I am about the same age as you are and I believe all of the points you have made WERE relevant and causal to the situation. However, I believe UK is getting very close to changing the image. Don't get me wrong- UK in football is like Alabama in basketball. Long standing tradition and pride in the basketball program HAS created a perception problem in the past, but again, I say that WAS the case more than it is now!
Fan support was and has been good considering the way they have been treated by UK. The smaller core base has stood by UK thru thick and then, but the administration - including Barnhart didn't get behind the program until recently. UK could and should be playing in a 80,000 plus state of the art Stadium, it would have been filled in my opinion, but now we are in a very nice 60,000 seat stadium - and I do think it was the right thing to do now - but it was because we didn't take advantage of what we had going - The Joker experiment was not a mistake in my opinion, the mistake was failing to acknowledge it was a mistake TWO years earlier. It was obvious to anyone, who watched football, that after the end of the first year you could see it was doomed. But most fans would understand year 2 - but absolutely no reason for year 3 - and that is the reason why we have a 60,000 seat stadium and still can't fill it every game - but alas that is the past - and now we have facilities that are comparable with the top 20 programs. You can say that some University's with smaller stadiums have had good programs- but then think about it this way- How many National Championship teams and or playoff contenders play in Stadiums under 80,000 or for that matter under 90,000? No matter what everyone says - size of stadium does say something psychologically about your football program! For this reason alone - I think UK will be pressed to EVER have a National Championship caliber team- but I hope I am wrong!
The SEC is both bad and good for UK in football. It has provided a good recruiting platform - when the coaches have used it correctly - Coach Stoops has done that very well in my opinion. The model for successful recruiting of both baseball and football was to market the SEC and UK being the northern most school, it gave the opportunity to athletes north of us to compete in the best football and baseball conference in America. The SEC has also provided fuel and much needed TV exposure to UK. Fortunately, UK has been respectable, at least over the last 4 years and should continue that way.
As to quality of coaching - well that is debatable, but I believe the current staff is as strong a staff as we have had in the modern era. These coaches are/have grown into their positions. Stoops and staff have made many, many in game coaching errors over the years - but people need to understand one other thing about this - he hasn't had the talent luxury to overcome those mistakes - which shine even more when you have to be perfect to win. I think this staff is probably as about as high as we can get under current circumstances. But heads should roll if another debacle like Florida happens again this year! I think the pressure to win and get over the 30 plus years of losing to Florida was too much - which was too bad. I do believe we can and will beat Florida this year - I believe it because the pressure to win is less at Florida than it is in Lexington at the moment. The Florida fans don't take us seriously and it actually makes it easier from the players stand point being on the sidelines, Mullen has worked his magic on UK many, many times!
We definitely made mistakes on Schnellenberger and Leach in my opinion. When Schnelly was ready to come here - the AD feared him and could see football hurting basketball- most people believed this to be the case - and it sure looks like it was the case. It's a shame, because I think UK could/would have been playing for SEC and National Championships at least once in the last 30 years if he had become our coach. I believe we would also be playing in a 90,000 plus stadium as well. He would have had a huge hand in coaching at UK from that point on - which probably would have made a significant difference.
I believe UK is on the cusp of becoming a top 25 school in football. This year and next year are the two years where we will see if we have found the coach to lead us to that goal. I think Coach Stoops will retire here if he can get the results needed - he will become a sought after Coach if he does what I expect to happen here - but I think he will stay- the Stoops family has proven they have a loyal code of honor and I don't think UK will let him get away from here either. On a positive note, If he does leave, I think we would have much better potential candidates than in the past because the way Stoops has set things up over the past 5 years for the future of the program.
I also believe Louisville passing UK in football, sorry to say, has made UK more determined to get the upper hand again. I think UL's success over the last decade plus has hurt UK a lot in recruiting the state. Kentucky's lack of high school talent for years hurt as well - as we watched most of the 4 and 5 star and high 3 star players leave the state. It will always be a problem, because other schools do to us what we do to then in basketball with their home grown talent. Just look at our basketball roster - less than 10% of the roster are Kentucky kids since Cal has been here. But when you look at Alabama in football, 75% of their roster is out of state players. So, UL has taken a lot of players that once wouldn't consider them and would go to UK.
Bottomline, we are going to be relevant in football and a top 25 program and it will happen in the next two years.
Go Big Blue!
