As for being "on the same playing field" the outcome of the last two head to head games might give them that feeling, improbable as it might be now.
Two 4* Bowling Green Defensive stars don't have UK....
- Thread starter Black Diamond Cat
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As for being "on the same playing field" the outcome of the last two head to head games might give them that feeling, improbable as it might be now.
We need to recruit football players who are physically able to compete at the SEC level and fit what we are trying to do. I couldn't possibly give a ***bleep*** less where they come from.
I've had a different experience. Seemed to me most people pulled for WKU and UK, but would root for WKU when they played UK.
I do agree there's a larger UofL contingent in the western part of the state. UofL has been very aggressive about scholarships and marketing along the I-65 and Western Ky Parkway veins. More kids from my hometown go to UofL now than UK, which is incredible since growing up in the 90's and aught's there were very few UofL fans.
Unfortunately true, but Louisville also won a lot of those games in weak conferences, then played only 2 or 3 tough teams a year. The SEC is still the toughest conference in the land and if a Kentucky born player doesn't even show an interest in the state university, I wouldn't waste a lot of time on them. I have no problem with where we get our players if they want to come here.
W KY is the weakest part of the state when it comes to UK fan support. Still seems to be a majority of UK fans but the ties to the university are just not as strong as in the rest of the state imo. Just have to keep winning and that will change, casual fans don't want to waste their time rooting for a losing UK team when UL has been winning big.
It is disappointing when a highly rated instate player decides to go elsewhere but like others have said talent is talent, doesn't matter where you get it as long as you've got it. Stoops is having the most recruiting success I've ever seen at UK so losing in state players is not hurting us as bad as it has in the past. I'm totally cool with having a team full of FL, OH, GA etc players with a few KY kids sprinkled in. It's nice having local kids at UK as we all want to see the young people from the state succeed and it's more enjoyable for us if they're doing it while wearing blue but I'll take where we are and where we're heading.
It is disappointing when a highly rated instate player decides to go elsewhere but like others have said talent is talent, doesn't matter where you get it as long as you've got it. Stoops is having the most recruiting success I've ever seen at UK so losing in state players is not hurting us as bad as it has in the past. I'm totally cool with having a team full of FL, OH, GA etc players with a few KY kids sprinkled in. It's nice having local kids at UK as we all want to see the young people from the state succeed and it's more enjoyable for us if they're doing it while wearing blue but I'll take where we are and where we're heading.
There are those, but there is still a very big UK contingency here. In town BG there are more WKU fans, but WKU is a big part of the local economy so they are going to get some cheers. The further outside of BG city toward Warren County you get, the more blue you see. I suppose there are folks like me who attended both schools and cheer for both, but if the two are playing each other I pull for UK.
You're probably right. UK fans in Louisville are deep in enemy territory though so to me they come across as a bit more hardcore in their fandom. That 50/50 split seems to purify the love/hate of the other team for the fans because they're living in such close proximity whereas the population is more spread out to the west. It's really kind of a silly way to think about it though, UK fans in BG bleed just as blue as those in Hazard, Middlesboro or Fort Thomas so I meant no disrespect to the good peoples of W KY. Land between the lakes is one of my favorite areas of the state.
The written offers don't out until August and those are the ones that count.
I deal with 6-8 businesses in BG area, each and every one is a U.K. Fan, they root for WKU but U.K. Is still main team, you have mor UT FB fans in BG then UL fans. I would say you have a die hard WKU crowd of 35%. BG-Glasgow-Russellville-Franklin all U.K. I would say 50%+ are U.K in BG Rest is casual fan of WKU, UT FB fan and less than 10 % UL. A lot of business people have to show support for hometown school but make no mistake UK has biggest fan base. I mean Kenny Perry went to WKU but is a big time UK fan, he was that way when he went to school in Paducah Lone Oak and his dad move back to Franklin.
That is my unscientific approach from tee shirts being worn, car plates. Most of the retailers tell you U.K. Sells a ton more in stores where al schools available
That is my unscientific approach from tee shirts being worn, car plates. Most of the retailers tell you U.K. Sells a ton more in stores where al schools available
I can't help but think those numbers are due to basketball and football is a different thing altogether.
Say what you will, but WKU is on the rise as a FBS program. They aren't a powerhouse, but they are moving up in the mid-major ranks as a top team in that level.
WKU's record since 2011 (when we started our bowl drought):
11' 7-5 narrow loss to Kentucky (posed to be SEC)
12' 7-6 Little Caesars bowl appearance, beat Kentucky
13' 8-4 beat Kentucky
14' 8-5 Bahama's Bowl win over CMU
15' 12-2 Miami Beach Bowl win over South Florida, finished #24 in AP Poll
16' 10-3 Boca Raton Bowl win over Memphis
They've had 8 NFL draft picks during that time span and have 11 players currently on NFL rosters. In that same time span Kentucky has also had 8 players drafted and 12 players on NFL rosters. Not a big difference.
They've had 6 straight winning years with 4 bowl appearances, moved up into the CUSA (where UofL was not too long ago), 3 straight bowl wins, 2 straight 10 win seasons, and finished the season in a top 25 poll. They've had Willie Taggert(Oregon now), Bobby Petrino(UofL now), and Jeff Brohm (Purdue now) as their coaches and have moved up to big time Power 5 jobs.
By comparison, Kentucky has had 1 winning/bowl season in that time span. When is the last time Kentucky has finished the season ranked or had a 10 win season? We have had Joker who can't get a decent job anywhere as a coach and Mark Stoops who still has a career losing record but still has time to prove how good he can be.
WKU has outdone us in record on the field, equal to us in NFL talent, and has had much better coaching staffs. And they have done all of that with a smaller budget and less talent. Yes we are playing against the SEC..but they've gone into Vandy and won(when have we done that) and have beaten us in that time...along with beating some good teams in their bowl games.
We should be on another level than them and I think we are passing them once again, but that is nothing to brag about. With the advantage of being an SEC school in terms of recruiting advantages and financial strength, WKU should not be within 40 points of us. The track record shows that some recruits in BG could see WKU is a better option right now. BG is a growing city and the campus is growing by the second. It's up to Stoops and the guys to show this state and region that we can be a destination for consistent winning football that sends players to the pros at a higher rate.
WKU's record since 2011 (when we started our bowl drought):
11' 7-5 narrow loss to Kentucky (posed to be SEC)
12' 7-6 Little Caesars bowl appearance, beat Kentucky
13' 8-4 beat Kentucky
14' 8-5 Bahama's Bowl win over CMU
15' 12-2 Miami Beach Bowl win over South Florida, finished #24 in AP Poll
16' 10-3 Boca Raton Bowl win over Memphis
They've had 8 NFL draft picks during that time span and have 11 players currently on NFL rosters. In that same time span Kentucky has also had 8 players drafted and 12 players on NFL rosters. Not a big difference.
They've had 6 straight winning years with 4 bowl appearances, moved up into the CUSA (where UofL was not too long ago), 3 straight bowl wins, 2 straight 10 win seasons, and finished the season in a top 25 poll. They've had Willie Taggert(Oregon now), Bobby Petrino(UofL now), and Jeff Brohm (Purdue now) as their coaches and have moved up to big time Power 5 jobs.
By comparison, Kentucky has had 1 winning/bowl season in that time span. When is the last time Kentucky has finished the season ranked or had a 10 win season? We have had Joker who can't get a decent job anywhere as a coach and Mark Stoops who still has a career losing record but still has time to prove how good he can be.
WKU has outdone us in record on the field, equal to us in NFL talent, and has had much better coaching staffs. And they have done all of that with a smaller budget and less talent. Yes we are playing against the SEC..but they've gone into Vandy and won(when have we done that) and have beaten us in that time...along with beating some good teams in their bowl games.
We should be on another level than them and I think we are passing them once again, but that is nothing to brag about. With the advantage of being an SEC school in terms of recruiting advantages and financial strength, WKU should not be within 40 points of us. The track record shows that some recruits in BG could see WKU is a better option right now. BG is a growing city and the campus is growing by the second. It's up to Stoops and the guys to show this state and region that we can be a destination for consistent winning football that sends players to the pros at a higher rate.
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Some folks saying there are more UL fans than UK fans in BG, have to disagree , I am from the BG area everybody I know are UK and WKU fans, walk thru the mall on a Sat. or Sun afternoon see alot of UK caps not only BG but surrounding areas of BG..
As a WKU alum, I'll tell you that I absolutely love the school and I do cheer for the sports teams and hope they win, but I'm not completely and totally invested like I am with UK. I'm from Nicholasville, so UK Blue is just in my blood and always will be. I will say that these "WKU only" fans down here in Bowling Green are some of the most clueless and annoying people I've ever met. They simply can't understand why there are people like me who went to Western but still actively cheer for Kentucky. If you were to walk through campus on a typical day during the school year, you will see lots and lots of UK Blue. It irritates the piss out of them. They also know nothing about the landscape of college athletics. You are absolutely correct when you say "they think WKU is on the same level as UK." They don't seem to understand that there are the big major state universities like UK, Ohio State, Alabama, etc, etc, and then there's the small directional mid-major schools like Western. They legitimately think that winning Conference USA is equal to winning the SEC.
You are correct. Western's football team has been one of the top mid-major programs in college football the last couple of years. There is a lot of pressure on Mike Sanford to win here now because they've gone 23-5 the last 2 seasons combined. The thing about a program like Western is if Sanford keeps this going and wins a lot of games over a couple of years, he's going to leave for a bigger program. If he tanks and Western goes 4-8 this year, they will easily lose that luster and it won't be easy to gain back, which means in a few years he'd likely be fired and a new coach would take over and it would be the same story. WKU is a revolving door program and their fans just don't seem to understand why they can't keep coaches.
The comparison to UK during this time frame is the "Joker" effect. They are a good mid major school. UK is out recruiting and out playing WKU. Stoops beat bobby p at louisville.
I was on the sidelines for the Jokers last WKU game . Their guys looked better physically than ours. There was no denying that. That was then, this is now . Take a look at the rosters now. There's not much comparison. WKU did a great job with coaching and developent when UK was bottoming out.
I'm not putting WUK down, I'm just saying we're not 'spose to be SEC. We are SEC now.
Last year was a big step up but we are not head and shoulders away from them until we prove it consistently.
Southern Miss, who beat us, did not even have a winning record in the CUSA that WKU has dominated. WKU went down to Vandy and won in 2015 when we lost, and took Vandy to OT at home last year and our game came down to Vandy with a chance to tie under 10 seconds. We both lost at Alabama by 28 last year. And that EKU game that went into OT is not very far off in my memory. They beat a really good Memphis team in their bowl game by 20.
I think our team at the end of the year could have beat WKU by 10-14 points but I think WKU could have beaten us if we did not come prepared. Our 2015 team and first 3 weeks of 2016 team probably would have lost to them again.
With the recruits we have brought in that have raised the talent level combined with out top notch facilities..its time to zoom past WKU where its not even a debate. And it starts with Stoops leading us to an 8-4 or 9-3 record in 2017!
BleeedingBlue, I won't say the prospect in question, but you won't have trouble finding out exactly who I am talking about, if you haven't already, by doing some looking around all the college football sites.
The player that you mentioned would indeed be a MASSIVE pick up by UK and an even bigger loss to UL that would leave them with NO WAY to replace that high quality of player in this class.
UL has a real fight on their hands here. This scandal continues to grow and any moral parent wouldn't ever allow their 17 year old "baby boy" to go to a school full of under aged hookers looking to turn their boy into a sinner. As we are aware, it isn't like that all the time. Plus, it was the basketball team, not the football team that got in trouble. That does not matter to religious families in the south that have dragged their big college bound son to church ever Sunday for his entire life.
Instead of the scandal slowly going away, I would argue that it is slowly growing in popularity and starting to affect recruiting in a major way. As bad as this sounds, some players and their parents could care less what rules are being broken and will send their son to go play for Bobby Petrino because he has got a few players in the NFL that he actually recruited as FR. A very small few, but that's another subject.
UL needs to pray that some of their commits that made their decision early, before all the shit hit the fan, agree to stand strong in their commitment. If not, Purdue and Kentucky are both contacting SEVERAL of their commits that are top notch recruits.
You may call it negative recruiting, but I disagree when all the coaches have to say is the truth about Pitino, the whores, and Petrino. Plus, the fall that is getting closer and closer to happening when we reach ALJ1 in Louisville after this season.
UL is going to be looking at a lot of 6-6/7-5 type seasons for a long, long time as Strong's DEF has all graduated and Lamar has left for the pros. Plus, they lose their big time Georgia transfers this year, as well. I wouldn't be shocked if they ended up signing 30 while finding 8-10 transfers to give a second chance to by the end of this class. The cupboard is BEYOND BARE. Joker Philips when CMS took over, bare, damn-near...
If I were Petrino, I am leaving after this season to ANYWHERE that will take me while he still has value before a 4 year stretch of 6/6 and 7/5 seasons at UL thanks to beating up on extremely weak ACC teams like @ Wake, Cuse, Virginia, BC, etc. along with Kent St, Murray St, and Purdue all at home. That's such an easy 7 win schedule. Especially if you compare it to our team last year. Good God!
This year's UK/UL game will be competitive. If you are a UL fan, take a picture. What, did you beat us 6 years straight? Yeah, hopefully you like karma and the fact that the series always manages to even up. Kentucky will out talent UL on ALJ1 at every position on the field, except for possibly the defensive line. Everywhere else, UK has the advantage in a big way.
ALJ1 = After Lamar Jackson 1
If I were Petrino, I would go out West to a place like Oregon, Washington, Arizona, California, UCLA, etc. As far away from this mess as possible. A school like Cal would give him a lifetime contract and drool over what a great hire they have made. Petrino could keep his nose clean, have QB's, WR's, and OL's lining up to play for him the are all local within 50 miles of campus. They could put up big numbers each week, win 7-9 games each season for the next decade, and eventually name the stadium after him.
That is HEAVEN compared to what he is about to face if he stays at Louisville while the sweeping everything under the rug continues. Heck, even following Lamar to wherever he goes with the 1st team to pick a QB in the NFL as his QB coach wouldn't be a bad gig. Make $500k a year and stay completely out of the limelight for the rest of your days.
Pitino should really do similar and offer to be the Knick's Vice President for dirt cheap. They could sell it as Pitino coming home after coaching the Knicks and ready to help out however he can undo that scoundrel, Phil Jackson's mess, that he put their franchise in. I am sure Ricky still has his NE contacts. There's A LOT less rules in the pro game vs. college...
The rats should be jumping ship RIGHT FREAKING NOW. CAN'T UNDERSTAND WHY THEY ARE NOT! Pitino and Petrino should've left about 6 months ago for the good of everyone involved in the University and their athletics programs...
The player that you mentioned would indeed be a MASSIVE pick up by UK and an even bigger loss to UL that would leave them with NO WAY to replace that high quality of player in this class.
UL has a real fight on their hands here. This scandal continues to grow and any moral parent wouldn't ever allow their 17 year old "baby boy" to go to a school full of under aged hookers looking to turn their boy into a sinner. As we are aware, it isn't like that all the time. Plus, it was the basketball team, not the football team that got in trouble. That does not matter to religious families in the south that have dragged their big college bound son to church ever Sunday for his entire life.
Instead of the scandal slowly going away, I would argue that it is slowly growing in popularity and starting to affect recruiting in a major way. As bad as this sounds, some players and their parents could care less what rules are being broken and will send their son to go play for Bobby Petrino because he has got a few players in the NFL that he actually recruited as FR. A very small few, but that's another subject.
UL needs to pray that some of their commits that made their decision early, before all the shit hit the fan, agree to stand strong in their commitment. If not, Purdue and Kentucky are both contacting SEVERAL of their commits that are top notch recruits.
You may call it negative recruiting, but I disagree when all the coaches have to say is the truth about Pitino, the whores, and Petrino. Plus, the fall that is getting closer and closer to happening when we reach ALJ1 in Louisville after this season.
UL is going to be looking at a lot of 6-6/7-5 type seasons for a long, long time as Strong's DEF has all graduated and Lamar has left for the pros. Plus, they lose their big time Georgia transfers this year, as well. I wouldn't be shocked if they ended up signing 30 while finding 8-10 transfers to give a second chance to by the end of this class. The cupboard is BEYOND BARE. Joker Philips when CMS took over, bare, damn-near...
If I were Petrino, I am leaving after this season to ANYWHERE that will take me while he still has value before a 4 year stretch of 6/6 and 7/5 seasons at UL thanks to beating up on extremely weak ACC teams like @ Wake, Cuse, Virginia, BC, etc. along with Kent St, Murray St, and Purdue all at home. That's such an easy 7 win schedule. Especially if you compare it to our team last year. Good God!
This year's UK/UL game will be competitive. If you are a UL fan, take a picture. What, did you beat us 6 years straight? Yeah, hopefully you like karma and the fact that the series always manages to even up. Kentucky will out talent UL on ALJ1 at every position on the field, except for possibly the defensive line. Everywhere else, UK has the advantage in a big way.
ALJ1 = After Lamar Jackson 1
If I were Petrino, I would go out West to a place like Oregon, Washington, Arizona, California, UCLA, etc. As far away from this mess as possible. A school like Cal would give him a lifetime contract and drool over what a great hire they have made. Petrino could keep his nose clean, have QB's, WR's, and OL's lining up to play for him the are all local within 50 miles of campus. They could put up big numbers each week, win 7-9 games each season for the next decade, and eventually name the stadium after him.
That is HEAVEN compared to what he is about to face if he stays at Louisville while the sweeping everything under the rug continues. Heck, even following Lamar to wherever he goes with the 1st team to pick a QB in the NFL as his QB coach wouldn't be a bad gig. Make $500k a year and stay completely out of the limelight for the rest of your days.
Pitino should really do similar and offer to be the Knick's Vice President for dirt cheap. They could sell it as Pitino coming home after coaching the Knicks and ready to help out however he can undo that scoundrel, Phil Jackson's mess, that he put their franchise in. I am sure Ricky still has his NE contacts. There's A LOT less rules in the pro game vs. college...
The rats should be jumping ship RIGHT FREAKING NOW. CAN'T UNDERSTAND WHY THEY ARE NOT! Pitino and Petrino should've left about 6 months ago for the good of everyone involved in the University and their athletics programs...
![[smoke]](http://l.yimg.com/j/assets/img/emoticons/classic/smokin.r191677.gif "Cool [smoke]")
If we went into the game against WKU like we did Georgia Tech then we would have lost to them again.
Also WKU hasnt been div 1 very long. They used to be in the ovc along with Eastern Ky and Murray St. Its a testament to their university for how much they have improved in such a short time.
If their new coach is canned after a couple years you could see an Art Briles/Hugh Freeze/etc type of coach go to them. Good school to win at and a place For a beleaguered and scandalous coach to end up at to regain his footing in the college football world. WKU has shown they will dip their toes in the sewer with the Petrino hire.
And WKU wouldn't have a winning record in the SEC or wouldn't have made a bowl in any of those years. Switch conferences for the teams WKU would be nothing. Every year. That they beat UK is a testament to The Joke Phillips and his brainless coaching not that WKU was any good. WKU is a decent football program. UK was a travesty under Phillips and it's taken Stoops years to turn around the stain of Phillips.
As far as the two players, I wish them well. I want top Kentucky kids to come to UK but I would rather have four star Ohio, Florida, Georgia etc players than 4 star Kentucky players if push comes to shove. Those states actually play high level, competitive high school football unlike most of the football in Kentucky which is a pretty much a joke.
The SEC East was probably the worst division in P5 CFB last year. WKU probably would have had the same record as UK.
As for the whole BG thing, as someone who has lived here for a while, the UL fans are mostly students that are from Louisville. Not many people in BG like them, although more than some places I suppose.
I agree most of the city is WKU and UK fans at the same time. Again, WKU hasn't been FBS long and those games against U.K. in 2012/2013 hurt UK's perception a lot.
Many of the students that are U.K. fans come from Lexington area. Those outside that area generally are WKU only. Wearing U.K. gear or cheering for them around campus/college bars will generally get you some bad comments from other students. WKU students are very passionate/have a lot of pride in their school. I still can't figure out why, but it's a very unique for a school of our size. It's an amazing place but it's hard to put a finger on why it's more infectious than other similar schools.
It is a big basketball/football thing though. WKU hasn't been great in basketball since probably 2008-2009. Stansbury has the town buzzing though. If WKU goes on a run this year and/or next, it's just going to hurt UK fan population in BG/WKU. Usually those fans only pop their heads out a lot during basketball season. Non existent during football.
I also agree with the one poster who said it gradually turns more U.K. the further from the city you go. Within the city limits where the businessmen/woman are, the students, etc., it's pretty anti UK. The further out you get into the rural parts/farmland/mini-towns of Warren Co., is almost completely UK.
BG is really odd in that way. I think a lot of the resentment against U.K. (& UL just as much) is in relation to the perceived "better than you" elitist attitude from Lex/Lou, and the decades of lobbying efforts from the UL/UK administrations that have kept WKU from growing academically. Blocking medical schools, law schools, etc. It's not 100% athletics related.
If Art Briles lands another gig, I'll eat my hat. And I have eaten hat, before.
Lol. No. WKU lost to Vandy and Bama, the two SEC teams they played. They wouldn't have won a game in the SEC. Not one game.
Give me one 4 star from Ohio and you can keep both BG 4 stars.
I love Kentucky boys but our problem has always been that the Kentucky boys and players from other states that we recruited were not players physically ready to play in the SEC immediately even though we usually had to. To get to another level, you have to have players who are competing for depth positions after their redshirt year. Most SEC schools have junior and senior players who have started for 3 or 4 years in starting positions, alot of them 5 yr players, which is hard to compete with. We are just now getting a depth chart that has junior and seniors in the top two spots. Losing doesn't make you very attractive no matter if you are the STATE school or not. Stoops and Marrow know this, and this is why they get real happy when the wins come because they know it makes recruiting even better.
Western Ky has done well in the last few years for sure but at the level that they were at, playing Old Dominion, Houston Baptist, North Texas, Rice, Miami O, UTSA, UAB, Bowling Green, Fla Atlantic, Ga State, Ark State, Texas State, FIU, and Morgan State, the victories were all possible. And when you are winning those games, your kids get even better, have better attitudes, everything is great when you are winning which is why when you do go up against a big dog or two, you can play well and even have an upset. UK, has so much pressure to win this early games that they tend to play tight and if the game gets close, past history tells them they will fail and sometimes they do. 8 or more games of ours, is usually against the big dogs, especially for us, so when they beat up on us badly, its hurts us not only physically where we lose starters but mentally we are whipped. Again I think WKY has done great and this probably sounds like an excuse but hopefully Stoops and staff can change this and allow us to finally get up the SEC ladder.
A lot of players probably find it super attractive that if you have a weed problem at Transfer U they will try to help you hide it instead of expose it.
True. UK will never live that one down with those Western fans. I mentioned this in another post, but these die hard Hilltopper fans truly believe that WKU is also on the same level of the Alabama, Florida, and LSU-type teams.
Perfect example, I was working with a girl at SWHS a couple years ago who was WKU red through and through. This was 2015 when Western finished the season 12-2, which was arguably the best season in school history. They played LSU in Baton Rouge that season and a few days leading up to that game I was talking to her and she was all hyped telling me that Western was going to beat LSU. I basically told her in the nicest way I could that the toppers had no chance and would get destroyed. Her response was "no because we're really really good this year." She didn't understand that a team like LSU is just a completely different level. The final score of that game was 48-20. So the best team in WKU's history went down and got blasted by 28 points to an LSU team that finished the season 9-3; mediocre to their standards. Western's only other loss that year was at Indiana, a Hoosier team that finished 6-7 overall and 2-6 in the Big 10.
I'm a WKU alum and love the school, but the die-hard hilltopper-only fans are annoying and totally clueless people when it comes to the dimensions in college athletics. Kentucky should never have lost those games to them and Western was lucky they caught UK in the depths of the Joker debacle. I almost wish that they would play once more in the upcoming years so UK could crush them and shut those people up, because they still pump their chests about that.
WKU has no depth to compete in the SEC week after week. Give me a break.
And CUSA plays zero defense.
And CUSA plays zero defense.
Dingle camped at UK last year and the coaches were not impressed with his hips/flexibility.
Lacey is just a miss.
Lacey is just a miss.
TheySoSensitive, where are people getting this info? Dingle himself told his local newspaper that UK, UT, and PU were showing him the most love by far exactly 8 days ago.
UK Coaches have talked about a big time instate player that would instantly help out our DL still being on the board.
UK coaches are claiming to recruit him.
Dingle is claiming to hear from UK coaches.
Where are these other rumors stemming from? Disgruntled UL fans?
UK Coaches have talked about a big time instate player that would instantly help out our DL still being on the board.
UK coaches are claiming to recruit him.
Dingle is claiming to hear from UK coaches.
Where are these other rumors stemming from? Disgruntled UL fans?
I think Kentucky does need to get the best players or most of them in the state and most years they do. But if a kid was raised in an anti UK family I would find out real quick if he had an interest in UK, if not I wouldn't waste my time. As for the best talent in Kentucky, the top ten prolly wouldn't be in Florida's top 75, the state just doesn't produce enough blue chip talent and never has. There are a few exceptions, most of Louisvilles and Westerns players come from somewhere else, in order to be competitive they have too. I still want Kentucky to clean house in the state but some years it's a down year.
One of the reasons I know that people from Western Kentucky likes both UL and WKU more than UK was driven home for me by a conversation I had with an old girlfriend from a long time back. She surprised me when she let it be known how much she hated UK and for some reason I can't explain started talking about how racist the university was. I said I always thought she was a UK fan and she told me she used to be. She said that was before her daughter wasn't accepted by UK as a student. Her daughter was accepted by UL and she was a big UL supporter now. I can understand that still I didn't even bother to ask her about her daughter's SAT scores or any other academic info as the conversation was not going well. It didn't help matters when she asked about my daughter. It was the one time in my life I felt I had to minimize my daughter's success.
I think people are missing the point of the comparison to WKU and UK. Its not that WKU would win in the SEC, but its the perception it gives off to recruits. They have less talent coming in and yet they produce the same amount of NFL talent as us.
Recruits(especially in their own city) may see a program that is going to bowl games every year, appearing in the top 25, and putting out a lot of NFL talent for a CUSA school. Then they could look at UK and see a program that has not been to many bowl games, has not been in a top 25 in 10 years, and is an SEC school putting out the same talent as a CUSA school like WKU.
The point is not that WKU would win in the SEC because they could not sustain the depth, but its seeing through the minds of the recruits who are deciding to play their or not. Our program should never have been at a point where we lose 5 straight to UofL, 2 straight to WKU(the last one we looked overmatched), and almost lose to a FCS EKU team if not for a Baker miracle to tie it.
This year and next are the years to change the mindsets of everyone. We need to show that our facilities and recruiting advantages puts us at #1 in the state because theres not reason we should not be. UofL just 20 years ago was in the worst stadium in the country and 15 years ago they were in the CUSA. Now UofL has a Heisman winner and are a perennial top 25 team over the last 5 years. They were in the play off discussion in November. That win on the field was satisfying, but we have to pass them and do it now.
We should be better than UofL 6 out of 10 times we play them and we should be 30-50 points ahead of WKU if we play them again.
Recruits(especially in their own city) may see a program that is going to bowl games every year, appearing in the top 25, and putting out a lot of NFL talent for a CUSA school. Then they could look at UK and see a program that has not been to many bowl games, has not been in a top 25 in 10 years, and is an SEC school putting out the same talent as a CUSA school like WKU.
The point is not that WKU would win in the SEC because they could not sustain the depth, but its seeing through the minds of the recruits who are deciding to play their or not. Our program should never have been at a point where we lose 5 straight to UofL, 2 straight to WKU(the last one we looked overmatched), and almost lose to a FCS EKU team if not for a Baker miracle to tie it.
This year and next are the years to change the mindsets of everyone. We need to show that our facilities and recruiting advantages puts us at #1 in the state because theres not reason we should not be. UofL just 20 years ago was in the worst stadium in the country and 15 years ago they were in the CUSA. Now UofL has a Heisman winner and are a perennial top 25 team over the last 5 years. They were in the play off discussion in November. That win on the field was satisfying, but we have to pass them and do it now.
We should be better than UofL 6 out of 10 times we play them and we should be 30-50 points ahead of WKU if we play them again.
