Where Did the “It” Factor Go . . . Two Names Spring to Mind.

[The-Hack]

The death of John Schlarman and the departure of Jon Sumrall within a few months of one-another may have been the water-shed moment that sank the confident Kentucky program of 2016-2021.

Those guys had multiple years together at Troy (under Neal Brown IIRC) and at Kentucky.

If you consider our fate since their respective departures, there is no other change I can point to that corresponds as clearly with our performances, since 2021.

 

[mrschwump]

Brown probably getting heat, WV pounded by TX Tech today.

 

[TOMCATS1990]

Brown probably getting heat, WV pounded by TX Tech today.

Neil is going to be fired at WVA, Stoops needs to get him back on staff and look for WVA to go after Sumrall

 

[bigblueinsanity]

Eddie gran. By some miracle he was able to bring uk into the major leagues on the OL. schlarman was already here and we couldn't convert 3rd and 1 to save our life. Same year Gran shows up, we literally turn into a dominant run team as a fall back when barker gets hurt.

Schlarman was huge but gran was the difference. Fans ran him off. After hearing stoops and eli talk about the ol struggling, we should be begging him to come back.

 

[StubbornPenny]

Eddie gran. By some miracle he was able to bring uk into the major leagues on the OL. schlarman was already here and we couldn't convert 3rd and 1 to save our life. Same year Gran shows up, we literally turn into a dominant run team as a fall back when barker gets hurt.

Schlarman was huge but gran was the difference. Fans ran him off. After hearing stoops and eli talk about the ol struggling, we should be begging him to come back.

He’s still here, just not in a on field coaching role.

 

[Tf2217]

Maybe we will have a Yenser moment where he gets extended and then like a month later Stoops decides he wants his buddy Wolford back so he's like Cya ✌️
Maybe we will do that to Bush for Brown 😂

 

[bigblueinsanity]

He’s still here, just not in a on field coaching role.

Not even in a coaching role period. Not just off field.

If he was hired back as oc today, those same fans would riot because hes too boring.

We threw plenty today. I guess that was more exciting.

 

[BC_Wader]

Eddie gran. By some miracle he was able to bring uk into the major leagues on the OL. schlarman was already here and we couldn't convert 3rd and 1 to save our life. Same year Gran shows up, we literally turn into a dominant run team as a fall back when barker gets hurt.

Schlarman was huge but gran was the difference. Fans ran him off. After hearing stoops and eli talk about the ol struggling, we should be begging him to come back.

Never understood the Gran hate. That dude could shift gears on the fly. A truly great trait for a coach to have. I miss Eddie Gran but that wasn't good enough for the ones that still pined for a Mumme offense.

 

[K_TIME]

Never understood the Gran hate. That dude could shift gears on the fly. A truly great trait for a coach to have. I miss Eddie Gran but that wasn't good enough for the ones that still pined for a Mumme offense.

He was coach in 2020 when the offense was horrific…Terry Wilson play declined and his grand idea was to recruit some of the worst qb and wr talent UK has ever had

Eddie had a better era than Scangerello and Bush…far below Coen. But he was not the answer to Ky

 

[mrschwump]

He was coach in 2020 when the offense was horrific…Terry Wilson play declined and his grand idea was to recruit some of the worst qb and wr talent UK has ever had

Eddie had a better era than Scangerello and Bush…far below Coen. But he was not the answer to Ky

Gran's shifting the 2019 O to fit Bowden using Naval Academy concepts was brilliant, probably the single best on the fly coaching job I've ever seen at UK.

Gran was initially retained as an "Advisor" to Stoops but is now NIL General Manager.

 

[Eccain01]

He a did a good job overall but there’s a lot of revisionist history about gran and that offense lol. Go look at those ranking before he was fired. We sucked on offense then too. I do think from a culture standpoint we miss him.

 

[K_TIME]

Gran's shifting the 2019 O to fit Bowden using Naval Academy concepts was brilliant, probably the single best on the fly coaching job I've ever seen at UK.

Gran was initially retained as an "Advisor" to Stoops but is now NIL General Manager.

While impressive that he could reengineer the offense mid year …it was somewhat his own doing to be in that position to not have better qb room to begin with

But none of 2019 wizardry explains the total collapse in 2020…just an unmitigated disaster and that was his fifth year as OC

Look at the talent he was going to leave if not for Coen wandale and Levi’s in 2021

 

[bigblueinsanity]

But none of 2019 wizardry explains the total collapse in 2020…just an unmitigated disaster and that was his fifth year as OC

No clue why 2020 maybe wasnt as good.

Could be we played Florida and Alabama both on the road down 18 guys.

Could be schlarman died mid season.

Could be hinshaw quit after Mizzou, making him basically the only guy coaching the offense.

Still went 4-6 in sec play and won a bowl game. Didn't throw the ball enough though to entertain people.

 

[K_TIME]

No clue why 2020 maybe wasnt as good.

Could be we played Florida and Alabama both on the road down 18 guys.

Could be schlarman died mid season.

Could be hinshaw quit after Mizzou, making him basically the only guy coaching the offense.

Still went 4-6 in sec play and won a bowl game. Didn't throw the ball enough though to entertain people.

Fair points…that covid year was hard on all

But going into 2021

- No schlarman
- Gatewood/Allen were qb1
- No WanDale
- Ali said he was leaving ..tired of blocking all day

So Gran wasn’t exactly stacking talent. I don’t disagree a solid run game is fine…but we needed a ton better pass attack and going a different direction wasn’t wrong even if Scangerello and Bush were worse

 

[blue cincy]

The IT got up and left. For sure. Not sure where to pin it. My theory will be the same for this year.

Stoops wanted to leave, in fact left, then was told no, had to crawl back to the team and coaches. They said the right stuff each week but their hearts were not in it fully and that is the product that was put out for 2024. Not sure about last year.

 

[bigblueinsanity]

Fair points…that covid year was hard on all

But going into 2021

- No schlarman
- Gatewood/Allen were qb1
- No WanDale
- Ali said he was leaving ..tired of blocking all day

So Gran wasn’t exactly stacking talent. I don’t disagree a solid run game is fine…but we needed a ton better pass attack and going a different direction wasn’t wrong even if Scangerello and Bush were worse

Noone on our offense was stocking skill talent except rb and te. The fan noise amplified the negative recruiting especially for someone like wandale. If there was a positive vibe around the offense, i think wandale comes and we get a decent transfer at qb.

We looked plenty good enough throwing the ball to guys like juice and badet, before the negative vibes and recruiting set in. Doesn't even count barker who looked all world in the half before breaking his back. Nothing changed but the perception. The perception started with fan negativity and went from there.

Gran really caused a mess when he had too much loyalty to hinshaw. Hinshaw made qb recruiting harder than it was. Fire him after the mac Jones meltdown and we probably have an entirely different timeline. Also if neither barker nor terry get hurt, those are probably different timelines as well, especially barker.

 

[3632]

Eddie gran. By some miracle he was able to bring uk into the major leagues on the OL. schlarman was already here and we couldn't convert 3rd and 1 to save our life. Same year Gran shows up, we literally turn into a dominant run team as a fall back when barker gets hurt.

Schlarman was huge but gran was the difference. Fans ran him off. After hearing stoops and eli talk about the ol struggling, we should be begging him to come back.

Fans did not run Gran off. The program was incapable of recruiting even functional wr at that point because of the way we played and stoops decided to change the narrative so he could land Robinson in the portal and a qb which was Levi’s through coen. In a Robinson interview he even said he didn’t come to uk out of hs because of the offense. So while there was grumbling and complaining it wasn’t a fan thing it was a program decision thing. And I don’t blame gran for the way we had to play it was a cycle we got into due early philosophy and how things just developed over time under stoops.

We did lose a lot of authentic passion from the staff in the program with the losses of sumrall and schlarman.

 

[FirewithFire]

Not sure where the fans ran off Gran thing came from. Stoops threw him under the bus to save his own ass just like he will do to Hamdan. Six OCs during his time here. That is a pattern.