TBCat said:
This is an extremely unfair and totally in correct assessment. First off UK fans do not value being entertained by 50 passes more than winning. That crap keeps getting thrown out there and is garbage. UK fans don't want the triple option precisely because we have run it and it was a disaster. We invested a decade during the Curry years in the stack I and every other imaginable form of option and it was horrible. WE SIMPLY CAN"T WIN RUNNING THAT SYSTEM. That is the reason we don't want it. It has nothing to do with being entertained. You just don't impliement systems that can not possibly work. I would go as far as suggesting that it's not the Air Raid UK fans that stress entertainment over winning as much as it is the old school option crowd that would rather lose 10 games a year running an old school system than winning with a passing game. The triple option crowd seems far more enamoured with style over wins to me.
Also schools don't implement this for the second reason you just suggested. It would take too long to put together. Although I think you misjudged the actual amount of time. You won't go through 2 years of losing it would probably take about 10 or more. It's not a matter of just bringing in new classes of players but you have to establish recruiting pipelines into schools that produce your type of players. You need recruiting pipelines that stress the skills and fundamentals that your system needs and that is extremely rare. Most high schools coach a more pro style system. If you convert to a triple option you had better be ready for 1 to 2 wins a year for a decade before you can ever expect it to work. Otherwise it would only work for schools that have a very manageable schedule.
Also reason 3 is a valid reason and it is not a small one. You can basically rule out recruiting the likes of Drew Barker, Stanley Williams or Damien Harris if you run this system. The top recruits will completely disown you unless you are winning 11 to 12 games per year and they might even disown you even if you are. Your recruiting base will likely produce talent worse that Joker left us.
I would also throw in that it is really hard to develop that kind of system in the SEC. GA Tech looks good now that they have it running but if GA Tech were an SEC team win Johnson were hired he would likely never have got it off the ground. You have to spend several years running it before you are good at it and you have to get some wins during the process. That means you need a schedule that can tolerate that learning process. GA Tech may have struggled with some 6 or 7 win seasons during that process but if they were in the SEC that would have been 3 win seasons and that would have been the end of that.
Most systems look really good when they are working. Tech looks good as well but the question is can you duplicate what they are doing where you are. The situation need to start from scratch to run that system is pretty exotic. GA Tech is in the middle of a very fertile recruiting ground and they play a tough but managable schedule. They have also had previous success which boosts their credentials over a place like UK. But the recruiting ground is what makes it work for them and not for us. We can't go into Georgia as well as they can for the kind of recruits they get and we can't find the OL or defense we need to make it work in our state.
The Kentuckian responded:
I gotta say TBCat, you must be a young pup, as you seem to have forgotten the last time we really were good in the SEC, LMAO! Forget the Curry BS! That was no option. That was a joke. Period. No, you need to go waay back to some guys named Fanuzzi and then DEREK RAMSEY!!.....and 11-1!!!! You are wrong, wrong, and wrong. Your recruiting hypothesis is hilarious, lol. UK CAN win with the option, but you have to be SMART to run it. It is NOT by accident that Navy, Air Force, GT and others run this offense. They want to win!!! and they realize they are behind the 8 ball with talent (sound familiar?), so they elect to do what works best for their talent level. That eliminated Curry, and it also eliminates Stoops/Barnhart. They are NOT going to go outside that proverbial box, no way, no how..........................C O N S E R V A T I V E.........................No, what we are going to do here at UK, is recruit head to head with the big boys of the SEC, and expect to beat them at their game (running a similar offense) with much less talent. Sounds like a plan.....................for failure! How do you think that will work out for us TBcat? How's it worked out over the last few decades? Newsflash: It ain't going to work, beyond a Music City Bowl birth of something of that ilk. Not going to happen. Add in that fact that our coaching is NOT head over heels better than our SEC bretheren, and you can expect more stuggles in the near and distant future. Guys like you just don't get it, we need a coaching and scheme edge to win in the SEC. We currently have neither, and will not have either this coming fall. Our new OC may shine if he gets a razor sharp QB to run his system. One that can pass accurately and extend plays on their feet. Towles is NOT that QB. Barker may be. If not, expect another long season on offense, although the new OC can and will be much, much better than what he replaced - just no way he can't improve upon that scenario...................and stop with the BS that UK couldn't win with the option. It's assinine, in that UGA and Miss. State just lost to The Option!! That argument is an immediate fail - can you NOT see that??..............but in the end, you and your peers get your way - more mediocrity, running the same 'ol soft pass oriented offense that will fold up year in and year out against SEC caliber defenses. It's an excellent recipe for .500 ball.
Enjoy.
