Breaking my 3 year silence on the coaching staff

[Beatle Bum]

People stick their heads in the sand to validate their own opinion on this board. First say what you want about UL but their apr is much higher than ours. Their current players are more disciplined on the field and in the classroom than ours, the evidence was on display on the field and with the Apr scores. Call them all the names you will but you just look stupid when they have clearly been superior on the field.

Now about bobby I thought he would have been the best coach available to us at the time and if we wanted to win games we would have had to swallow our pride and say that winning is the most important element. I was not sure I was willing to do that myself and don't blame Barnhart for not being able to either. As it turns out he would have left us after one year as soon as UL became available so it worked out better for us.

As far as Stoops we need to acknowledge that our program has always been the bottom of the sec in my lifetime. Our job is a grave yard! Nobody leaves us to move up. When we are hiring proven coaches aren't looking to move here. The job is limited and we did what was in our best interest and hired a guy on potential. IMO potential or a coach with flaws are our options. Stoops has recruited well but he is growing up as a coach. I don't know if he will get it but 3 years ain't enough and five probably ain't either.

Petrino does not get credit for the apr. The one full year he has been coach has not yet been tabulated.

 

[CHAMPCAT11]

I would rather have the biggest scumbag coach on earth then continue to get beat to a pulp for the next 50 years.

I want to win.... but not with Petrino. I'll quit watching sports before I deal with that worthless scum bag POS.

 

[zcats]

Good coaches often have a little stink on them. After 55 years of following the programs and almost 30 years of season tickets I am tired of the excuse that we are somehow morally superior to coaches who own our program. I have heard it about Spurrier, Fulmer, every coach at UL, the list goes on and on. I did the same thing but now I freely admit I want to win football games and go to a meaningful bowl before I die. You have to hire a big time coach who will come to UK and many of those are not alter boys. Mitch will never aspire for anything but an honorable and adequate football program.

 

[domino79]

[sick]

 

[MudererofCrows]

Good coaches often have a little stink on them. After 55 years of following the programs and almost 30 years of season tickets I am tired of the excuse that we are somehow morally superior to coaches who own our program. I have heard it about Spurrier, Fulmer, every coach at UL, the list goes on and on. I did the same thing but now I freely admit I want to win football games and go to a meaningful bowl before I die. You have to hire a big time coach who will come to UK and many of those are not alter boys. Mitch will never aspire for anything but an honorable and adequate football program.

There's a huge difference between being a sarcastic, arrogant SOB who thinks he's the smartest guy in the room like Spurrier and an absolute scumbag like Petrino.

 

[carl]

Petrino does not get credit for the apr. The one full year he has been coach has not yet been tabulated.

Well he is part of a program that has better academic numbers than UK. He has done things differently this time. They brought all players on to campus so they could bond to gather and provide more supervision and mandatory study halls. We should be the last fan base to say anything about their FB program. They own us we should just stfu. The more we talk the worse we look.

 

[fabcat]

I said this in another thread but it belongs here:

Who in the hell drafts these contracts? Does the market so favor coaches and their agents that they can demand these one-sided, gameshow level giveaways ...and the universities and ADs can't help but have to go along?

Or is it pure negotiation incompetence by search committee and departmental types?

With a law school, innumerable alumni that practice transactional law, and resources that can handle these buyouts I'd think you could hire a lawyer for the university that would at least demand a bit more equity with regard to the ultimate parting of ways.

It's absurd.

I agree. Only profession I have seen where an employee can be an utter failure but walk away set for life financially. And what is really bad is having to listen to the talking heads act like the coaches and their families are going to be homeless losing their job and walking away with millions in their pockets. It has gotten ridiculous.

 

[Beatle Bum]

Well he is part of a program that has better academic numbers than UK. He has done things differently this time. They brought all players on to campus so they could bond to gather and provide more supervision and mandatory study halls. We should be the last fan base to say anything about their FB program. They own us we should just stfu. The more we talk the worse we look.

No. He was not.

 

[carl]

No. He was not.

I'll have to remember that when I play trivial pursuit: who was not a part of the UL success when they beat KY for the fifth consecutive time?

 

[sluggercatfan]

Someone finally brought up Stoops biggest issue...his staff. Stoops is a first time head coach with a bunch of first time or very young coordinators. Thats not a good recipe as evidence by the staffs lack of preparation, in game coaching, play calling and game management. You can have young coaches coaching your secondary, or coaching your linebackers...but if you're a first time coach then you need an experienced OC and DC to help you navigate everything that goes into running a college program.

You've got Shannon Dawson...a man who came from WVU who made his name by having Clint Trickett and Kevin White to call plays for all while playing under a pretty good coach and offensive mind in Dana Holgerson.

Then you have DJ Elliott...a first time coordinator who worked under Stoops at FSU..during FSUs rise back to prominence and with a roster where probably 90% of his starters were drafted.

Stoops needs to find an experienced OC and DC. Preferably someone with head coaching experience even if its a former HC who will only be at UK for a year or two until he gets another job. He needs to be coached on how to coach.

This ...don't think he"needs" a DC because he is going to do all the play calling anyway and puts most of his efforts into the defensive side of the ball... Second I think Mark Stoops biggest problem is that he has no clue and I do mean no clue what he wants to do on the offensive side of the ball because he has so worried about what it will do to his defensive scheme...

 

[KopiKat]

I think Stoops need to sit down with his brothers and watch all of UK's games from this year and let them point and laugh at the dumb things he did and then tell him what he should have done.

My word, if he really had the consult of his brothers at his disposal wouldn't you think his 3rd year in the SEC wouldn't have looked so juvenile already?

 

[kyjohn]

Three years was far too short.

Petrino fans have a place they can go to cheer on their man. Bringing him back to the SEC after he broke the law at Arkansas would have left us looking like fools. And, you can pretend he would be tied into to UK, but if Jurich came knocking, he would have bolted.

Time for the Petrino to UK talk to return to the cone of silence. Please.

What laws in Arkansas did Petrino break? I can't remember him being charged with criminal acts that led to a court conviction or jail time.

 

[KopiKat]

What laws in Arkansas did Petrino break?

Losing record his first season as Razorback's head coach. The only losing season in his 11 year head coaching career. He's won at least 10 games in 4 of those seasons, more than a third of the time he'll get you double-digit wins. Finished AP top 10 more than 25% of the time. Finished AP top 20 almost 1/2 the time. Real dirt bag. But he doesn't hold a candle to that POS we hired to replace Tubby.

 

[jauk11]

What laws in Arkansas did Petrino break? I can't remember him being charged with criminal acts that led to a court conviction or jail time.

How about bypassing the hiring process AND misuse of public funds, things that you or I would still be in jail for. Not counting the adultery, but then that might be a requirement for coaching at Transfer U.

And come on, if anyone really believe that this bunch of dropouts, druggies, and criminals suddenly transformed into a bunch of Rhodes scholars then I have some property in Florida to sell them.

Another mental giant weighs in. LOL

Don't make fun of him, took him a while to come up with that.

 

[jauk11]

Losing record his first season as Razorback's head coach. The only losing season in his 11 year head coaching career. He's won at least 10 games in 4 of those seasons, more than a third of the time he'll get you double-digit wins. Finished AP top 10 more than 25% of the time. Finished AP top 20 almost 1/2 the time. Real dirt bag. But he doesn't hold a candle to that POS we hired to replace Tubby.

At Arkansas he went from 7 four stars in a class (IIRC) to TWO in each of his last two classes AFTER two seasons with major bowl wins and talk of a NC, the second class signed before his problems started. This PLUS $400,000,000 of improvements in the athletics facilities.

Then at WKU the class he brought in had THIRTY TWO recruits------TWENTY NINE of them two stars, three OL barely three stars

Makes you wonder what kind of help he gets at UL------if you didn't already know, we know how hurtt became the NATIONAL recruiter of the year at the U, how in the world did he do it at UL? I think I know, and suspect the NCAA does also. UL has become a haven for troubled players that qualify and are accepted IF they can play-----and then they turn into Rhodes Scholars, LOL, when the only thing most of them are thinking about is turning pro-----see the five star RB no other P5 school would take..

Just how much of that kind of help do you think he would get at our State University? Hell, for ten years (until the strike and the millions of dollars he lost) mitch did the absolute minimum support to even field a football team.

 

[jauk11]

No. He was not.

Teach them linear needs some education himself. I almost have to wonder where he came from.

 

[jauk11]

There's a huge difference between being a sarcastic, arrogant SOB who thinks he's the smartest guy in the room like Spurrier and an absolute scumbag like Petrino.

And the most vexing thing about Spurrier is that too often he was the smartest guy in the room. And a hell of an athlete in his own right, in all sports.

 

[carl]

How many stars you give me jauk11?

All those 2 stars at Western beat our *** too! I don't like it either but I am more tired of people calling them names when we are their *****. Go ahead question my fandom because you don't like me.

 

[jauk11]

How many stars you give me jauk11?

All those 2 stars at Western beat our *** too! I don't like it either but I am more tired of people calling them names when we are their *****. Go ahead question my fandom because you don't like me.

You have made some good points, but if you think everything at UL is on the up and up and BP is ok then like I said, you need some education.

And I don't remember saying I didn't like you, but you seem to make some excuses for UL.

 

[carl]

Please post facts and not innuendo. Especially after taking an *** beating, it makes us look silly.

Like him or not Petrino is a better coach than Stoops. I hope MS develops into a good coach but he is not there yet. Like it or not their roster has shown more discipline in the classroom and on the field. I hope that too changes.

 

[Levibooty]

Like it or not Stoops is a lot younger with more to learn.

 

[theoledog]

All things being equal I would agree with you except for one thing and that NO SEC school will/can hit BP...He is black balled from this conference...why he is at the ONLY in the country that would take him

And the proof will be that in all the vacancies

Good coaches often have a little stink on them. After 55 years of following the programs and almost 30 years of season tickets I am tired of the excuse that we are somehow morally superior to coaches who own our program. I have heard it about Spurrier, Fulmer, every coach at UL, the list goes on and on. I did the same thing but now I freely admit I want to win football games and go to a meaningful bowl before I die. You have to hire a big time coach who will come to UK and many of those are not alter boys. Mitch will never aspire for anything but an honorable and adequate football program.

I like your post...

 

[Levibooty]

Good coaches often have a little stink on them. After 55 years of following the programs and almost 30 years of season tickets I am tired of the excuse that we are somehow morally superior to coaches who own our program. I have heard it about Spurrier, Fulmer, every coach at UL, the list goes on and on. I did the same thing but now I freely admit I want to win football games and go to a meaningful bowl before I die. You have to hire a big time coach who will come to UK and many of those are not alter boys. Mitch will never aspire for anything but an honorable and adequate football program.

I agree with you except for Bobby Petrino! In that instance we are morally superior.

 

[IHATEUAVEL]

When people say they want Petrino at UK i lose all interest in their opinions.

amen.to that

 

[theoledog]

There's a huge difference between being a sarcastic, arrogant SOB who thinks he's the smartest guy in the room like Spurrier and an absolute scumbag like Petrino.

Damn sure is.... and we got two banners hanging in Rupp to prove it...
BOOM!

 

[LowCountryCat]

Stoops is going to be the head coach next year and the year after that. That's a given because of the contract extension that Barnhart gave him. (I'll get to Barnhart in a minute) I think Stoops should get those two years and his recruiting is why. He's recruited better than anyone who has ever coached at UK has. Anybody who's complaining because we are still 12th or 13th in the SEC in recruiting is not seeing the whole picture, IMO. If you can't see the difference between 50th ranked classes and 13th in the SEC and 29th ranked classes and 13th in the SEC ------. NOBODY is going to come to UK and recruit in the top 5 of the SEC right away, it's not realistic and it's not going to happen.

I don't remember you at all, but this particular snippet has been debated ad nauseum. 4-4 in the SEC is a MUST to go 8-4 overall. That's only happened once in the last 30 years. I'll just point you to the scoreboard. 13th in the SEC means 5-7 or 6-6 every year, or even worse, unless you have a good coach. We don't. But Stoops staying here is moot thanks to Barney's f-up, plain and simple.

You're on record making a prediction. I've done that before. I was right about Joker and I've been right so far about Stoops. You have two more seasons to see if you're right, but if Stoops' ceiling is 7-5 in the next 2 years, after the best recruiting in UK history, you're definitely wrong.

 

[HSLex]

Barnhart made arguably the worst hire in the history of UK sports in Gillispie. Arguably the worst football hire in Joker, and then jumped the gun and gave Stoops a premature contract extension. Look if I had a badminton game going on in the backyard with my 80 year old aunt and uncle, I'm sure Barnhart would be a great partner. If I get in a knife fight in a back alley though, I don't want Mitch backing me up. And that right there is the problem, the SEC isn't octogenarian badminton, it's a knife fight. It's bloody and brutal and nice guys finish last. I cringe at the thought of Barnhart making another football hire. I'd much rather keep Stoops than risk that again.

At this point, I think an act of God is about the only thing that can move us forward in this regard. More specifically, during one of Mitch's nightly prayers we need God to send him a sign that he is needed to go off and be the pastor of a church somewhere.

Everyone wins.

The church would be happy. Mitch would be happy. God would be happy. And the school could try to move on with a football guy. Or at least someone who knows that during contract negotiations he is supposed to be representing his employer, not a new friend on the other side of the table.

Short of that, I don't see Mitch leaving any time soon.

 

[truebluewildcat_rivals34254]

Some good points when it comes to MB and ADs past...

MB is a nice guy and good AD...he has improved a lot of areas and run a clean program with morals...

Would disagree about Petrino being the guy...MB may not be able to help you in a back ally knife fight, but Petrino is the guy that set the whole thing up and led you to it...

anyone associated with the UL athletics program is suspect and I don't want them anywhere near lexington...

I think 2 years from now if things haven't panned out, and we'll all be playing the what if game...Mike Leach will be the name...didn't have a losing season at Tech and is winning at Washington state..He may not win conference titles with them or sniff the play offs, but he'll have them above .500 and in bowl games...and we already know that his offense can have some success and put up numbers in this conference as he helped contribute to school, conference and even national records when he was here...if he could find a solid DC and recruiter, I think he could get us to 7-8 wins and .500 in conference...

agree that unproven and relatively young coordinators are not the way to go in this conference...at least not at UK...

 

[willievic]

You don't have to go to church in order to value morality and ethics more than winning games. In fact some of the best coaches to have ever blown a whistle have strong moral values.

I agree with you 100 percent Levi! Being I'm 76 years young, I never forget it's only a game. I want to win, but not at any cost, and Petrino is a scumbag. I never want my Grandkids think morals don't count. If that is the case, I wasted 5 years of my life as a Fighter Pilot defending my beliefs.

OLD STOLL FIELD GUY!

 

[Chump Change X]

Petrino wins ball games. Unless we're opting for an SEC "participation award", he should have been hired.

 

[SeanCain]

As some of you might remember, I was very adamant during the last coaching search that UK should hire Petrino. I thought and still do, that he was the best coach that UK could have hired, and because of his situation UK could lock him into a contract that was weighed heavily in UK's favor.The last thing I wanted to see was UK hiring another first time head coach. After the Joker fiasco I thought they surely wouldn't go down that road again, but they did.

I told myself I wouldn't post on Stoops or the coaching staff for 3 years to give him time to see what he was all about. Well time's up and here's the result, probably not what you are expecting.

Stoops is going to be the head coach next year and the year after that. That's a given because of the contract extension that Barnhart gave him. (I'll get to Barnhart in a minute) I think Stoops should get those two years and his recruiting is why. He's recruited better than anyone who has ever coached at UK has. Anybody who's complaining because we are still 12th or 13th in the SEC in recruiting is not seeing the whole picture, IMO. If you can't see the difference between 50th ranked classes and 13th in the SEC and 29th ranked classes and 13th in the SEC ------. NOBODY is going to come to UK and recruit in the top 5 of the SEC right away, it's not realistic and it's not going to happen.

Yes, the on the field coaching has been suspect at best, and asinine at worst. Here's the thing though, you can learn to be a better head coach, I don't think you can learn to be a better recruiter. I think Stoops need to sit down with his brothers and watch all of UK's games from this year and let them point and laugh at the dumb things he did and then tell him what he should have done. Then he really needs to get some older experienced coaching on this staff, somebody he can lean on for help and learn from. I want the guy to succeed here, I really do. I don't know if I have it in me to suffer through another coaching change and start this process all over again, especially if Barnhart is the one doing the hiring.

Which brings us to Mitch. I've defended him many times on this board. I've said he's the best AD UK has had in forever. The sad part is that's true, he is. However saying he's the best AD UK has had is like saying he's the cutest fat girl in the bar. UK had decades of incompetent, ignorant, and corrupt AD's. Of course Barnhart looks good in comparison. I daresay I could pick 5 people off this board that could have done a better job than UK's prior AD's.

Barnhart made arguably the worst hire in the history of UK sports in Gillispie. Arguably the worst football hire in Joker, and then jumped the gun and gave Stoops a premature contract extension. Look if I had a badminton game going on in the backyard with my 80 year old aunt and uncle, I'm sure Barnhart would be a great partner. If I get in a knife fight in a back alley though, I don't want Mitch backing me up. And that right there is the problem, the SEC isn't octogenarian badminton, it's a knife fight. It's bloody and brutal and nice guys finish last. I cringe at the thought of Barnhart making another football hire. I'd much rather keep Stoops than risk that again.

Glad to be back posting, I was still reading all the time.

You have some good points. Petrino is a total POS and don't think we want our team to be cast off convicts from other schools. Marrow is responsible for most of our recruiting success. I think we all can agree on that. As far as AD's I am right with you. Mitch is the only one we have had who looks at the WHOLE athletic department, not just basketball. That's why we keep hearing about he is the best. His hires in revenue sports speak for themselves.

 

[Randy Bob]

Good opinions about Stoops and Petrino, and i thank you are right, Petrino may not have alot of character about him but the facts are there he can flat coach. The next head coach at Ky needs to have head coach experience, the young guy down at WKU might have what it takes to be a good coach..

 

[UKwannabe]

Sorry don't want Petrino. UL is getting worse from year 1 to year 2 and is likely to hover around the same 5-7/7-5 placement they are currently at in the ACC.

Is he a better coach than Stoops right now? Definitely. But I'll take my chances with up and coming coordinators before I'd hop on the Petrino chain again.

I think people don't realize how much Neal Brown meant to the football team. Whether it was implementing the wildcat, using Towles in the QB run game, etc etc, he had some ingenuity and at least tried to do some different things when the basic stuff wasn't cutting it. Everyone was so happy when he left for Troy but a year 3 Neal Brown offense (and his presence) would have had UK at 7 maybe 8 wins this season. Neal was the coach that had that most experience at his position.

 

[rjr]

What was Petrino's record in a Basketball conference with a lot of players that wouldn't be allowed at UK?
Every time I watch Louisville, I wonder what each player was charged with, especially the transfers, before coming to UL.

First, better than our record. And I think you could actually argue that Louisville's schedule this year was more difficult than UK's. And please don't forget that UL lost by 3 points to the number one team in the country.

I really like the idea of UK hiring an experienced "bench coach" to assist Stoops. Call him the special teams coach if you want, but put him in the box upstairs with a direct contact to Stoops and help him manage these games. He clearly needs help.

 

[Levibooty]

I agree with you 100 percent Levi! Being I'm 76 years young, I never forget it's only a game. I want to win, but not at any cost, and Petrino is a scumbag. I never want my Grandkids think morals don't count. If that is the case, I wasted 5 years of my life as a Fighter Pilot defending my beliefs.

OLD STOLL FIELD GUY!

Thank you Sir I wish there were more people who appreciated what our older citizen have done. I'm not a big rah rah military guy but I appreciate our older servicemen and think they have a better understanding about lifes challenges and priorities than even a lot of our modern day warriors. So again thank you.

 

[STUCKNBIG10]

As some of you might remember, I was very adamant during the last coaching search that UK should hire Petrino. I thought and still do, that he was the best coach that UK could have hired, and because of his situation UK could lock him into a contract that was weighed heavily in UK's favor.The last thing I wanted to see was UK hiring another first time head coach. After the Joker fiasco I thought they surely wouldn't go down that road again, but they did.

I told myself I wouldn't post on Stoops or the coaching staff for 3 years to give him time to see what he was all about. Well time's up and here's the result, probably not what you are expecting.

Stoops is going to be the head coach next year and the year after that. That's a given because of the contract extension that Barnhart gave him. (I'll get to Barnhart in a minute) I think Stoops should get those two years and his recruiting is why. He's recruited better than anyone who has ever coached at UK has. Anybody who's complaining because we are still 12th or 13th in the SEC in recruiting is not seeing the whole picture, IMO. If you can't see the difference between 50th ranked classes and 13th in the SEC and 29th ranked classes and 13th in the SEC ------. NOBODY is going to come to UK and recruit in the top 5 of the SEC right away, it's not realistic and it's not going to happen.

Yes, the on the field coaching has been suspect at best, and asinine at worst. Here's the thing though, you can learn to be a better head coach, I don't think you can learn to be a better recruiter. I think Stoops need to sit down with his brothers and watch all of UK's games from this year and let them point and laugh at the dumb things he did and then tell him what he should have done. Then he really needs to get some older experienced coaching on this staff, somebody he can lean on for help and learn from. I want the guy to succeed here, I really do. I don't know if I have it in me to suffer through another coaching change and start this process all over again, especially if Barnhart is the one doing the hiring.

Which brings us to Mitch. I've defended him many times on this board. I've said he's the best AD UK has had in forever. The sad part is that's true, he is. However saying he's the best AD UK has had is like saying he's the cutest fat girl in the bar. UK had decades of incompetent, ignorant, and corrupt AD's. Of course Barnhart looks good in comparison. I daresay I could pick 5 people off this board that could have done a better job than UK's prior AD's.

Barnhart made arguably the worst hire in the history of UK sports in Gillispie. Arguably the worst football hire in Joker, and then jumped the gun and gave Stoops a premature contract extension. Look if I had a badminton game going on in the backyard with my 80 year old aunt and uncle, I'm sure Barnhart would be a great partner. If I get in a knife fight in a back alley though, I don't want Mitch backing me up. And that right there is the problem, the SEC isn't octogenarian badminton, it's a knife fight. It's bloody and brutal and nice guys finish last. I cringe at the thought of Barnhart making another football hire. I'd much rather keep Stoops than risk that again.

Glad to be back posting, I was still reading all the time.

EXCELLENT post. You were right then, and you're right now.

 

[genghis_card]

Ul has 20... 20 transfers on its roster. That usually does not bode well and their record has been slipping over the past two years.

Well it takes 3 years to really know.

 

[.S&C.]

(While stacking boxes) Oh, of course I remember. Only one of two hundred threads that wanted Petrino. It was on Thursday. 8:30 at night. Three years ago. I remember because the Generals hit a free throw to win the big game that night. Not for nuthin, then there was a lady who posted after that. I remember because it had a picture of her wearing a bikini and holding a basketball. Why did something happen to her?

I'm amazed at the delusion of people who think anyone remembers what they posted three years ago.

I don't usually remember everyone's post, but yours are easy to rememeber.

They're awful.

 

[KittyKat1978]

Now, the million dollar question is: If (God Forbid) it turns out Cal did something morally reprehensible, would the same people want HIM run out of town?

 

[rabidcatfan]

Good post. Welcome back!