I never put much stock in...

Beatle Bum

Heisman
Sep 1, 2002
39,889
60,242
113
I suspect there are some honest comments here, but most simply always seems to be coachs' chance to play head games or speak to recruits.
 

hmt5000

Heisman
Aug 29, 2009
26,976
82,650
0
I suspect there are some honest comments here, but most simply always seems to be coachs' chance to play head games or speak to recruits.
he said dawson was a good oc and was surprised hes gone. who the hell was this coach? i think everyone knew dawson had some flaws by midseason. last 3 games were pathetically called and avg fan in the stands could of called a better game.

agreed that it sounds like someone getting a subtle jab in on the staff.
 

sieken_rivals49111

All-American
Jun 7, 2008
4,431
6,690
0
He may be on to something with the mentally fragile part. Stoops is a new head coach, he's a fiery personality, some of his blow ups on the side line may translate to panic with the team. Anyway, as he stated, the talent is there to win enough games and go bowling this year. Hopefully the whole team figures out how to jump that hurdle this year.
 
Nov 29, 2015
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Dawson was the worst and had he and towles returned I was canceling my season tix. Was clamoring for these things day in and day out til it happened and once it happened. I was the happiest guy on this board and all the dumby Stoops apologists/homers that said Dawson belonged here til the day he was fired just because he donned the blue and white clearly know nothing about football. Stoops hired a man, who had never called plays at the D1 level in his entire career. And stoops. After looking at Dawson's credentials thought it would be best if his first play calling gig ever was for an SEC school. That situation was pretty much doomed from the beginning.
 

167Hike

Senior
Feb 3, 2003
1,528
773
113
Dawson was the worst and had he and towles returned I was canceling my season tix. Was clamoring for these things day in and day out til it happened and once it happened. I was the happiest guy on this board and all the dumby Stoops apologists/homers that said Dawson belonged here til the day he was fired just because he donned the blue and white clearly know nothing about football. Stoops hired a man, who had never called plays at the D1 level in his entire career. And stoops. After looking at Dawson's credentials thought it would be best if his first play calling gig ever was for an SEC school. That situation was pretty much doomed from the beginning.

So how do you feel about Eddie Gran?
 
Nov 29, 2015
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So how do you feel about Eddie Gran?
We'll see. As long as it's not a Dawson lead towles offense I'm happy and keeping my tickets. I was just tired of the stoops slurp fest with towles acting as if he was the best man for the job when it was obvious well before the end of the season he wasn't. And I'm glad Dawson is also gone. One of the worst OC's I've ever seen. Never saw worst play calling in all my years of watching the sport, or one player get as much favoritism after sucking week in and week out like towles did. Considering it doesn't get worse than Dawson I expect at least minimal improvement with Gran.
 

WildCard

All-American
May 29, 2001
65,040
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0
You seem to always put new post stock in anything that sheds not the greatest light on UK football.
Well, I suppose somebody has to be the lightning rod for the many, many posts and comments on this board that "shed not the greatest light on UK football". It is probably easier on everybody that such person have the word "card" in their screen name. [laughing]

Peace
 
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Beatle Bum

Heisman
Sep 1, 2002
39,889
60,242
113
Well, I suppose somebody has to be the lightning rod for the many, many posts and comments on this board that "shed not the greatest light on UK football". It is probably easier on everybody that such person have the word "card" in their screen name. [laughing]

Peace

You do have a practice of bringing the Debbie Downer bait. Card in your name just makes it clear.
 

*Bleedingblue*

Heisman
Mar 5, 2009
39,602
30,447
113
I think your blasting the card fan for pointing out the obvious. Well he wasn't the one who did but other SEC coaches saying this. I've been on here pointing it out but have been blasted left and right for questioning what our staff is trying to do or the play. When I question the line play I'm told its because of recruiting, when I'm questioning the recruiting I'm told how awesome the recruits are. Most on this board speak out of both sides of their mouth. I would never hire most on here to work for me because they could never look at the situation and find the problem and provide a solution. It's a never ending circle on excuses.


SEC coach says....
“Defensively, I assume they’ll still be that same seven-man front they’ve been in the last couple years, but they definitely haven’t been as good as you’d think given what Mark Stoops did as a coordinator.”

SEC coach says...
“It’s a big year for them. I mean, they fired everybody but the head coach so you know there’s a lot of pressure to make a bowl game. They have enough talent. They’ve done a really good job recruiting, but you don’t see a lot of cohesion to what they’re doing on either side of the ball.”
 
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WildCard

All-American
May 29, 2001
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You do have a practice of bringing the Debbie Downer bait. Card in your name just makes it clear.
Well, I'm certainly not a Pollyanna but I don't think of myself as a Debbie Downer either. I like to think of myself as a pragmatic realist who likes football and calls it as he sees it.

But maybe that attitude does not qualify me as a "fan" which is, of course, short for "fanatic". FWIW, my views are very well liked on the Cardinal board and have now garnered me 334 "likes", exactly a dozen more than I have here! [roll]

As I said in my OP, I find these anonymous quotes in what has become an annual Athlon article to be amusing across the board and I was not "singling out" UK. However, when you are having only marginal success small criticisms take on the form of deeper cuts (especially to those who are "fanatics"). Were there any "negative issues" about UK that have not been discussed in great detail on this board? Did you not find the comment about Dawson amusing given his popularity in BBN.

Peace
 
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Jul 18, 2010
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Well, I'm certainly not a Pollyanna but I don't think of myself as a Debbie Downer either. I like to think of myself as a pragmatic realist who likes football and calls it as he sees it.

But maybe that attitude does not qualify me as a "fan" which is, of course, short for "fanatic". FWIW, my views are very well liked on the Cardinal board and have now garnered me 334 "likes", exactly a dozen more than I have here! [roll]

As I said in my OP, I find these anonymous quotes in what has become an annual Athlon article to be amusing across the board and I was not "singling out" UK. However, when you are having only marginal success small criticisms take on the form of deeper cuts (especially to those who are "fanatics"). Were there any "negative issues" about UK that have not been discussed in great detail on this board? Did you not find the comment about Dawson amusing given his popularity in BBN.

Peace

Well maybe you can tell that to your fan base who continually says you were few plays away from winning 10 games last year when in reality you were also a few plays away from losing 7.
 
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WildCard

All-American
May 29, 2001
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Well maybe you can tell that to your fan base who continually says you were few plays away from winning 10 games last year when in reality you were also a few plays away from losing 7.

Losing 7? The Cards only won 8 last year. Surely you are not saying UofL was only a few plays away from a 1 win season?

Quite frankly, I have seen that 'just a few plays" won/lost argument far more over here than I have seen it expressed on the Cardinal board. In fact, I'm not sure what games on the Card's schedule that you could use the "few plays" logic. The Cards were a 13 point fav over giant surprise team Houston but I give Houston all the props. They played clemson tough but I think everyone agrees Clemson was the better team. [laughing] The Cards were only a 7 point fav over defensively great but offensively awful BC and won by 3.

Anyway, I don't buy the "few plays" argument. Sure there are some upsets, but football is a game where, more often than not, the best team wins, even if ugly. Now I do believe that "measuring yourself" by close losses does mean something for "next year" if you have a good number of returnees.

Peace
 
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CatsFanGG24

Heisman
Dec 22, 2003
22,267
27,137
0
Think it is pretty obvious he was saying UL were close to being 6-7 instead of 8-5.

Close doesn't count.

I don't know how you come up with believing he was saying UL was close to a 1 win season...geez
 

UKFootball78

All-Conference
Sep 1, 2013
679
1,021
56
I think your blasting the card fan for pointing out the obvious. Well he wasn't the one who did but other SEC coaches saying this. I've been on here pointing it out but have been blasted left and right for questioning what our staff is trying to do or the play. When I question the line play I'm told its because of recruiting, when I'm questioning the recruiting I'm told how awesome the recruits are. Most on this board speak out of both sides of their mouth. I would never hire most on here to work for me because they could never look at the situation and find the problem and provide a solution. It's a never ending circle on excuses.


SEC coach says....
“Defensively, I assume they’ll still be that same seven-man front they’ve been in the last couple years, but they definitely haven’t been as good as you’d think given what Mark Stoops did as a coordinator.”

SEC coach says...
“It’s a big year for them. I mean, they fired everybody but the head coach so you know there’s a lot of pressure to make a bowl game. They have enough talent. They’ve done a really good job recruiting, but you don’t see a lot of cohesion to what they’re doing on either side of the ball.”

The line play has suffered from lack of recruiting BEFORE Stoops arrived. It hasn't since even though we have had a lot the recruits for both lines never play a down due to off the field issues. It takes time to build depth no matter how awesome the recruiting.
Its pretty obvious these other "coaches" who were quoted either know nothing about UK or have an agenda of their own: Everyone knows Dawson was an awful OC...EVERYONE, The front 7 is not the same front 7 from the last couple of years...almost completely different, and to say that KY fired everyone except the head coach is nowhere near the truth, Gran does not run the same system as Dawson.
Sounds like a someone is trying to put out some negative vibes with hopes that future\current recruits will read it.
 

sluggercatfan

Heisman
Aug 17, 2004
35,953
29,631
0
We'll see. As long as it's not a Dawson lead towles offense I'm happy and keeping my tickets. I was just tired of the stoops slurp fest with towles acting as if he was the best man for the job when it was obvious well before the end of the season he wasn't. And I'm glad Dawson is also gone. One of the worst OC's I've ever seen. Never saw worst play calling in all my years of watching the sport, or one player get as much favoritism after sucking week in and week out like towles did. Considering it doesn't get worse than Dawson I expect at least minimal improvement with Gran.
I am interested in seeing if Stoops gets the hell out of the way and doesn't interfere like he did with both Brown and Dawson
 

Cats78

Senior
Dec 28, 2005
8,695
998
0
Losing 7? The Cards only won 8 last year. Surely you are not saying UofL was only a few plays away from a 1 win season?


Peace

Are you serious? It's obvious what the poster meant. Good God, what a clown.
 

Beatle Bum

Heisman
Sep 1, 2002
39,889
60,242
113
I think your blasting the card fan for pointing out the obvious. Well he wasn't the one who did but other SEC coaches saying this. I've been on here pointing it out but have been blasted left and right for questioning what our staff is trying to do or the play. When I question the line play I'm told its because of recruiting, when I'm questioning the recruiting I'm told how awesome the recruits are. Most on this board speak out of both sides of their mouth. I would never hire most on here to work for me because they could never look at the situation and find the problem and provide a solution. It's a never ending circle on excuses.


SEC coach says....
“Defensively, I assume they’ll still be that same seven-man front they’ve been in the last couple years, but they definitely haven’t been as good as you’d think given what Mark Stoops did as a coordinator.”

SEC coach says...
“It’s a big year for them. I mean, they fired everybody but the head coach so you know there’s a lot of pressure to make a bowl game. They have enough talent. They’ve done a really good job recruiting, but you don’t see a lot of cohesion to what they’re doing on either side of the ball.”

I think you should revisit the definition of "blast." I don't think I blasted him. Either my observation is right or it is wrong.
 
Oct 1, 2001
5,199
1,898
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Dawson was the worst and had he and towles returned I was canceling my season tix. Was clamoring for these things day in and day out til it happened and once it happened. I was the happiest guy on this board and all the dumby Stoops apologists/homers that said Dawson belonged here til the day he was fired just because he donned the blue and white clearly know nothing about football. Stoops hired a man, who had never called plays at the D1 level in his entire career. And stoops. After looking at Dawson's credentials thought it would be best if his first play calling gig ever was for an SEC school. That situation was pretty much doomed from the beginning.
Dawson always answered to his head coach at WVU. You should remember Dana Holgerson the head coach called the offense and "consulted" with Dawson. There was a reason for that. When Mark couldn't bring Gran and Hinshaw last year, the results were a huge disappointment. Add to that the growing pains Mark has experienced as a head coach and he we are. This season Mark has SEC depth in many positions, but remains thin in other areas. But, those thin areas are filled with hugely talented young 3-4 star players. At the end of the day, the potential is there for success in 2016.
 

shutzhund

All-Conference
Nov 19, 2005
29,202
2,619
0
Dawson took a weak offensive line, ran long slow to develop patterns using a strong but inaccurate armed qb and hoped/prayed something good would happen.

Give him a better qb and better offensive line and he might be a dynamite oc. We'll likely to be the first to know. Hope he's as bad as many think.

As for WildCard he seems to know more about football than his strongest critics.
 
Oct 1, 2001
5,199
1,898
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Dawson took a weak offensive line, ran long slow to develop patterns using a strong but inaccurate armed qb and hoped/prayed something good would happen.

Give him a better qb and better offensive line and he might be a dynamite oc. We'll likely to be the first to know. Hope he's as bad as many think.

As for WildCard he seems to know more about football than his strongest critics.
Shannon Dawson is a good OC and coach. He simply did not work well within his responsibility. It happens. Nothing against him. Hope he does well in Hattiesburg.....not Lexington.
 

merrimanm

Heisman
Dec 14, 2009
17,715
30,359
113
I am interested in seeing if Stoops gets the hell out of the way and doesn't interfere like he did with both Brown and Dawson
Stoops is the head coach. EVERYTHING should run through him. If you don't think Saban has a say in offensI've play calling you are crazy. And he is the best. All head coaches have a say in everything. That is why they are the head coach. If the coordinators can't operate under those circumstances, then they should be let go. Just like in any other profession. If you can't follow orders and operate under the direction of the boss, then you get let go. I don't understand what is so hard to understand about that.
 

TeoJ

Heisman
Oct 19, 2001
24,357
20,374
65
Anytime you have two schools in one name,one name is always prominent nothing different here.
 
Nov 29, 2015
1,735
627
0
Those here saying Dawson was a good OC. Rewatch last season's Vanderbilt game and pretty much every game all over agin and tell me what wasn't mind boggling about his offense regardless of how terrible towles was? Sometimes the wrong plays were just called. In fact. Most of the time. He was teaching Towles to stand in the pocket and wait for his plays to develop because that's that type of plays he wanted to run. But our OL wasn't near good enough to give time for plays to develop. So what do you do when that happens? Keep expecting enough time for plays to develop and let your QB get killed? Or improvise and call quick pass plays, 3 step drop immedietly pass type plays. So he can actually get the ball off without getting sacked?

You play the style that best fits your players talents, not the style you hope your players can run because it's the style you must live and die with. He didn't know what improvising was. At no point from any of the coaches last time did I see ANY In game or Halftime adjustments when certain things weren't working on both sides of the ball. And that includes the offensive play calling. To whoever said he called plays or influenced plays or whatever at WVU. You're wrong. He never called plays at WVU or any D1 school before UK a team in that participates in the SEC. It was a terrible hire who had to be let go. Whoever thinks he was a good OC is out of they GD mind. Just terrible, those are the people who's FB knowledge I severely question.
 
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seccats04

Heisman
Dec 6, 2004
14,033
21,872
113
We'll see. As long as it's not a Dawson lead towles offense I'm happy and keeping my tickets. I was just tired of the stoops slurp fest with towles acting as if he was the best man for the job when it was obvious well before the end of the season he wasn't. And I'm glad Dawson is also gone. One of the worst OC's I've ever seen. Never saw worst play calling in all my years of watching the sport, or one player get as much favoritism after sucking week in and week out like towles did. Considering it doesn't get worse than Dawson I expect at least minimal improvement with Gran.

Do you remember Tim Couch running the option against Florida? We've had some sorry *** coaches over the years but I agree that Dawson was terrible too.
 
Jun 6, 2016
276
487
0
Dawson took a weak offensive line, ran long slow to develop patterns using a strong but inaccurate armed qb and hoped/prayed something good would happen.

Give him a better qb and better offensive line and he might be a dynamite oc. We'll likely to be the first to know. Hope he's as bad as many think.

As for WildCard he seems to know more about football than his strongest critics.
Most people on here were calling Towles an All-SEc QB before last season started.
 
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sluggercatfan

Heisman
Aug 17, 2004
35,953
29,631
0
Those here saying Dawson was a good OC. Research last season Vanderbilt game and pretty much every game all over agin and tell me what wasn't mind boggling about his offense regardless of how terrible towles was? Sometimes the wrong plays were just called. In fact. Most of the time. He was teaching Towles to stand in the pocket and wait for his plays to develop because that's that type of plays he wanted to run. But our OL wasn't near good enough to give time for plays to develop. So what do you do when that happen? Keep expecting enough time for plays to develop and let your QB get killed? Or improvise and call quick pass plays, 3 step drop immedietly pass type plays. So he can actually get the ball off without getting sacked?

You play the style that best fits your players talents, not the style you hope your layers can run because it's what you look. He didn't know what improvising was. At no point from any of the coaches last time did I see ANY In game or Halftime adjustments when certain things weren't working on both sides of the ball. And that includes the offensive play calling. To whoever said he called plays or influenced plays or whatever at WVU. You're wrong. He never called plays at WVO or any D1 school before UK a team in the SEC. It was a terrible hire who had to be let go. Whoever thinks he was a good OC is out of they GD mind. Just terrible those are the people who's FB knowledge I severely question.
Sure do hope you're right... Because that first game is critical and I can imagine he will be out for bear
 

kentucky_wildcat_#1

All-Conference
Aug 23, 2003
33,780
1,041
0
You seem to always put new post stock in anything that sheds not the greatest light on UK football.

You will notice this a lot from this UL/Kentucky fan. He actually believes he can pretend to like both schools. If it's something flattering about Kentucky, this dude is no where to be found. If it's negative, you can bet your last dollar this dude is the first to post it to this site. I really wouldn't care what this poster thinks, but the fact he has Wildcat in his username and trys to act like he cheers for both schools is just too much. Just admit you love UL and hate everything about Kentucky. It's cool. It's what we all expect from a UL fan. No sense in pretending to be something you're not. You are not and will never be cheering for Kentucky in football no matter who we play. It just aint happening. I hate UL, but you will never see me on a UL website with cardinal in my username pretending i cheer for both schools. That just seems sick. Good luck to the Auburn of the ACC......nevermind. Truthfully i hope you guys lose every game you play for the rest of my life.
 
Nov 29, 2015
1,735
627
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Sure do hope you're right... Because that first game is critical and I can imagine he will be out for bear
After rereading my post I couldn't believe how many GD typos and autocorrects I had that sounded dumb had to edit that after realizing how dumb those typos made it sound.

And I am right. Dawson was the worst D1 OC in college last season. And the first game is critical. Even though I am a firm believer that USM has no business coming within 3 TD's. But if we lose that game then I'll consider that the beginning of our program crumbling right before our eyes. The season would be over after game one and ticket sales will be non existent if we lose that game. Dawson is garbage. He's the worst. I am very confident in that game and if we somehow barely win or lose then it will be very pathetic. But I don't see any way that game is close considering who the OC is.

If we lose to Dawson. Then I 100% quit on stoops because we have no business letting that trashy of an OC who stoops fired as quick as he hired beat us. I feel like stoops is very loyal to those he hires and Patrick towles for some very odd reason regardless of how bad the coaches/towles perform. So was shocked to see Dawson let go to say the least. Didn't know stoops was intelligent enough of an HC to make that move that HAD to be made.
 
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JBHolmesfan

All-Conference
Jul 23, 2009
8,181
4,747
0
Well, I suppose somebody has to be the lightning rod for the many, many posts and comments on this board that "shed not the greatest light on UK football". It is probably easier on everybody that such person have the word "card" in their screen name. [laughing]

Peace
I don't mind your posts, but how many posts would a UK fan get before they were banned on the UL site if they were doing the same thing? Maybe 2.
 

Bryo72

Junior
Jun 12, 2016
1,427
354
0
UL fan in football and UK fan basketball, oh come on people, (sarcasm BTW)..what's wrong with that?
 

Oldtrainer_rivals

All-Conference
Aug 12, 2008
3,594
1,198
0
Well, I suppose somebody has to be the lightning rod for the many, many posts and comments on this board that "shed not the greatest light on UK football". It is probably easier on everybody that such person have the word "card" in their screen name. [laughing]

Peace

^^^
Don't think there is a cure for narcissism!