Being in my late 50s, I've watched a LOT of bad football, courtesy of UK. While not a blue-spectacle wearing fan, I definitely have always been very optimistic every summer and early fall about 'this is the year'. Never did I expect UK football to consistently be mentioned in the press as a consistent contender in the SECE (or at least a top-3 team). And who would've ever believed that UK football would become a place where highly regarded transfers would want to go? For years, we had a hard time recruiting HS kids even when UK was their only SEC (sometimes P5) offer. Now, with Jones, Dingle, Morgan, Robinson, Levis and Fulton, I think you can confidently say that players are recognizing that this isn't the 'same old KY' anymore and they want to come here and play in bowl games and compete for SECE titles and maybe more. If we put together an 8+ win season again this year, the momentum will keep building and we should, once again, have a very good recruiting class. Stoops, while stumbling at times early, has built the program to a level that I didn't think was possible.
Can we win 8 games?
OOC - all 4 opponents should be decided underdogs this year (regardless of what some members of the press think about UofL)
Very winnable games in the SEC - Vandy, South Carolina, Tennessee, Missouri, Miss State (not buying MO or MSU are gonna be all that this year; with reasonable production from the QB position, we should beat both of those teams)
Games where we'll be the 'dog' but could be much closer than originally thought - Florida, LSU (Florida lost a ton of offensive production and LSU may still be a year away from top-of-the-conference consideration, plus it's at home)
Games where we'll be decided underdog - Georgia (too good, too deep - we'd have to play an exceptional game and Georgia a mediocre game, imo, to pull of this upset)
Can we win 8 games?
OOC - all 4 opponents should be decided underdogs this year (regardless of what some members of the press think about UofL)
Very winnable games in the SEC - Vandy, South Carolina, Tennessee, Missouri, Miss State (not buying MO or MSU are gonna be all that this year; with reasonable production from the QB position, we should beat both of those teams)
Games where we'll be the 'dog' but could be much closer than originally thought - Florida, LSU (Florida lost a ton of offensive production and LSU may still be a year away from top-of-the-conference consideration, plus it's at home)
Games where we'll be decided underdog - Georgia (too good, too deep - we'd have to play an exceptional game and Georgia a mediocre game, imo, to pull of this upset)