This Board amazes me at times

[HagginHall1999]

Again, somebody looking backward to determine our future. No offense but it drives me bonkers. Good thing Stoops didn’t look back at the previous 35 years and just forfeit the UF game each year.

Lol, ok, stats drive you bonkers?

I'm not a Stoops apologist but I also don't live and die UK football. I reserve that for basketball.

The above stated, I do have serious concerns as to where the program would go if/when CMS leaves (but I have concerns as to where it is headed with new scheduling anyway). I think people discount the importance of his pipeline that brings in kids from Ohio/Michigan that we never used to land.

We know what we get with Stoops. Rolling the dice is fine by me but my guess is it wouldn't work out as swimmingly as some think. JMHO.

 

[ck-2]

Bottom line is Stoops knows things here are going to get a lot harder than what it has been. He was trying to get the heck out of Dodge and it failed.
Now let’s see what he can do. He’s going to get his chance to prove his value as a coach. Maybe win a few more conference games instead of just MAC schools.

 

[FanofUK]

I am team stoops, if he would beat EWTEE more often I would put the statue up myself.

 

[Wildcats1st]

It's that simple to you. If your simple guideline was followed, Rich Brooks would have been fired at UK after the 2004 season and Mark Stoops would have been fired after our 2014 season. Frank Beamer would not have made it at VA Tech. Kirk Ferentz would have failed at IA and the great Barry Alvarez would have failed at WI.

So maybe it really isn't that simple after all. Let's leave it to the athletic directors.

Rich brooks didn’t coach in the portal days. The time of waiting 3-5 years to evaluate a coach are over. Beamer Alvarez come on man. That was a completely different era. The portal has changed everything you throw in nil hell that’s how stoops has built rosters with portal and transfers

 

[JBHolmesfan]

If a new coach can’t be winning by year two they should be canned. It’s that simple. Programs that want to suck spend 3-5 years building. Programs that want to win stop at nothing and move on fast when it’s obviously not working. This is the new nil world. You don’t have to wait to build.

Agreed. Especially programs on solid footing like ours. You don’t need to tank and rebuild like you do in professional sports.

 

[BlueCephus]

Look at this cherry actually researching post history on a message board two months in 😂🍺 go get em’, you’ll be top dawg in no time

I post on the political board and see you there all the time, so once again you're clueless. I wouln't piss on you if you were on fire, let alone give a sh*t about your posting history. Get over yourself. At least your politics aren't garbage unlike you're "I know Texas football" clown schtict.

 

[Cawood86]

Now I’m as critical as anybody of CMS but the range of emotion on this board after knocking off a Top 10 team, albeit an overranked Louisville team but I don’t think folks realize how close we came to watching this entire program burn down last night. When a coach leaves, he takes most of his assistants with him. Now we would find a coach, no doubt, but it would destroy the recruiting class, there would be mass transfers and we would be looking at a minimum of 5 years until we made a bowl game.

Now I don’t know the facts or exactly what happened but I’d have to think the interest was real and so was the offer. I doubt the “fan revolt” down there had much to do with the decision. Maybe he rushed into the decision and after yesterday sat down with his family and they decided as a group that it wasn’t the right time.

We need to make some changes, it’s obvious there will be, but to burn it all down and start over? Who does that serve? We are an impatient fanbase, would we give the next guy the time he needs or be calling for his head year one? I’d rather fix what we have and keep going. From the comments I read here last night and this morning, it seems like a lot of us made comments without thinking them all the way through.

That’s my 2 cents. I’m happy that we still have our coach and some of the staff here. I’m happy we have a very nice recruiting class coming in. Let’s get back to celebrating beating Louisville, wrecking their season, knocking them out of the playoffs and continuing our dominance over the state.

7-5 record . This ain't some rocket getting ready to launch. Stoops will be year 12 next year. No momentum building.

Two major powerhouses added to the SEC next year. Being ok with being ok is not a plan

 

[bigblueinsanity]

Dude....5 years minimum before we'd make a bowl game....is that not a bit nutty?

Joker Phillips took UK to a bowl game 2 years before Stoops got here. And Brooks was a layup for 6-7 win seasons in a row. Beating 3 non confernce scrubs, Vandy and grabbing 1-2 wins vs. UL, Mizzou, USC, Florida, Miss St and an occasional down Tennessee isn't a miracle by any stretch of the imagination.

Stoops is a solid coach....but he is not elite. And I don't care about 9M per year (it's not my money) but I do find it crazy to be on the hook thru 2031. That was a 9 year extension and Mitch is either lazy or a good ole boy network to make that kind of deal. Give coaches 4 years to recruit and that is more then enough.

At some point fans need to realize the SEC and Big 10 jobs are in demand. So even a lower team in Sec or Big 10 is at a premium and the ACC, PAC and B12 jobs are almost all inferior (until they are able to leave ACC). So don't sell UK short.....there are now plenty of coaches that would consider the UK job a good venture vs. 11 years ago.

I don't recall saying anything about give years. Just that any new hire we could reasonably get would be a toss up. In terms of change analysis, when someone is performing reasonably well, you can't or shouldn't make a change unless you have a good chance at increasing output.

Could an obtainable new hire beat stoops' performance? Sure they could. Is it likely? No. That's why you stick with the guy and staff who won 10 games two years ago and had a decent but disappointing year this year.

 

[cat_in_the_hat]

Wow, where do I start. No, our program won’t burn down to the ground if Stoops leaves. Coaches leave programs all the time and they don’t forfeit the next year. So give me a break. Brohm is a perfect example of what a coach can do IN ONE YEAR (and yes we beat them…got it). Most people are fine with Stoops but many have issues with his idiotic contract that allows for no accountability. And this fantasy that major college teams want to hire Stoops is also idiotic. We saw last night that Stoops is going nowhere because fans know he’s not a top 10 type of coach and won’t tolerate their AD hiring him. Has he done some great things for the program? Yes. But some of you are stuck with this attitude that we’re nothing without him and that simply isn’t true…if we’re willing to pay $9M/yr for mediocrity, there is no doubt we could find another serviceable coach. Not every coach out there is Joker Phillips or Bill Curry. Just because we have a history of hiring terrible coaches doesn’t mean we have to continue that trend. Stoops is a good example of this as he was a good hire. When you get guys like Couch involved in the hiring process, better things will happen. This loser mentality that we have to be bad because we’ve always been bad is discouraging for many others. And yes, I’ve lived through decades of poor play…that’s why I want us to be relevant going forward and to build on our recent success. I think Stoops may have peaked, and I don’t think we need to settle for 6-6, 7-5 seasons. I think he is extremely stubborn and won’t change things that need to be changed. I’m happy to give him some more time however.

Why do we want a serviceable coach? why would we trade Stoops for a serviceable coach? All I know is hiring an actual game changing coach is extremely rare. Look at Florida, South Carolina, Vandy, Arkansas, Texas A&M, and Auburn in our own league. Prior to Saben Alabama struggled for years to find a good coach. People think it’s easy to replace a coach and get better results, but it’s not.

 

[PensacolaBlue]

Why do we want a serviceable coach? why would we trade Stoops for a serviceable coach? All I know is hiring an actual game changing coach is extremely rare. Look at Florida, South Carolina, Vandy, Arkansas, Texas A&M, and Auburn in our own league. Prior to Saben Alabama struggled for years to find a good coach. People think it’s easy to replace a coach and get better results, but it’s not.

I never said I wanted a serviceable coach. Some of you act like if we change coaches, we’d go 0-11 and that simply isn’t the case. That was my point. Stoops is not some top notch coach or he’d be coaching for A&M. He’s serviceable, sometime better than that and sometimes worse. I think Joker Phillips lives in some of your heads.

 

[Bassworship]

Now I’m as critical as anybody of CMS but the range of emotion on this board after knocking off a Top 10 team, albeit an overranked Louisville team but I don’t think folks realize how close we came to watching this entire program burn down last night. When a coach leaves, he takes most of his assistants with him. Now we would find a coach, no doubt, but it would destroy the recruiting class, there would be mass transfers and we would be looking at a minimum of 5 years until we made a bowl game.

Now I don’t know the facts or exactly what happened but I’d have to think the interest was real and so was the offer. I doubt the “fan revolt” down there had much to do with the decision. Maybe he rushed into the decision and after yesterday sat down with his family and they decided as a group that it wasn’t the right time.

We need to make some changes, it’s obvious there will be, but to burn it all down and start over? Who does that serve? We are an impatient fanbase, would we give the next guy the time he needs or be calling for his head year one? I’d rather fix what we have and keep going. From the comments I read here last night and this morning, it seems like a lot of us made comments without thinking them all the way through.

That’s my 2 cents. I’m happy that we still have our coach and some of the staff here. I’m happy we have a very nice recruiting class coming in. Let’s get back to celebrating beating Louisville, wrecking their season, knocking them out of the playoffs and continuing our dominance over the state.

Oh for goodness sake you chicken little. If Mark Stoops leaves our program wouldn't have burned down. We have SEC money and offering some of the highest paid salaries in football for coordinator and head coach salaries. We could find another coach that would jump at that money. You guys need to stay hid in your basements

 

[Random UK Fan]

some of you are stuck with this attitude that we’re nothing without him and that simply isn’t true…if we’re willing to pay $9M/yr for mediocrity,

Was just telling another poster that I’m trying to find a way to mentally and emotionally unattach this saying from our program, but to no avail.

 

[Rembrandt90]

Rich brooks didn’t coach in the portal days. The time of waiting 3-5 years to evaluate a coach are over. Beamer Alvarez come on man. That was a completely different era. The portal has changed everything you throw in nil hell that’s how stoops has built rosters with portal and transfers

To you, it is completely different. People believe what they want to believe. Yes, the portal is an important change. There are other important changes too. But three things never change. The game of football isn't simple. Impatience is not a trait of successful people. And a new coach has to turn over a roster to get his system in place, because each coaching staff does it differently and needs different types of players.

The transfer portal is for plugging holes in rosters. It is not for program building. You might occasionally see a program that appears successful because of the portal. But it's seldom so simple. Teams that are primarily successful because of the portal are the exception. The way to build a football program is from the ground up. People can accept that or not. The game is the game.

But this is different. Mark Stoops is about to complete his eleventh season at UK. Although it happens occasionally, power 5 coaches rarely stay at one school that long. Stoops built up his program and scored a ten-win season with a Citrus Biwl victory over PA St in 2018. But if your guideline had been followed, Stoops would have been fired in 2014.

Then came COVID. But Stoops still had the BBW and put together another ten-win season in 2021. But then, our OL wasn't as good in 2022 and 2023. It happens, because players graduate. It's a team sport, and the game isn't as simple as some folks want it to be. Stoops has more than earned the privilege of revising his coaching staff again and adapting. I won't repeat the extensive litany of reasons that is UK's best option. But one is that Stoops is still recruiting at a high level, and another is that our defensive roster is already being reloaded in this recruiting class with Nichols, Scott, and all the excellent players for our front seven. People can look at this anyway they want, but what I see is a roster that is a QB and a couple more offensive linemen away from another double digit winning season. In the meantime, I believe Stoops will replace Zach Yenser. Maybe that's just what I want to believe, but it seems almost unavoidable now.

Anyway, things are seldom as simple as they seem, and all the new rules only make coaching more complicated. Mark Stoops is easily the best UK football coach of my lifetime. He is only 56, and he will see better seasons.

 

[TankedCat]

playing Texas or Oklahoma ?

 

[cat_in_the_hat]

I never said I wanted a serviceable coach. Some of you act like if we change coaches, we’d go 0-11 and that simply isn’t the case. That was my point. Stoops is not some top notch coach or he’d be coaching for A&M. He’s serviceable, sometime better than that and sometimes worse. I think Joker Phillips lives in some of your heads.

I think you have an opinion of Stoops that undervalues his accomplishments. UK is historically a dog crap program. He has managed to take us to respectable in the toughest league in the country. He is better than serviceable by any objective definition. Again, why would we trade him for Duke’s coach or someone else that’s a crap shoot. Unless UK thinks it can make a home run hire, it would be brain dead stupid to walk away from Stoops.

 

[WildcatforLife1965]

Coaches leave all the time. Funny UofL just had one leave last year and went 10-1 and broke into the top 10 going 10-1 before our win yesterday. They are still playing for an ACC championship next weekend and regardless of outcome will likely still be playing in a NY6 bowl game. But we won’t even sniff a bowl for 5 years, lol!!!! My goodness some of you still act like this is the 1990’s era of football. Reality is we will barely be sniffing a bowl game with stoops moving forward and will probably even need to win the UofL game to become bowl eligible the next few years. Fun times!!!

You must be fun at parties. Playing for an ACC championship is akin to playing for 10th place in the SEC.

 

[cats2010]

Not sure how you can just throw out 5-7 or 6-6 when Stoops hasn’t had less than 7 wins outside of the Covid year since 2015. I don’t have a problem with legitimate criticism of Stoops but let’s not pull narratives out of our ass that have not happened yet and have not been the norm for quite some time now.

It’s called prognostication. Texas and Oklahoma are on the way into the SEC, we are likely going to a 9 game SEC schedule, things are getting tougher here, not easier, I’m not pulling anything out of my ass. Stoops is regressing as a coach instead of growing. He is still spineless and coaches as such. 7 win season is our ceiling moving forward. Exciting times huh????

 

[cats2010]

You must be fun at parties. Playing for an ACC championship is akin to playing for 10th place in the SEC.

Reality sucks huh? Florida state still in the playoff hunt and UofL will play in a NY6 bowl despite how shitty the ACC is. We will be in the toilet bowl which will be the best bowl stoops will be able to lead us to moving forward, that is if he can continue beating UofL as that will be the game that determines if we make a bowl game moving forward.

 

[ConRay9]

It’s called prognostication. Texas and Oklahoma are on the way into the SEC, we are likely going to a 9 game SEC schedule, things are getting tougher here, not easier, I’m not pulling anything out of my ass. Stoops is regressing as a coach instead of growing. He is still spineless and coaches as such. 7 win season is our ceiling moving forward. Exciting times huh????

Nah, you are still pulling shit out of your ass. You make vague prognostications based on sweeping generalizations without anything to back up it up except for, “Hurr durr, 9 SEC games is harder than 8, hurr durr.”

You have offered nothing to suggest that suddenly a 7 win season is the ceiling. Stoops has regressed how exactly? If anything, he’s the same coach he’s ever been. He has extremely talented assistants finally as well.

I’m not going to try and butter up this year as it was rather mediocre, but no one has convincingly made an argument that the team we just watched is the BEST we are going to see for the rest of the Stoops era. The problem has always been finding a consistent quarterback. I don’t, however, view that as some impossible unsolvable issue.

 

[cats2010]

Nah, you are still pulling shit out of your ass. You make vague prognostications based on sweeping generalizations without anything to back up it up except for, “Hurr durr, 9 SEC games is harder than 8, hurr durr.”

You have offered nothing to suggest that suddenly a 7 win season is the ceiling. Stoops has regressed how exactly? If anything, he’s the same coach he’s ever been. He has extremely talented assistants finally as well.

I’m not going to try and butter up this year as it was rather mediocre, but no one has convincingly made an argument that the team we just watched is the BEST we are going to see for the rest of the Stoops era. The problem has always been finding a consistent quarterback. I don’t, however, view that as some impossible unsolvable issue.

What the **** is hurr durr? Forget about last year being the same as this year? I hope stoops stays here another 5 years just so I can be proven right. Enjoy this years toilet bowl, will be the best we can hope for moving forward.

 

[sefus12]

What the **** is hurr durr? Forget about last year being the same as this year? I hope stoops stays here another 5 years just so I can be proven right. Enjoy this years toilet bowl, will be the best we can hope for moving forward.

Sorry we won yesterday. Must have ruined your weekend watching the Cats beat a top-10 team.

 

[ConRay9]

What the **** is hurr durr? Forget about last year being the same as this year? I hope stoops stays here another 5 years just so I can be proven right. Enjoy this years toilet bowl, will be the best we can hope for moving forward.

This comment right here demonstrates everything I need to know about you. You would rather be proven right and the team suck than be proven wrong. You care more about being right than about the team and program.

Have a good one—I’d rather not subject myself to such misery. Life’s too damn short for that. I hope you turn your attitude around and try to find some joy in the teams you watch and support rather than funnel whatever negative energy it is you’re perpetuating here.

Fandom at the end of the day is supposed to be fun and a break from the struggles from life. Too many people use their fandom to channel anger and frustration these days. This year had some lows but it’s gonna take a whole hell of a lot worse than 7-5 to turn me into such a pessimistic state. Hope you find some peace man.

 

[HagginHall1999]

I think you have an opinion of Stoops that undervalues his accomplishments. UK is historically a dog crap program. He has managed to take us to respectable in the toughest league in the country. He is better than serviceable by any objective definition. Again, why would we trade him for Duke’s coach or someone else that’s a crap shoot. Unless UK thinks it can make a home run hire, it would be brain dead stupid to walk away from Stoops.

Posted this earlier and I was told by same poster I was looking in the past....cannot win here. The simple fact is we were bottom barrel of the SEC consistently for decades. .40 winning percentage over the span of 30+ years prior to Stoops.

UK is at best a 9-10 win program. I cannot handle the beat Georgia/Alabama stuff. We are never going to regularly compete for SEC title...those are FOOTBALL schools. We aren't.

Stoops 11 seasons...
UK: 73-64, 8 Bowl Games, 4-3 record + TBD

In the 11 years previous to CMS, '02-'12...
UK: 59-76, 5 Bowl Games, 3-2 record

Between '91-'01...
UK: 44-80, 3 Bowl Games, 0-3 record

Between '80-'90...
UK: 51-69, 2 Bowl Games, 1-1 record

In the 33 years prior to Stoops:
154-225, 41%, 10 Bowl Games, 4-6 record

 

[cats2010]

Sorry we won yesterday. Must have ruined your weekend watching the Cats beat a top-10 team.

lol!!! Louisville is not a top 10 team. Pretty equivalent to TN this year. Top 20-25 for certain but not top 10. Loved the W by the way, thanks for checking in and asking.

 

[cathouse]

I think you have an opinion of Stoops that undervalues his accomplishments. UK is historically a dog crap program. He has managed to take us to respectable in the toughest league in the country. He is better than serviceable by any objective definition. Again, why would we trade him for Duke’s coach or someone else that’s a crap shoot. Unless UK thinks it can make a home run hire, it would be brain dead stupid to walk away from Stoops.

You do realize UK wasn't walking away from Stoops, right???

CMS was trying to run away from UK football to what he thought would be greener pastures.

 

[cats2010]

This comment right here demonstrates everything I need to know about you. You would rather be proven right and the team suck than be proven wrong. You care more about being right than about the team and program.

Have a good one—I’d rather not subject myself to such misery. Life’s too damn short for that. I hope you turn your attitude around and try to find some joy in the teams you watch and support rather than funnel whatever negative energy it is you’re perpetuating here.

Fandom at the end of the day is supposed to be fun and a break from the struggles from life. Too many people use their fandom to channel anger and frustration these days. This year had some lows but it’s gonna take a whole hell of a lot worse than 7-5 to turn me into such a pessimistic state. Hope you find some peace man.

Stoops is staying so I will either be proven right by my 7 win ceiling for him or I won’t. Failed to see where I indicated that I hope I’m proven right. I’ve wanted stoops to prove me wrong by abandoning his chicken shit conservative nature but he won’t. He’s not the only one though, Auburn pulled the same crap yesterday and dropped 8 into coverage instead of putting any type of pressure on the QB. I like coaches that go for the kill, not lay back and hope the other team doesn’t make a play. Stoops is too afraid of failing to ever succeed.

 

[HagginHall1999]

Stoops is staying so I will either be proven right by my 7 win ceiling for him or I won’t. Failed to see where I indicated that I hope I’m proven right. I’ve wanted stoops to prove me wrong by abandoning his chicken shit conservative nature but he won’t. He’s not the only one though, Auburn pulled the same crap yesterday and dropped 8 into coverage instead of putting any type of pressure on the QB. I like coaches that go for the kill, not lay back and hope the other team doesn’t make a play. Stoops is too afraid of failing to ever succeed.

It would be way easier for everyone to accept the fact that at UK the win range will be 7-9 max in regular season. Is Stoops perfect? No. Is he better than everyone we've had in 70 years? Yes.

Prove me wrong. Use something besides your opinion.

 

[cat_in_the_hat]

You do realize UK wasn't walking away from Stoops, right???

CMS was trying to run away from UK football to what he thought would be greener pastures.

That’s not the point of my post. My post addresses the people on this board who want Stoops gone and think it would be easy to replace him with someone who is better. I can’t speak to whether he turned them down or they turned him down. No one really knows for sure except a few people involved in the interview.

 

[WildcatofNati2]

It's probably for the best that Stoops didn't leave, but the idea that it would take a minimum of FIVE YEARS to get to a bowl game if he did leave is completely inconsistent with what multiple other non-blueblood Power 5 teams with brand new head coaches have done over and over recently.

 

[cathouse]

That’s not the point of my post. My post addresses the people on this board who want Stoops gone and think it would be easy to replace him with someone who is better. I can’t speak to whether he turned them down or they turned him down. No one really knows for sure except a few people involved in the interview.

But we do know for sure he was interested enough to pursue the job.

That was totally his choice. Fans could not have stopped him if he wanted to leave. At least not the UK fans. Sounds like A&M fans might have been able to nix the deal.

We will probably never know all the real truth of what transpired, but whatever it was hurt both programs and might have damaged CMS relationship with MB.

 

[cat_in_the_hat]

But we do know for sure he was interested enough to pursue the job.

That was totally his choice. Fans could not have stopped him if he wanted to leave. At least not the UK fans. Sounds like A&M fans might have been able to nix the deal.

We will probably never know all the real truth of what transpired, but whatever it was hurt both programs and might have damaged CMS relationship with MB.

A lot of speculation there. Coaches interview for jobs all the time, whether we hear about it or not. I doubt it’s nearly as big of a deal for either program as you are trying to make it into.

 

[KyCatFan]

Not sure how you can just throw out 5-7 or 6-6 when Stoops hasn’t had less than 7 wins outside of the Covid year since 2015. I don’t have a problem with legitimate criticism of Stoops but let’s not pull narratives out of our ass that have not happened yet and have not been the norm for quite some time now.

SEC Schedule This Year

Florida W
Vanderbilt W
Miss St W
Georgia L
Tennessee L
South Carolina L
Missouri L
Alabama L

SEC Schedule Next Year

@Florida
Vanderbilt
Auburn - Better than Miss St.
Georgia
@Tennessee
South Carolina
@Ole Miss - As good as Missouri.
@Texas - As good or better than Alabama.

We replaced 3 teams we went 1-2 against with 3 teams we could go 0-3 with. Florida is about due for a win over us. Tennessee is almost always a loss. Georgia is a loss. South Carolina has beaten us 2 in a row. Vandy is the only game left we should win. The rest are losses and probably 50/50.

Louisville will be in their second year with Brohm. Most teams improve a lot in their second year. So another 50/50 game at best. Then throw in the cupcakes. We should win those 3 but who knows. We will be starting a new QB and RB again. Plus we will lose some key players to the portal I would bet and also to graduation. I could easily see us only winning 5 games next year.

 

[Cawood86]

Posted this earlier and I was told by same poster I was looking in the past....cannot win here. The simple fact is we were bottom barrel of the SEC consistently for decades. .40 winning percentage over the span of 30+ years prior to Stoops.

UK is at best a 9-10 win program. I cannot handle the beat Georgia/Alabama stuff. We are never going to regularly compete for SEC title...those are FOOTBALL schools. We aren't.

Stoops 11 seasons...
UK: 73-64, 8 Bowl Games, 4-3 record + TBD

In the 11 years previous to CMS, '02-'12...
UK: 59-76, 5 Bowl Games, 3-2 record

Between '91-'01...
UK: 44-80, 3 Bowl Games, 0-3 record

Between '80-'90...
UK: 51-69, 2 Bowl Games, 1-1 record

In the 33 years prior to Stoops:
154-225, 41%, 10 Bowl Games, 4-6 record

How many of those coaches were being paid like Stoops is being paid?

Did someone force Stoops to talk to the Aggies?

 

[Cawood86]

It would be way easier for everyone to accept the fact that at UK the win range will be 7-9 max in regular season. Is Stoops perfect? No. Is he better than everyone we've had in 70 years? Yes.

Prove me wrong. Use something besides your opinion.

I give Stoops credit for the improvements he has made. Major steps.

Why is it unthinkable to believe someone else could do better?

 

[Rockfly78]

Oh for goodness sake you chicken little. If Mark Stoops leaves our program wouldn't have burned down. We have SEC money and offering some of the highest paid salaries in football for coordinator and head coach salaries. We could find another coach that would jump at that money. You guys need to stay hid in your basements

lol. If we have a coaching change for any reason right now we are in for a monumental rebuild. I think too many of your are high on hopium and low on common sense

 

[JBHolmesfan]

How many of those coaches were being paid like Stoops is being paid?

Did someone force Stoops to talk to the Aggies?

I think we all understand UK’s history and how truly atrocious it’s been. Not everyone agrees with me on this, but our history just doesn’t mean much to me at this point. College football is a lot different now than it was in 1980. Kentucky is a lot different. UK actually cares about football now.

I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect Bama or Georgia levels, but to keep comparing our records now to the past isn’t a fair comparison in my opinion. We actually have investment from the university that was never there before. Some people will always see Kentucky as the old Kentucky and I get that. It’s just a shame that a lot of our fan base is including in that.

 

[Rockfly78]

I give Stoops credit for the improvements he has made. Major steps.

Why is it unthinkable to believe someone else could do better?

Maybe cause no one else ever has. Two 10 win seasons in the last 5 years. That is our ceiling bubba. I trust the guy who did it recently more than I trust the next guy.

Did you not just witness what TAM did? All the money in the world. All the recruiting. All the resources and what did they wind up with? They apparently were turned down by the guy you think sucks and hired the guy at Duke lol. He got lucky and won some games in a bad ACC and while Clemson is down. Yet you are convinced that Kentucky, who has only a fraction of the resources and history that TAM, will do much better in a coaching search lol. You have got to be kidding me. I’m just gonna assume you are a huge Mitch Barnhart fan because you do know he’s the one doing the hiring. I bet you’ve got great things to say about him.

I see you out here begging Iowa to save you from stoops too. Lol. This is why we can’t have nice things

 

[ConRay9]

SEC Schedule This Year

Florida W
Vanderbilt W
Miss St W
Georgia L
Tennessee L
South Carolina L
Missouri L
Alabama L

SEC Schedule Next Year

@Florida
Vanderbilt
Auburn - Better than Miss St.
Georgia
@Tennessee
South Carolina
@Ole Miss - As good as Missouri.
@Texas - As good or better than Alabama.

We replaced 3 teams we went 1-2 against with 3 teams we could go 0-3 with. Florida is about due for a win over us. Tennessee is almost always a loss. Georgia is a loss. South Carolina has beaten 2 in a row. Vandy is the only game left we should win. The rest are losses and probably 50/50.

Louisville will be in their second year with Brohm. Most teams improve a lot in their second year. So another 50/50 game at best. Then throw in the cupcakes. We should win those 3 but who knows. We will be starting a new QB and RB again. Plus we will lose some key players to the portal I would bet and also to graduation. I could easily see us only winning 5 games next year.

Not sure I totally agree. I think the schedule next year is a wash compared to this year’s and yeah we went 7-5 but we also dropped some close games that could have been wins and not been a fluke or undeserved. Didn’t win any games we shouldn’t have save for the UL game maybe. UL was massively overrated and UK slightly underrated so feels like the right result in the end.

Florida—not sure how any team is “due” for anything. Three straight losses to UK is less indicative of a fluke and more so indication of one program being on a higher level than the other. I give UK the edge.

South Carolina—beaten us twice in a row, once where we had our back up playing and the other a game we chocked away. It’s at home and Rattler probably gone, so I’m inclined to give UK the edge.

Vanderbilt—unless Ray Davis suits up for them can’t see this as anything but a win.

Ole Miss—winnable game but tough. Probably a loss.

Auburn—winnable game at home but will be tough. Slightly more winnable compared to Ole Miss. Toss up.

Texas—Tennessee—Georgia—Hard to see any of these three as wins, but pretty much a wash compared to Georgia, UT, and Bama this year.

Louisville—home game against a likely good not great squad. Maybe they’ll be better next year, but then again they went 10-1 before our game and are in the ACC championship game. Any sort of improvement over that and you’re talking playoff and I just don’t see it.

UK lands the Miss State QB or similar caliber QB and I like next years team more so than this year’s if you keep the receivers and Walker. I view the schedule next year as the same degree of difficulty as this year’s. Lot of dominoes yet to fall though. Gotta keep the talent.

 

[KyCatFan]

It would be way easier for everyone to accept the fact that at UK the win range will be 7-9 max in regular season. Is Stoops perfect? No. Is he better than everyone we've had in 70 years? Yes.

Prove me wrong. Use something besides your opinion.

He probably is no better than Brooks. Very similar records with Stoops winning 5 more games in 7 years to start. Brooks had no 12th game in 2 of those years. So that would bring it even closer (only 3 games difference). He also was dealing with probation for his first 2 years.

The SEC East was stronger in the Brooks years in my opinion. He also didn't have the support of the AD or the resources (recruiting room was a card table in the corner of the Nutter Center). If Brooks had been 10 years younger with the support we get now, he might have done even better and stayed a lot longer.

So I'd put those 2 at least on an equal level for their first 7 years with more challenges to overcome for Brooks. Brooks might get the tiebreaker though since he had a win over #1 LSU, who won the championship.

 

[cat_in_the_hat]

I give Stoops credit for the improvements he has made. Major steps.

Why is it unthinkable to believe someone else could do better?

I don’t think that’s the question you ask when you are considering replacing a good employee. The answer for almost any employe will be there is someone out there who could do better. The question is is it reasonable to fire the employee based on the job the employee has done and if you do replace him or her, how likely are you to find a replacement who will do better. In college football, like I said before, there is almost always someone better, but the odds of identifying and hiring that person is low.