Are or expectations to high

[willievic]

Are our expectations to high for the third year of this staff. I don't know! With the great recruiting, compared to what we were use to, I think they were. I and a lot of others said it would take at least 5 years for us to be competitive with the top teams in the SEC. I still think that's true. However, a coach should show improvement in year 3 over year two. If we can win the last two games, that will be improvement.
All of us know we should have beat Vandy. The defense played very good, and showed a lot of improvement. Other then the uncovered receiver, they were excellent, and that was the coaches fault.
As bad as the offense played, the decisions by the coaches were worse. No need to go over those, since they have been covered numerous times. I think it was the worse decision making since the Curry days.
A lot of blame has been laid on Towles, but a lot of it wasn't his fault. Dropped passes, poor blocking by receivers, poor protection by OL, etc. It will be interesting to see how Barker does. He has a quicker release, so that will definitely help. To many time Towles held the ball to long.
With all that's happening, and happened, most of us were excited for a new era of UK football. I know I was. Most fans were excited with Coach Stoops, and especially the recruiting. I would like to see him pay more attention to the game and less arguing with the officials. He's not going to change their minds, and he will manage the game much better.
There is no doubt he is hearing a lot of disagreement about him from the fans, and that has to put pressure on him. No one wants to fail, and I have faith that he WILL NOT.

OLD STOLL FIELD GUY!

 

[KY1WING]

Has execution and effort improved?

 

[Grumpyolddawg]

Are our expectations to high for the third year of this staff. I don't know! With the great recruiting, compared to what we were use to, I think they were. I and a lot of others said it would take at least 5 years for us to be competitive with the top teams in the SEC. I still think that's true. However, a coach should show improvement in year 3 over year two. If we can win the last two games, that will be improvement.
All of us know we should have beat Vandy. The defense played very good, and showed a lot of improvement. Other then the uncovered receiver, they were excellent, and that was the coaches fault.
As bad as the offense played, the decisions by the coaches were worse. No need to go over those, since they have been covered numerous times. I think it was the worse decision making since the Curry days.
A lot of blame has been laid on Towles, but a lot of it wasn't his fault. Dropped passes, poor blocking by receivers, poor protection by OL, etc. It will be interesting to see how Barker does. He has a quicker release, so that will definitely help. To many time Towles held the ball to long.
With all that's happening, and happened, most of us were excited for a new era of UK football. I know I was. Most fans were excited with Coach Stoops, and especially the recruiting. I would like to see him pay more attention to the game and less arguing with the officials. He's not going to change their minds, and he will manage the game much better.
There is no doubt he is hearing a lot of disagreement about him from the fans, and that has to put pressure on him. No one wants to fail, and I have faith that he WILL NOT.

OLD STOLL FIELD GUY!

I think one of the big issues is many UK fans thought the recruiting was much better than it actually was. Stoops has made great progress with his classes, but his combined 3 classes since he has been here is still bottom 3-4 in the SEC, almost every team recruits well in the SEC, usually 4-5 teams in the top 10 every year and 10 or so in the top 20. Stoops understands he can't win turn the corner based solely on signing classes, he has do something different. He is following the plan Missouri and Mississippi State have been using to get better, both have many RS sr and jr on the field. Stoops can't do that yet. He has been redshirting large numbers of the signing classes, but the benefits of doing that won't show up until years 4, and will make a real difference in year 5 when he will be able to put 12-15 redshirt sr on the field. Once he gets to that point I think you will see much better results.

UK's skill players look legit, your DBs look and move like SEC DBs, same for WR, RB and TE. But the OL and DL just don't, Johnson is the only DL who would see playing time on several SEC teams, same on the OL, the center is the only one who would play much at any other SEC school. LBs are middle of the pack SEC LBs, UK looks to be addressing the OL issues in the 16 class, I don't really know about the DL recruits. I don't think everyone realized how down UK's talent level had gotten the last few years. Next year's team should be better, but the results could be the same, no 8 home games, USC and Missouri with be in transition years, State should be down with no Dak. Don't know who you pick up from the west to replace AU, but AU might have been the weakest west team this year, UGA will hopefully have a new starter at qb, a true frosh so we won't be very good offensively, Unfortunately it looks like UF and UT are back to being good teams.
UK's schedule could get much tougher depending on who comes in and how quick they get things up and running at USC and Missouri, or they could be a better team and the combination of tougher schedule and less home games could make it tough.

 

[Brother Cat]

I am all for improving. But, have we not heard about growing pains? You take a few games forward and a couple backward. Even the coaching staff may be going through some growing pains. In the past, the talent gap was so large, the situations were different. Coach Stoops is a rookie coach. He is still learning the ropes. I even think he has tried not to play it close to the vest like his predecessor did; however, this has come back to bite him at times. My point is, when you are building a program, you can not expect a steady, even growth. Would we say the program is in better shape today than it was before Stoops took over? YES Would we say it is on a slight upswing? YES Can I say that I expect things to get better, but at a slow pace? Yes. Did you hear Mike Gundy on Mike and Mike say this week that he is just now able to build the depth on defense that he needs to succeed? He said it has taken him 10 years. Will you be willing to wait that long? I will. If a program with a solid foundation is being built. I will wait. I do not want a flash in a pan program. I want one that will be able to succeed, even after the head coach leaves for greener pastures. It will take time. I think we are on the right track. The long road to success.

 

[CastleRubric]

wrgerg

 

[NoDef]

I would like to see a more consistent product on the field. We have gotten waxed by some middle of the pack SEC teams the last couple of years. I wasn't expecting a win in some of these, but it would be nice to be entertained until halftime. The most worrisome thing for me is we don't look well coached at times. Mistakes are being made multiple times that you normally might not see in an entire season. I guess the big thing is that we have coaches that are trying to learn as they go. Most of the time you don't get to the SEC without experience at the job title you are hired for. Stoops made a mistake by not bringing in experienced coordinators. Too many people learning on the job.

 

[John Henry]

NO they are not. I am not as upset with the won lost record as much as how games were lost. When you think about it even a few games we won were disappointing. Especially against Eastern. We have not been a team with good morale or one that seems to get along with each other. Something is wrong inside the locker room, with the coaches on the sideline and with the overall state of the program. Stoops has his work ahead of him to straighten this up.

 

[gojvc]

Are our expectations to high for the third year of this staff.

Probably so but we should be able to get 11 guys lined up to kick the dang ball.

 

[oboroCATfan]

I do think my expectations were to high and that is why I think we only win 4 next year. That way I can't be disappointed when we only win 5. Granted when Stoops was hired I was expecting 7 or 8 by year 4 but why should I put that kind of pressure on this program.

 

[willievic]

wrgerg

I am all for improving. But, have we not heard about growing pains? You take a few games forward and a couple backward. Even the coaching staff may be going through some growing pains. In the past, the talent gap was so large, the situations were different. Coach Stoops is a rookie coach. He is still learning the ropes. I even think he has tried not to play it close to the vest like his predecessor did; however, this has come back to bite him at times. My point is, when you are building a program, you can not expect a steady, even growth. Would we say the program is in better shape today than it was before Stoops took over? YES Would we say it is on a slight upswing? YES Can I say that I expect things to get better, but at a slow pace? Yes. Did you hear Mike Gundy on Mike and Mike say this week that he is just now able to build the depth on defense that he needs to succeed? He said it has taken him 10 years. Will you be willing to wait that long? I will. If a program with a solid foundation is being built. I will wait. I do not want a flash in a pan program. I want one that will be able to succeed, even after the head coach leaves for greener pastures. It will take time. I think we are on the right track. The long road to success.

Grumpy and Brother, I agree with you 100%. Like I said earlier, I think were on the right path. I think some of us "Old Farts", who have lived with some bad teams, think Coach Stoops is the man for the job. Will he make mistakes since this is his first coaching job, you bet, and we have seen them. Will he continue to make them, probably, but not as much. I only know one man who never made a mistake, and it sure wasn't me.
I believe by year 5, we will be competitive with most teams, and by year 7, if Stoops and the other coaches stay, we will compete for the East Title.
I'm probably one of the oldest posters on here, and I don't know where that makes me more patient, or just stupid. Time will tell!

OLD STOLL FIELD GUY!

 

[UKWildcats#8]

I predicted/expected 6-6 coming into this season. At this point Stoops has lost my faith, but if he can beat UL I will be back on the fence about him. A bowl game would be nice and an improvement. It would be a crappy lower tier bowl I guess so it would be good to beat whatever crap team we play in it as well.

 

[sgt4269]

I think it's fair to say that they probly were too high. But we are just hopeful.
I don't mind losing as long as we play competitively.
But coming out and losing terribly and playing uninspired. Unorganized half azz football is another thing...

 

[CastleRubric]

I thought we had 7 wins in the bag around the time we were playing UF
I think the program somehow 'absorbs' the negative psychic energies from the fan base and just gives up on itself once the losing starts

I mean there's something oddly metaphysical about the UK football program ---- it's f'ing haunted or something………….

 

[*CatinIL*]

I thought UK would win 7 regular season games for sure based on the start UK had.

 

[NoDef]

I was hoping the EKU game was just a fluke, but we really are not a very good team. Our early wins turned out to be against some not so very good teams. We have let two of our cupcake teams play our butts off and didn't compete in three others. I've been a fan since the late 70s and would like nothing more than see this thing turned around. Hopefully Stoops and the rest of his crew get better along with the team. Not a whole lot I've seen this year to think it's going to get a whole lot better anytime soon.