How to tell when......

[greginky1957]

.....Kentucky football has turned the corner. Going to a bowl is a sign we are heading in the right direction, but to me the real key indicator will be when we can redshirt most of our fresmen. Especially on the OL and DL. Many on this site want to bash a player like Matt Elam, but the reality is that he played his freshman season out of necessity when he really needed a redshirt season. We have young players this year that will play on defense because of attrition. I can't wait until more of our young players are able to be redshirted in order to become ready for the grind that is SEC football. The jump from high school to the SEC is a big one. In all fairness, we are redshirting more than in years past. We are slowly climbing that mountain. We are much closer to turning that corner.

 

[WildCard]

I would say "turning the corner" goes well beyond red shirting most freshmen. "Most" freshmen redshirt now but the fact is the depth chart changes every year and some freshmen are ready to contribute (and maybe even more that some returnees).

I would say UK football has "turned the corner" when it is consistently a 7 or 8 (and mostly 8) game regular season winner. IOW, more years like 2007 in which the Cats went 8-5, beat UofL and LSU in regular season and won a bowl game against FSU. While that season did not end with a Top 25 poll finish, the Cats did make some in season appearances and finished #18 in Sagarin's Rankings.

To put "consistently" in perspective, Brooks was the first coach since Blanton Collier to have more than 2 consecutive winning seasons (2006-2009) and one of those seasons required a bowl win for win #7.

Peace

 

[Onomatopoeia]

Many on this site want to bash a player like Matt Elam, but the reality is that he played his freshman season out of necessity when he really needed a redshirt season.

Good point. Most here don't understand that.