had 25 seniors, who played a lot graduate - why not this year, Missouri lost 14 starters and all those great “huge” receivers and we have them at home this year and we will have depth in the defensive backfield - remember - Coach Stoops personal speciality is defensive backs.
Tennessee is loaded for sure - their Coach has recruited well, but is not known to be a great situation or “x” and “o’” coach - they caught UK after several injuries and the game was in Knoxville last year - depth a huge issue in that game, Georgia is always tough, but we have several kids from Georgia and if we don’t have a lot of injuries look out.
Everyone talks about Auburn being so good, they are picked to win the SEC and are pre-season top 5 to top 10 team - well they were 8-5 last year. Auburn lost 4 of their last 5 games last season - so why are they so prepared to win and we are not? 1-4 is not that much better than 0-6. We play Auburn on National TV on a Thursday night AT Commonwealth and after we have a bye week to re-energize and heal up from the first 5 weeks of the season. Look what happened to a heavy favorite last year when South Carolina played a night game on National TV at UK. Auburn has an open date the week before as well - but we are the team that is not deep by SEC standards. By the way people don’t remember this, but Kentucky had two key people, including the star running back - Boom Williams - not dressed for the game against South Carolina last year because of off field issues. So, South Carolina didn’t see our best that night as well.
You can tell I am excited about this season - we will be under dogs, we play teams with tradition - but if we are ever going to win it must start now - even though Stoops will still get a “pass” if we don’t win this year - we must win to keep the recruiting rolling on - when I listen to him, I believe in him and his staff. I believe he believes we will win at least 8 games and truly feels we will be competitive with EVERYONE. If this team “gels” early it could be 5-0 when Auburn comes to town. Where would Kentucky be ranked if are 5-0 and beat an unbeaten Auburn? I’m not going to Vegas and betting the ranch - but Kentucky is 100 to 1 win the SEC this year. A $100 bet could get you $10,000. This, for the first time in my life, could be a good “chance” bet. We have the depth and according to the pros the sixth best quarterback in the country this year. We have 14 starters back and we are two deep for the first time probably since Fran Curci was coach here - in the mid 70’s.
Do you remember us going 10-1 and finished ranked 4th in the Country? You want to know something else interesting - When Curci built UK football, it was just after UK moved to the new Commonwealth Stadium. In his third year at Kentucky his team was 2-8-1. The next year Kentucky went 8-4, won the SEC championship and the next year the team was 10 -1 and beat #4 Penn State AT Penn State. Curci was SEC coach of the year that year. Now we are playing just after getting Commonwealth totally renovated - some very interesting parallels in that area as well. Two years after 2-8-1 and Curci's Cats go 10-1. This IS year two after Stoops went 2-10! See any correlations? Things are aligning and I hope permanently this time!
Get ready for some football - UK has decided it wants to play!
Go Big Blue!
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