WOW !!! SUMRALL and tulane drills navy

[MrHotDice]

I’ll throw out an answer. First, some posters immediately talk about “fans settling for mediocrity” anytime football history is mentioned. This answer includes history, but it also includes logic.

UK does not have ANY history of football success in the last 75 years, except for Stoops’ success. Think about that for a second. In paper, Stoops guided us to our “golden period.”

College football has been dominated by the same 10-15 programs for the last 40 years. Someone will sneak into the list for a year, or maybe two, but they don’t last. (Ex - TCU)

Our conference (and thus our schedule) consists of 4-5 teams every year that have won a championship game in the last 25 years.

Our conference makes up about 70-75% of those programs that have dominated football in the last 25 years. Obviously, they haven’t all dominated at the same time. (Exs- Florida and Auburn).

Those are historical facts regardless of one’s fandom. Now, I do believe the NIL/transfer portal IS going to open up doors for more teams to break through glass ceilings. Teams that break through those ceilings may not be able to maintain a level of being a top program for the very reasons that helped them break through them in the first place.

I do believe UK can be one of those programs!!! But, doing it in the ACC will be much, much easier. Avoiding OSU and a couple top B10 teams will make it easier than UK.

Let’s face reality. Turing around the Florida, Aub, Tx, or UT should be much easier than UK.

I applaud Stoops for his accomplishments at UK. I honestly don’t know if he’s the man for the future. My question is not his ability but the energy needed to do everything that needs to be done to make UK better. He looks tired to me.

You must not remember Fran Curccis team that went 10 and 1 and was undefeated in SEC play.

 

[MrHotDice]

You do realize Stoops has exceeded EVERY coach that preceded him? I’m okay with whatever Stoops decides to do. (It will 100% be his decision this year for multiple reasons.) He’s earned the right to stay another year and try to fix it. I also agree that he looks tired, and he’ll have to find a renewed energy and optimism if he stays.

My original point is that fans are illogical and sticking their head in the sand if they think that hiring a new coach is the only/best way to fix a program. Do 5 mins of research and look up the hit/success rate of hiring a new coach in the SEC. On avg, 1 out of every 3 hires is a success AT schools with rich football history. When you factor in MissSt, Vandy, Arkansas, OleMiss, SC, and some others, then it drops down below 1 out of 3.

Here’s where most everyone agrees. We cannot and should not stay where we are. 6-7 wins should be be FLOOR. However, Stoops is the only coach that has been able to raise that floor for any length of time. He’s also shown he can get us to 10 wins, and that puts us knocking on the 12 team CFP.

Big Question - Can he get us back to where he once had us? I don’t pretend to know that answer. What I do know is that a new coach is not as guaranteed as people want to make it out to be. History reveals this to be true.

At some point, changes do have to be made. Both of those statements can be true.

People wake up. If you fire Stoops and hire another coach and he fails then you fire that one and hire another. Do it til you get it right. End of story.

 

[Rockfly78]

This is the logic for losers so you except mediocrity and make excuses for it and you wonder why Kentucky for 75 years has been the celler dwellers in the sec you cal lovers have moved over from the basketball board to this board preaching the same crap

We wanna date 10’s. But we’re a 6 ourselves. So in that case we better be filthy rich to make up for our looks. Damn, we don’t have a lot of money. We went to a couple parties and everyone was drunk and we shagged a couple 9’s. But then everyone sobered up. It was a good time but we can’t expect those chicks every time.

Brother nobody is out here accepting mediocrity. That’s lazy canon fodder. We all want the same thing. Sometimes it’s hard to recognize reality and at the same time it’s ok to hope for more. Our football program will simply never match the heights of our basketball program. I’m sorry.

I do hope that you can find some punctuation while strolling through fantasy land though.

 

[trueblujr2]

Oh for sure! I’m just using 9 million because obviously we have every bit of that to give. Pay Sumrall around what Pope is making and I’m sure he’d bust the door down to come here.

And too, the guy who we are paying 9 million for isn’t doing any of those things.

I think you use that pay difference to ensure Sumrall has a quality staff, maybe use it to retain White and Marrow. But also use it to avoid putting a surcharge on tickets for the player payments. And put together a team focused on NIL fundraising and management. Not just for football but for all programs.

 

[trueblujr2]

Sumrall can't fail any worse than Stoops is failing right now.

What are you saying? Keep the status quo rather than TRYING to improve the program with an experienced D1 WINNING head coach?

Sumrall is a WINNER.
Stoops is a LOSING HC.

My fear is that if Stoops stays is that NIL resources will dry up, season ticket sales will plummet and the overall trajectory of the team will be on life support. Recruiting will be difficult and key players will transfer out. I think a change will reinvigorate tge fan base and you will see a surge in NIL resources much like we did with basketball. There’s just a lot of the very same feel around football right now as we had around basketball after flaming out last season.

 

[trueblujr2]

You must not remember Fran Curccis team that went 10 and 1 and was undefeated in SEC play.

And got put on probation as a result of it.

 

[Eagles_Ball]

I'd argue if you fire a guy who has made 8 straight bowl games after one 4 and 8 or maybe 5 and 7 season if we somehow beat UL, it would make the next guy wonder what happens if he gets off to a slow start n year 1.

This is Kentucky, not a top program.

Having said all that, I'd love to have a new coach. It's gotten stale and we aren't gonna win the SEC or a national title no matter what so maybe a new blood guy lucks out and makes the playoff once in 10 years. Stoops won't do it IMO.

If you just go off paper, this is true. It’s more about the trajectory of the program. Last 5 years? Up, down, or holding the line? I know where I think the consistent trajectory has been.

 

[Eagles_Ball]

I never said we couldn't. My original post is what barney is thinking. I couldn't care less if Stoops is fired. I'd rather have anyone. We aren't gonna win 8 to 9 games a year though. Sec is too tough.

As of last week (Murray will obviously lower this) our Cats had the 45th toughest schedule of all FBS teams. There’s something like 135 teams. That’s barely top 1/3. Not all SEC schedules are created equal.

 

[cathouse]

We wanna date 10’s. But we’re a 6 ourselves. So in that case we better be filthy rich to make up for our looks. Damn, we don’t have a lot of money. We went to a couple parties and everyone was drunk and we shagged a couple 9’s. But then everyone sobered up. It was a good time but we can’t expect those chicks every time.

Brother nobody is out here accepting mediocrity. That’s lazy canon fodder. We all want the same thing. Sometimes it’s hard to recognize reality and at the same time it’s ok to hope for more. Our football program will simply never match the heights of our basketball program. I’m sorry.

I do hope that you can find some punctuation while strolling through fantasy land though.

Just because you are a 6 doesn't mean you have to settle for a 1.

Curious to know why you think we are a 6?
Facilities?
Fan support?
Stadium?

What makes UK the ugly stepsister in the SEC??

 

[cathouse]

You do realize Stoops has exceeded EVERY coach that preceded him? I’m okay with whatever Stoops decides to do. (It will 100% be his decision this year for multiple reasons.) He’s earned the right to stay another year and try to fix it. I also agree that he looks tired, and he’ll have to find a renewed energy and optimism if he stays.

My original point is that fans are illogical and sticking their head in the sand if they think that hiring a new coach is the only/best way to fix a program. Do 5 mins of research and look up the hit/success rate of hiring a new coach in the SEC. On avg, 1 out of every 3 hires is a success AT schools with rich football history. When you factor in MissSt, Vandy, Arkansas, OleMiss, SC, and some others, then it drops down below 1 out of 3.

Here’s where most everyone agrees. We cannot and should not stay where we are. 6-7 wins should be be FLOOR. However, Stoops is the only coach that has been able to raise that floor for any length of time. He’s also shown he can get us to 10 wins, and that puts us knocking on the 12 team CFP.

Big Question - Can he get us back to where he once had us? I don’t pretend to know that answer. What I do know is that a new coach is not as guaranteed as people want to make it out to be. History reveals this to be true.

At some point, changes do have to be made. Both of those statements can be true.

What is YOUR definition of insanity??

 

[gamalielkid]

You do realize Stoops has exceeded EVERY coach that preceded him? I’m okay with whatever Stoops decides to do. (It will 100% be his decision this year for multiple reasons.) He’s earned the right to stay another year and try to fix it. I also agree that he looks tired, and he’ll have to find a renewed energy and optimism if he stays.

My original point is that fans are illogical and sticking their head in the sand if they think that hiring a new coach is the only/best way to fix a program. Do 5 mins of research and look up the hit/success rate of hiring a new coach in the SEC. On avg, 1 out of every 3 hires is a success AT schools with rich football history. When you factor in MissSt, Vandy, Arkansas, OleMiss, SC, and some others, then it drops down below 1 out of 3.

Here’s where most everyone agrees. We cannot and should not stay where we are. 6-7 wins should be be FLOOR. However, Stoops is the only coach that has been able to raise that floor for any length of time. He’s also shown he can get us to 10 wins, and that puts us knocking on the 12 team CFP.

Big Question - Can he get us back to where he once had us? I don’t pretend to know that answer. What I do know is that a new coach is not as guaranteed as people want to make it out to be. History reveals this to be true.

At some point, changes do have to be made. Both of those statements can be true.

bballcat you make some good observations. Now, I will add the "but's" to the story. Stoops has exceeded every coach based on what? Number of years as being head coach? I will give him that. Golden years - not so sure about that one. This will be his 5th losing season out of 12 - so barely .500 as to winning seasons. How did Rich Brooks compare to that? How many 7-6 season has he had - 4 - so that's 33%, those are basically .500 seasons. So, now lets look at that for percentages as to "winning seasons" - 3 seasons have had 8 or more wins. That's 25% of the seasons. Those winning seasons were now 4 seasons ago - think about that......the next 3 years should have been his best - but we have slipped back to where he was when he started.

Coach Stoops has done a lot of improvement at Kentucky. He basically tried to emulate two other Kentucky coaches - who were pretty successful here - Bear Bryant and Fran Curci. All three of them focused more recruiting time on players from states North of us. I remember when I attended UK, over 50 years ago - everyone talked about recruiting to the north of us - the old saying - "play in the Northern most school of the south's premiered conference!

Much of Coach Stoop's success was built on physicality, size and discipline. That is now not the case here. He plays vanilla football in a time of 31 flavors! His own success seems to be taking him down - by that he has spread himself very thin with other investments, with his children living across the country and with financial security that has removed his fire and ambition. He has given up on UK. He admitted last year when he accepted the A&M job - just to be jilted by them at the last minute.

It's time for a new blood from a Coach who has the fire that Stoops once had. A coach that is with the times.

Go Big Blue!

 

[bballcat4]

You must not remember Fran Curccis team that went 10 and 1 and was undefeated in SEC play.

Was Curci able to sustain it or even repeat it?

I know the name, but I admit that was before my time …. and I’m not young!

 

[bballcat4]

People wake up. If you fire Stoops and hire another coach and he fails then you fire that one and hire another. Do it til you get it right. End of story.

If only it was that easy! Your post reveals that some fans think that’s it.

If your answer is the solution, then why hasn’t every team just utilized your plan?

 

[OleBum]

Yesterday's win was basically a yawn then a nap.

 

[cathouse]

Yesterday's win was basically a yawn then a nap.

Longest, most boring 3rd quarter in the history of modern football.

As a matter of fact, the entire game was one big bore job.

Zero excitement around the UKFB program right now. Including from the HC. ZERO.