Seems silly to even contemplate considering that the dude is struggling to beat less talented teams and getting TERRIBLY outcoached by teams such as La. Lafayette, Eastern Kentucky, Vanderbilt, teams with noticeably less talent but far better gamelans and in game decision making from their coaches.
Dude is a marginally better recruiter than we're used to around here (putting us in the 11-14 range in SEC recruiting rankings) but it is yet to be seen if he and the staff that he handpicked are any better than the likes of Joker and Randy Sanders as far as actual coaching and not just recruiting and being a hype man for the program.
As far as pure coaching it would be hard to convince me that Joker and the sand man couldn't win 5 games with last year's talent. Heck, at least when Joker was coach the East had Florida which was rolling with Urban Meyer, South Carolina was rolling, Georgia was rolling, Vandy was solid with James Franklin. Stoops has stepped in when the East was literally as wide open as its ever been (or ever will be) and has failed to take any real meaningful step up the SEC ladder. The guy has been all hype/coachspeak with very little substance to back it up. His in-game decision making in games against Vandy, Auburn, and U of L last year were some of the worst things I've ever seen from a UK coach. He got blown out by an
unranked Tennessee at home. He got blown out and embarrassed by an
unranked Mississippi State team. He got manhandled by the worst Georgia team that we've seen in 30 years on his way to another late season collapse. Anyone that has any sort of faith in this dude's coaching ability at this point is basing it solely on their love for UK and nothing else. Nothing we have seen from this guy can make an objective person sit back and say 'Wow, that guy's in-game coaching ability and game prep sure gives me hope for the future'. Name one player that has actually gotten BETTER under this guy and his staff. Where is the player development?
Marginally better recruiting alone isn't enough to get it done folks, not in this league anyways. You need solid recruiting with innovative coaching..especially at a place like Kentucky where you're not going to out-Alabama, Alabama.