Stoops vs Tennessee

[BigPeb]

Entering CMS tenure, the cats were 24-75 against the vols, excluding ties. Roughly a .240 win %.

CMS is now 2-8, good for a .200 win %.

Kind of crazy the $9m man has managed to fare worse against our only legitimate rival, despite their historic struggles during his tenure.

I think Mark is a fine coach, just not worth the money. Count me among those who would swing for the fences while we have a decent foundation.

 

[PensacolaBlue]

Entering CMS tenure, the cats were 24-75 against the vols, excluding ties. Roughly a .240 win %.

CMS is now 2-8, good for a .200 win %.

Kind of crazy the $9m man has managed to fare worse against our only legitimate rival, despite their historic struggles during his tenure.

I think Mark is a fine coach, just not worth the money. Count me among those who would swing for the fences while we have a decent foundation. How great would it be to roll a coaching staff out that wasn’t full of fat slobs?

Prepared to get blasted. Stoops can do no wrong for many on this board and they will say you don’t have realistic expectations.

 

[Rivals_Defender]

How many years did we lose to them in a row?

In the short time he has been here, CMS has beaten them more times than Joker, Curry and Brooks combined I'm willing to bet.

You're an Asshat...

 

[PensacolaBlue]

How many years did we lose to them in a row?

In the short time he has been here, CMS has beaten them more times than Joker, Curry and Brooks combined I'm willing to bet.

You're an Asshat...

Told you. Many fans are super happy with the 2-9 record. It’s the best we can ever hope for. He even called you an Asshat lol.

 

[cat_in_the_hat]

Told you. Many fans are super happy with the 2-9 record. It’s the best we can ever hope for. He even called you an Asshat lol.

It's not that. It's that the analogy he put together is clearly biased. UK used to be more competitive with UT but what was our record in the last 2 decades before Stoops took over? That would be a more relevant analysis of the impact he has had. But the point of the analysis was to down Stoops so the analysis was slanted in that direction.

 

[K_TIME]

Tennessee has probably been Stoops biggest wart at UK. He also hasn't beaten UGA and really only got close to beating UGA one time but 2-9 is not good and Tennessee has had some lower moments than UGA in these same 11 years.

But the $9M stuff gets old when you cherry pick a stat vs. Tennessee. The Florida wins, Citrus Bowl wins, bowl game eligibilty streaks, passing USCjr/Mizzou for a while, etc.. are part of why Stoops got the $9M (I still argue Mitch was silly to not just stick with the $6.5M per year Stoops had before last year....but it's not his money).

But Stoops needs to win more vs. Tennessee and this UT team isn't as good as last year....so he needs this one. Let's see what kind of coaching job Stoops can do Saturday.

 

[Boz]

Entering CMS tenure, the cats were 24-75 against the vols, excluding ties. Roughly a .240 win %.

CMS is now 2-8, good for a .200 win %.

Kind of crazy the $9m man has managed to fare worse against our only legitimate rival, despite their historic struggles during his tenure.

I think Mark is a fine coach, just not worth the money. Count me among those who would swing for the fences while we have a decent foundation. How great would it be to roll a coaching staff out that wasn’t full of fat slobs?

Misleading. Most of those wins were better 84. We lost like 30 years in a row to them. Claiborne beat them once. Curry never beat them. Mumme never did (most blowouts). Joker got got lucky and beat a very bad UT team. I don't know Curci's record but I believe he was very competitive against UT.

 

[BigPeb]

Told you. Many fans are super happy with the 2-9 record. It’s the best we can ever hope for. He even called you an Asshat lol.

They can be mad, I don’t care. I grew up wearing blue in Knoxville, I don’t need to be reminded about the streak. What I need to forget is how stoops always finds a way to just give away games against the vols.

 

[BigPeb]

Misleading. Most of those wins were better 84. We lost like 30 years in a row to them. Claiborne beat them once. Curry never beat them. Mumme never did (most blowouts). Joker got got lucky and beat a very bad UT team. I don't know Curci's record but I believe he was very competitive against UT.

Those guys all basically squared up with the high water mark of modern UT football. Even Alabama had long losing streaks to the vols in that era. You can’t conflate the two.

In CMS tenure Tennessee fell so far from grace that they’ve been our direct competition in the SEC East pecking order most years. Stoops beats up on directional schools and the dregs of the SEC, but always faceplants when it’s time to take a step and beat the teams we’re trying to climb over.

 

[The-Hack]

How great would it be to roll a coaching staff out that wasn’t full of fat slobs?

Huh’?

Josh Heupel is the 4th largest standing structure in the state of Tennessee!

If he gets any bigger, he’ll need a strobe light in his baseball cap after sundown.

 

[The-Hack]

Signals a fundamental lack of discipline.

Josh Heupel was briefly mistaken for the blimp at their bowl game last year.

 

[The-Hack]

(I still argue Mitch was silly to not just stick with the $6.5M per year Stoops had before last year....but it's not his money).

The money for Stoops was soon after, and I think a direct result of an indiscreet remark by the basketball coach.

Three months after Cal spouted off, Stoops is given a raise to 100K more than Cal.

It was a message.

Unfortunately, it was about the only message that could be sent, given Cal’s contract.

 

[bigbluedon]

Praying that Michigan hires Stoops after the season. Then we can start fresh.

 

[buster3.0]

Mind you during Stoops era he had to face off against Butch Jones and Jeremy Pruitt coached UT teams from 2013 -2020. His record was 2-6 against the Vols. The Vols seem to have it engrained into their heads that no matter how bad of a season they are having, they can always count on a win against UK.

The 2018 game hurt the worse, but you could see that coming a mile away leading up to that game.

 

[JHannibalSmith]

How many years did we lose to them in a row?

In the short time he has been here, CMS has beaten them more times than Joker, Curry and Brooks combined I'm willing to bet.

You're an Asshat...

Stoops has also had the benefit of coaching against UT during their worst era in a long time. His two wins against UT came in 2017 when they were 4-8 & in 2020 when they finished 3-7 in the all SEC season. The only really good UT team he’s had to face was last year when they went 11-2. And, we saw how that played out. UT has been pretty average throughout Stoops’ entire tenure. One 11 win season, two 9 win seasons & 7 seasons of mediocrity, or, worse. This season is still TBD.

Curry & Brooks didn’t have that luxury. The UT teams they faced were NC contenders, or top 10 teams, more often than not & rarely won fewer than 9 games. Joker got to coach against mediocre UT teams & even broke the streak against one. And, he beat them with a far inferior roster than what we’ve had for the last 6-7 years. Even had a WR playing QB, that day. But, nobody is comparing his era to Stoops’. Not many ppl reminisce for the Curry days, either.

But, none of those coaches had the support from the administration that Stoops has had, either. When you look at UT’s seasons during Stoops’ tenure, two wins isn’t really all that impressive, despite our losing streak to them. He’s lost to some pretty bad & mediocre UT teams. I really appreciate what Stoops has done here & will always be grateful. But, let’s not pretend that all these coaches had a level playing field & that going 2-8 against the last 10 UT teams is anything special. For some perspective, Vandy has beaten UT 4 times in the Stoops era.

 

[entropy13]

Stoops has also had the benefit of coaching against UT during their worst era in a long time. His two wins against UT came in 2017 when they were 4-8 & in 2020 when they finished 3-7 in the all SEC season. The only really good UT team he’s had to face was last year when they went 11-2. And, we saw how that played out. UT has been pretty average throughout Stoops’ entire tenure. One 11 win season, two 9 win seasons & 7 seasons of mediocrity, or, worse. This season is still TBD.

Curry & Brooks didn’t have that luxury. The UT teams they faced were NC contenders, or top 10 teams, more often than not & rarely won fewer than 9 games. Joker got to coach against mediocre UT teams & even broke the streak against one. And, he beat them with a far inferior roster than what we’ve had for the last 6-7 years. Even had a WR playing QB, that day. But, nobody is comparing his era to Stoops’. Not many ppl reminisce for the Curry days, either.

But, none of those coaches had the support from the administration that Stoops has had, either. When you look at UT’s seasons during Stoops’ tenure, two wins isn’t really all that impressive, despite our losing streak to them. He’s lost to some pretty bad & mediocre UT teams. I really appreciate what Stoops has done here & will always be grateful. But, let’s not pretend that all these coaches had a level playing field & that going 2-8 against the last 10 UT teams is anything special. For some perspective, Vandy has beaten UT 4 times in the Stoops era.

This is an excellent post and reflects pretty much my current viewpoint. And wow, the fact that Vandy notched 4 victories against the Filthy Puke-Orange Team is telling vis-a-vis our performance (or lack thereof).

This season has been frustrating just for the lack of team cohesiveness and putting together a complete game. Against Florida was the closest, but even then, our passing game was atrocious. Then, there was the complete implosion against UGA after we'd played them tough the past few seasons, Stoops' silly remarks about ponying up, and then the sh!tastical clusterfugg that were the final 3 quarters of the Mizzou game.

Stoops' record after bye weeks fails to inspire, and combined with the team's discombobulation and frankly crappy on-field attitude and lack of discipline, things aren't looking so great.

The 2021 loss to EwwTee still stings. 612 yards of offense, 42 points, and more than twice the time of possession, and we still managed to lose! 😱😤 That's a coaching failure. Unfortunately, we've seen coaching failures manifest themselves again this season in more ways than one.

Anyway, kind of a rambling post. Go Cats! Please, for the love of all that is sacred, holy, and Kentucky blue, beat the Vols!

 

[CUJO_1970]

Spin it however you want - Stoops has been absolute crap against Tennessee.

Hope that changes Saturday, but we really have no clear indicators it will. Broke ass passing game, pitiful discipline, poor clock management - complete meltdowns in our last two games - oh and Kentucky is crap under Stoops with a week or more off - including bye weeks and bowl prep he has a losing record.

So yeah - here's to hoping against hope!

 

[Crystalglass]

19 of our 26 wins against UT came before color TV was widespread, just for a little context on that winning percentage. We have won 12% of our games against UT since the LBJ administration.

I'm not taking up for Stoops or excusing the bad record, but counting that memorable 6-0 victory from 1915 is a little misleading

 

[bigbluedon]

This is an excellent post and reflects pretty much my current viewpoint. And wow, the fact that Vandy notched 4 victories against the Filthy Puke-Orange Team is telling vis-a-vis our performance (or lack thereof).

This season has been frustrating just for the lack of team cohesiveness and putting together a complete game. Against Florida was the closest, but even then, our passing game was atrocious. Then, there was the complete implosion against UGA after we'd played them tough the past few seasons, Stoops' silly remarks about ponying up, and then the sh!tastical clusterfugg that were the final 3 quarters of the Mizzou game.

Stoops' record after bye weeks fails to inspire, and combined with the team's discombobulation and frankly crappy on-field attitude and lack of discipline, things aren't looking so great.

The 2021 loss to EwwTee still stings. 612 yards of offense, 42 points, and more than twice the time of possession, and we still managed to lose! 😱😤 That's a coaching failure. Unfortunately, we've seen coaching failures manifest themselves again this season in more ways than one.

Anyway, kind of a rambling post. Go Cats! Please, for the love of all that is sacred, holy, and Kentucky blue, beat the Vols!

Great post.!!

 

[Doodah859]

Praying that Michigan hires Stoops after the season. Then we can start fresh.

You'll still find something to cry about

 

[Rivals_Defender]

You'll still find something to cry about

They will always find something to whine about...the football fans are becoming as fickle as the Rafters folks

 

[YaketySax]

I got a boring ass take:

One, Stoops should have a better record against UT because of Butch Jones and Jeremy Pruitt. But I’ll give him some benefit of the doubt since 2013-2015 was full rebuild and 2019 had a WR playing QB.

Two, Stoops has done for UK what few could and some posters are delusional. I’d say it’s because the bball program has fooled them into thinking winning at UK is easier than it is.

 

[bigbluedon]

You'll still find something to cry about

Only if we hired you to take place. He has done all he can here. It’s time to move on and you can go with him along with the other Stoops ass kissers.

 

[NoDef]

UT was in a downward spiral after 2008. Three winning SEC seasons since then. Joker knocked them off once in his three years and Stoops has beat them twice in his ten years or so. Curry faced them when they were really good for the most part, so hard to compare him. Tennessee still has our number under Stoops. We've lost to them more times than we should of. Two years ago at home and their first year coach lit us up on offense. The only real good showing Stoops has made was when we beat them in Knoxville and their coach was fired the next year. They still have our number and getting Stoops has not changed that narrative..

 

[UKWildcats1987]

Stoops has also had the benefit of coaching against UT during their worst era in a long time. His two wins against UT came in 2017 when they were 4-8 & in 2020 when they finished 3-7 in the all SEC season. The only really good UT team he’s had to face was last year when they went 11-2. And, we saw how that played out. UT has been pretty average throughout Stoops’ entire tenure. One 11 win season, two 9 win seasons & 7 seasons of mediocrity, or, worse. This season is still TBD.

Curry & Brooks didn’t have that luxury. The UT teams they faced were NC contenders, or top 10 teams, more often than not & rarely won fewer than 9 games. Joker got to coach against mediocre UT teams & even broke the streak against one. And, he beat them with a far inferior roster than what we’ve had for the last 6-7 years. Even had a WR playing QB, that day. But, nobody is comparing his era to Stoops’. Not many ppl reminisce for the Curry days, either.

But, none of those coaches had the support from the administration that Stoops has had, either. When you look at UT’s seasons during Stoops’ tenure, two wins isn’t really all that impressive, despite our losing streak to them. He’s lost to some pretty bad & mediocre UT teams. I really appreciate what Stoops has done here & will always be grateful. But, let’s not pretend that all these coaches had a level playing field & that going 2-8 against the last 10 UT teams is anything special. For some perspective, Vandy has beaten UT 4 times in the Stoops era.

Excellent post. We have beat 2 dog crap UT teams and that's it in Stoops tenure.

 

[Smashcat]

 

[CRZ4UK]

Told you. Many fans are super happy with the 2-9 record. It’s the best we can ever hope for. He even called you an Asshat lol.

No one said anyone is happy with 2-9. He said 2-9 was better than the past 3 coaches have been able to do. That’s progress. Maybe not fast enough for some, but progress. Calling someone names is quite frankly immature.

 

[UKNothinButNet]

Stoops has also had the benefit of coaching against UT during their worst era in a long time. His two wins against UT came in 2017 when they were 4-8 & in 2020 when they finished 3-7 in the all SEC season. The only really good UT team he’s had to face was last year when they went 11-2. And, we saw how that played out. UT has been pretty average throughout Stoops’ entire tenure. One 11 win season, two 9 win seasons & 7 seasons of mediocrity, or, worse. This season is still TBD.

Curry & Brooks didn’t have that luxury. The UT teams they faced were NC contenders, or top 10 teams, more often than not & rarely won fewer than 9 games. Joker got to coach against mediocre UT teams & even broke the streak against one. And, he beat them with a far inferior roster than what we’ve had for the last 6-7 years. Even had a WR playing QB, that day. But, nobody is comparing his era to Stoops’. Not many ppl reminisce for the Curry days, either.

But, none of those coaches had the support from the administration that Stoops has had, either. When you look at UT’s seasons during Stoops’ tenure, two wins isn’t really all that impressive, despite our losing streak to them. He’s lost to some pretty bad & mediocre UT teams. I really appreciate what Stoops has done here & will always be grateful. But, let’s not pretend that all these coaches had a level playing field & that going 2-8 against the last 10 UT teams is anything special. For some perspective, Vandy has beaten UT 4 times in the Stoops era.

Perspective! I love it... so refreshing. Thanks.

 

[The-Hack]

and Kentucky is crap under Stoops with a week or more off - including bye weeks and bowl prep he has a losing record.

Hmmmm.

Someone posted he was 5-5 in the ten regular season games after bye weeks, and he lost a Gator Bowl to Georgia Tech (December) 2016 and two MCB’s to Northwestern (December 2017), and Iowa (December 2022), but won the Charlotte Bowl (December 2019), the Gator (December 2020), and two Citrus Bowls (January 1, 2019, PSU, and January 1, 2021, Iowa.)

He’s 4-3 in Bowls and 5-5 in regular season games after byes, and thence has a narrow winning percentage of 9-8 by my count!!

 

[The-Hack]

They will always find something to whine about...the football fans are becoming as fickle as the Rafters folks

Mmmmm.

There are some football regulars whining the same tune, but a large number of folk piling on, by posting history and monikers, appear to be Rafters regulars, and occassional Lair commentators.

Hey, they got the right to bitch: I join only threads on Rafters trashing Cal, and I have watched one live Kentucky roundball game in 4 years. And I haven’t had basketball tickets in over a decade.

 

[The-Hack]

Curry & Brooks didn’t have that luxury.

Well, do a full comparison.

The last Kentucky Coach to have success against UT was Collier, and UT was about the only quality opponent he could beat.

I think Bryant beat UT once.

Brooks and Curry and Mumme faced tougher UT teams, but none of them were as good as the Bama squads Stoops has faced thrice—two on the road—and a home game his first hopeless year, or UGA since 2017 (with the exception of Tee Martin’s 1997-98 Championship squad).

Curry, Brooks, and Mumme all had the advantage over Stoops playing a 5-7 Bama team in 1997 (Mumme), a piss poor USCe (Curry and Mumme), a frequent losing team from LSU (the years 1990 to 2000 were not kind to LSU), and a sporadic UGA that had four or five very good years under Mark Richt, and some that were very modest under Richt, in the 2000’s, and under both Ray Goff and Jim Donnan in the 90’s.

But sure, we should be .500 against UT since 2016, as our SEC record is better than theirs, and our program has been more stable. Hell, we are 4-2 against UF since 2018, and UT has beaten the Gators what, twice in twenty years???

 

[AshWilliams]

How many years did we lose to them in a row?

In the short time he has been here, CMS has beaten them more times than Joker, Curry and Brooks combined I'm willing to bet.

You're an Asshat...

If we get facerolled this Saturday, does that mean you're the asshat?

 

[NoDef]

Well, do a full comparison.

The last Kentucky Coach to have success against UT was Collier, and UT was about the only quality opponent he could beat.

I think Bryant beat UT once.

Brooks and Curry and Mumme faced tougher UT teams, but none of them were as good as the Bama squads Stoops has faced thrice—two on the road—and a home game his first hopeless year, or UGA since 2017 (with the exception of Tee Martin’s 1997-98 Championship squad).

Curry, Brooks, and Mumme all had the advantage over Stoops playing a 5-7 Bama team in 1997 (Mumme), a piss poor USCe (Curry and Mumme), a frequent losing team from LSU (the years 1990 to 2000 were not kind to LSU), and a sporadic UGA that had four or five very good years under Mark Richt, and some that were very modest under Richt, in the 2000’s, and under both Ray Goff and Jim Donnan in the 90’s.

But sure, we should be .500 against UT since 2016, as our SEC record is better than theirs, and our program has been more stable. Hell, we are 4-2 against UF since 2018, and UT has beaten the Gators what, twice in twenty years???

Stoops has also not beaten nor been competitive with Bama or UGA either. Kind of a mute point. We are a decade into the system now. UT beat us at home with a first year coach two years ago. They killed us last year with a 2nd year coach. If you have a coach here for a decade you shouldn't be getting blown out by a 2nd year coach. He's a 2nd year coach because the prior coach had gotten fired from the same school because of poor performance. Hopefully we will at least be competitive this week. Stoops has done a good job, but hopefully we haven't hit the ceiling with one good year and two or three mediocre ones..

 

[howercat]

Objectively, Huepel is making $9mil a year. Ewwwteee is getting their money's worth. UK, not so much.

 

[Tf2217]

It's not that. It's that the analogy he put together is clearly biased. UK used to be more competitive with UT but what was our record in the last 2 decades before Stoops took over? That would be a more relevant analysis of the impact he has had. But the point of the analysis was to down Stoops so the analysis was slanted in that direction.

Also in fairness when has TN been historically down....mostly during the stoops era. We have a coach who is 2-9 against UT during the years that they've been as bad as they've been in my lifetime. That's the point of the criticism think if we couldn't manage to get them down when they were historically bad that we are going to get them going forward with the way theyre recruiting now and the offensive athletes they are bringing in now days? I don't believe so not if we continue what we've done to this point.

 

[CUJO_1970]

He’s 4-3 in Bowls and 5-5 in regular season games after byes, and thence has a narrow winning percentage of 9-8 by my count!!

You are correct - there was a stat posted on KSR but I didn't dig into it, may go back and look it up...has he had more than 10 regular season bye weeks?

Either way - a lot of these stats are born from frustration. I despise Tennessee nearly as bad as Louisville...losing to those mustard-chuckers makes me sick.

 

[satcheluk]

Entering CMS tenure, the cats were 24-75 against the vols, excluding ties. Roughly a .240 win %.

CMS is now 2-8, good for a .200 win %.

Kind of crazy the $9m man has managed to fare worse against our only legitimate rival, despite their historic struggles during his tenure.

I think Mark is a fine coach, just not worth the money. Count me among those who would swing for the fences while we have a decent foundation.

When you have a team(or business for that matter) that has systemic disadvantages that cannot be corrected, only overcome, then in a free market system you must pay more for talent vs your competitor that has built in advantages. There's always someone better, but Stoops is way better than avg and zero chance he's fired for only winning only 20% against UT, especially when you juxtapose that with his records against UF, UL, MIzzzou, USCjr etc. This seems kind of like the back up QB has to be better even though I've never watched a practice comment.

 

[cat_in_the_hat]

I hope we haven't hit a ceiling either, but what if we have? Do you fire employees who have done a good job on the hope you can find someone who can do better? How many people here would think it was okay if they do a good job at work and their boss shows up and says "you have done a good job for us but I think there has to be someone out there who can do better, so we are letting you go in hopes we can find that person." I don't think many would be happy with that. I also think treating coaches/employees like that makes it harder to hire quality replacements because the replacements expect the organization will treat them the same way. If a candidate is a high quality candidate, they can go places where they won't be treated like that.

 

[satcheluk]

Huh’?

Josh Heupel is the 4th largest standing structure in the state of Tennessee!

If he gets any bigger, he’ll need a strobe light in his baseball cap after sundown.

Found a picture of him as teen practicing his recruiting pitch.

 

[UKWildcats1987]

I hope we haven't hit a ceiling either, but what if we have? Do you fire employees who have done a good job on the hope you can find someone who can do better? How many people here would think it was okay if they do a good job at work and their boss shows up and says "you have done a good job for us but I think there has to be someone out there who can do better, so we are letting you go in hopes we can find that person." I don't think many would be happy with that. I also think treating coaches/employees like that makes it harder to hire quality replacements because the replacements expect the organization will treat them the same way. If a candidate is a high quality candidate, they can go places where they won't be treated like that.

No job is gonna do that. Stoops has done well overall by UK standards so he can retire here if he wants to.