1) Solving UK football a near impossibility...or so says history.
2) Recruiting better with Stoops but still at bottom of SEC
3) Red Flag (of many): Neal Brown leaves; continuity lost.
4) After 36 games in his tenure we see much of the same results and very little overall improvement.
5) Clear evidence of players who are immature and undisciplined.
6) Clear evidence that player development is lacking.
7) Clear evidence that in-game strategy decisions make it much more difficult to succeed.
8) Clear evidence that the team is in a near constant state of confusion.
9) Offensive play calling was at times illogical for the situation and sometimes plainly baffling and bizzare.
10) Line play was woeful on both sides and OL did not adequately protect the quarterbacks.
11) Players' lack of fundamentals was evident in virtually every aspect.
12) This team appeared to be poorly prepared and poorly coached.
13) This team had what looked to be a lack of cohesiveness due to poor leadership and management.
14) Stoops' teams have now gotten worse--much worse--as seasons have progressed.
15) The defense this year possibly performed better THAN EXPECTED.
16) Receivers many times sabotaged efforts for the entire team to be successful, missing passes all year.
17) The kicking game made our life much more difficult; special teams were at times non-competitive.
18) The culture of losing is still very much evident, an indictment of the head coach.
19) Stoops appears NOT to hold players and coaches accountable, and seems himself to be extremely vulnerable to an uncommonly high amount of stubbornness.
20) Despite our basketball success, UK is not just a basketball school--our football fans are arguably some of the best in the nation and would follow this team to the ends of the earth to see them play well. However, we ALL are sick and tired of the same old crappy football and are now back at DEFCON 5 frustration levels.
We fans have been kicked too hard too often for too many years, have long memories and short fuses. Play and coach like you know what you are doing, and we will fill any stadium.
Tweaks
Get rid of that stupid air raid siren. It's embarrassing enough to play bad football. It's worse to do it while you try under false pretenses to have some kind of gimmick "Air Raid" offense that is like trudging through mud. So, get rid of that stupid moniker for our offense at least until it starts to look much better.
Get rid of the fireworks and smoke and every other gimmick until we as a team and program deserve those kinds of things.
Tell each player that they'll be pulled for the rest of the game if we see any dancing, period. No gestures. No dancing. No nothing until they prove they're tough enough to kick somebody's butt in the SEC. Add unsportsmanlike penalties such as throwing balls into the crowd. Are you kidding me?
Coaches, do your job and get your asses on the same sheet of music. You're not, and neither are the kids
Put these kids into a Penn State-like practice uniform for games until they collectively prove they are a team.
Coach Stoops says, "We're gonna have a grueling off season?" Why have we not had THREE grueling off seasons? Just what is he running, a country club?
Drop your prices for tickets and parking passes...let them increase when we get a stable program, not just one that wins.
No Cat Walk. No staying at a hotel overnight for home games. No post-game meals. Maybe a few more bus trips instead of flights and a few more character-building moments for kids who are obviously spoiled way beyond what is necessary. Let them earn the right to have those perks. That goes for them all--slash the budget and get them to dig their SHALLOW FOXHOLE fox hole a lot deeper.
Not going to tolerate dropped passes or punts, period. Make the play or you're OUT. Coach Cal is good at that one.
Recruit good kids and good players, period. I'm not totally convinced we don't still need a weed some out.
Make your life easier. When you are 1st and goal on the Vandy one yard line and your quarterback is 6-5, 240 pounds, you force them to stop you by putting him UNDER center and sneak him across. No, we line up in the shotgun and have our smallest back take a handoff. If they stop us four times against our biggest players then we don't deserve to win--they're better. But, when we do stupid things en masse like we did at Vanderbilt this year we look like we haven't ever coached or played a down of football in our lives.
And one more edit to this...by all means get rid of that ridiculous new UK logo. Again, that too was unbelievably stupid to replace the logo of a storied program like our own and to change it to something as cartoonish as that.
Overall
So many problems, and so few solutions in three years. Leaves all of us wondering and sadly still shaking our heads. I do not feel better now.
2) Recruiting better with Stoops but still at bottom of SEC
3) Red Flag (of many): Neal Brown leaves; continuity lost.
4) After 36 games in his tenure we see much of the same results and very little overall improvement.
5) Clear evidence of players who are immature and undisciplined.
6) Clear evidence that player development is lacking.
7) Clear evidence that in-game strategy decisions make it much more difficult to succeed.
8) Clear evidence that the team is in a near constant state of confusion.
9) Offensive play calling was at times illogical for the situation and sometimes plainly baffling and bizzare.
10) Line play was woeful on both sides and OL did not adequately protect the quarterbacks.
11) Players' lack of fundamentals was evident in virtually every aspect.
12) This team appeared to be poorly prepared and poorly coached.
13) This team had what looked to be a lack of cohesiveness due to poor leadership and management.
14) Stoops' teams have now gotten worse--much worse--as seasons have progressed.
15) The defense this year possibly performed better THAN EXPECTED.
16) Receivers many times sabotaged efforts for the entire team to be successful, missing passes all year.
17) The kicking game made our life much more difficult; special teams were at times non-competitive.
18) The culture of losing is still very much evident, an indictment of the head coach.
19) Stoops appears NOT to hold players and coaches accountable, and seems himself to be extremely vulnerable to an uncommonly high amount of stubbornness.
20) Despite our basketball success, UK is not just a basketball school--our football fans are arguably some of the best in the nation and would follow this team to the ends of the earth to see them play well. However, we ALL are sick and tired of the same old crappy football and are now back at DEFCON 5 frustration levels.
We fans have been kicked too hard too often for too many years, have long memories and short fuses. Play and coach like you know what you are doing, and we will fill any stadium.
Tweaks
Get rid of that stupid air raid siren. It's embarrassing enough to play bad football. It's worse to do it while you try under false pretenses to have some kind of gimmick "Air Raid" offense that is like trudging through mud. So, get rid of that stupid moniker for our offense at least until it starts to look much better.
Get rid of the fireworks and smoke and every other gimmick until we as a team and program deserve those kinds of things.
Tell each player that they'll be pulled for the rest of the game if we see any dancing, period. No gestures. No dancing. No nothing until they prove they're tough enough to kick somebody's butt in the SEC. Add unsportsmanlike penalties such as throwing balls into the crowd. Are you kidding me?
Coaches, do your job and get your asses on the same sheet of music. You're not, and neither are the kids
Put these kids into a Penn State-like practice uniform for games until they collectively prove they are a team.
Coach Stoops says, "We're gonna have a grueling off season?" Why have we not had THREE grueling off seasons? Just what is he running, a country club?
Drop your prices for tickets and parking passes...let them increase when we get a stable program, not just one that wins.
No Cat Walk. No staying at a hotel overnight for home games. No post-game meals. Maybe a few more bus trips instead of flights and a few more character-building moments for kids who are obviously spoiled way beyond what is necessary. Let them earn the right to have those perks. That goes for them all--slash the budget and get them to dig their SHALLOW FOXHOLE fox hole a lot deeper.
Not going to tolerate dropped passes or punts, period. Make the play or you're OUT. Coach Cal is good at that one.
Recruit good kids and good players, period. I'm not totally convinced we don't still need a weed some out.
Make your life easier. When you are 1st and goal on the Vandy one yard line and your quarterback is 6-5, 240 pounds, you force them to stop you by putting him UNDER center and sneak him across. No, we line up in the shotgun and have our smallest back take a handoff. If they stop us four times against our biggest players then we don't deserve to win--they're better. But, when we do stupid things en masse like we did at Vanderbilt this year we look like we haven't ever coached or played a down of football in our lives.
And one more edit to this...by all means get rid of that ridiculous new UK logo. Again, that too was unbelievably stupid to replace the logo of a storied program like our own and to change it to something as cartoonish as that.
Overall
So many problems, and so few solutions in three years. Leaves all of us wondering and sadly still shaking our heads. I do not feel better now.
