is Stoops on the hot seat?
- Thread starter Glenn Fohr
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As depleted of SEC talent as UK's roster was when he arrived he shouldn't be at this point.. If he doesn't get to a bowl this season I could see his seat getting a little warm. Very few if any of Joker's players are still around and Stoops first signees will be Sr and RSJr. I think UK has a pretty good year and gets to a bowl this season, but another season of 5 wins would be a huge setback for the staff and fans, but one he can survive. Next year, when the team is made up solely with his guys including RSSr. will be critical for him, he has to showed marked improvement, not getting to a bowl would be a devastating blow to the program and his seat would be more than a little warm. But I think he has improved the talent level at UK by leaps and bounds, DBs and WRs were the first 2 groups to get to SEC level with SEC type depth. RB has SEC level at starter, but Boom it drops off quite a bit. OL was awful but he is addressing that now and will be able to put a good first unit out there. Defensively, UK hasn't had good SEC play alone the DL or at LB, and may have to just outscore people until he does that. Getting good QB play will be essential for UK/Stoops success this fall because the front 7 defensively haven't shown they can be depended on to stop offenses.
No Stoops isn't on the hot seat. Dumb thread.
Losing Towles I think is big. Barker didn't set the world on fire when put in there.
No, but there's just too much talent piling up on our roster now to justify another losing season. We are out recruiting half the teams on our schedule and are not far behind 2 or 3 others. The mid season melt downs of the past two years have been to some degree explained by depth issues (though not totally). Depth has been improved this year all the way around so that can't be used as an excuse or a reason for failure again this year.
Top quality coaches and top notch recruits have registered their believe in Mark Stoops as a head coach by casting their lot with our Wildcats. My hunch is all of them can't be wrong.
Top quality coaches and top notch recruits have registered their believe in Mark Stoops as a head coach by casting their lot with our Wildcats. My hunch is all of them can't be wrong.
It would indeed cost a lot of money to buy out the remainder of Stoops' contract, but it 's just a tiny fraction of the amount of money that Kentucky has spent on stadium renovation, practice facility renovation, and office improvements. All of these expenses are investments in Stoops and his future at Kentucky. When a school is investigating that level of resources in a coach's future, he isn't on the hot seat. Besides, football coaches don't get on the hot seat at Kentucky with 5-7 seasons, and they also don't get on the hot seat by signing historic recruiting classes. The suggestion in the title of this thread is nuts.
No, not a dumb thread. The team has been piss poor down the stretch the last two seasons. And the reasons haven't been all about personnel. Stoops has made some boneheaded calls during these stretches and it did effect the team. Eliot has been totally vanilla during that stretch as well. I don't think I've ever seen an Eliot team run a stunt on a pass rush, or get a stop when you need one during crucial SEC's games.
No. He has taken us to the top with recruiting. He has a ton of talent right now but it is young. With our new strength program we should reap the benefits this season. I think we will be soooo much better this season the only issue may be keeping others from trying to poach him.
Allow me to play the devil's advocate here. I have been impressed by Stoops' recruiting. Our 2016 roster is better, deeper than any Kentucky football roster in a long time. But everything is relative. Every other SEC program is also signing excellent classes. In the SEC, you don't win many games if you don't have a quarterback who can make plays and extend drives, or if you don't have a defensive line that can stop the run. Right now, Kentucky probably doesn't have either. I look at our 2016 schedule, which is more difficult than 2014 or 2015. Being realistic about this, I just don't see a winning season this year. I know that isn't what people want to hear. And it doesn't change the fact that our overall football roster is getting better each year because of Stoops' strong recruiting. Given the quarterback situation, and given the difficulty of our 2016 schedule, I have no problem justifying one more season without a bowl game. But I look for a big step forward in 2017.
LOL! Of course it's a dumb thread. When in Kentucky football history has a 5-7 season ever gotten a coach onto the hot seat? Answer - never. The school just invested more than $200 million to renovate the football stadium and the practice facility. Those investments are being made for 1 reason. Stoops. So it's ridiculous to suggest he is on the hot seat. If you don't like Stoops, or if you want him fired, why not just come out and say so? Starting this thread to fish around for other malcontents is goofy.
I don't agree with the schedule being tougher, you draw Bama as the rotating west team, but AU beat UK last year so it can't be any worse than 1 loss for the rotating opponent. MSST lost the heart of their team and a boat load of other sr, game is definitely not a certain loss, tossup at worse. In the East, 3 of the teams have 1st year coaches and who knows how that is going to work out, 2 haven't been head coaches before and the one with head coaching experience was a total flop and fired. UT will be tough, but UF doesn't have a qb, lost much of that great defense, have their best offensive player suspended, I know they have a long streak against UK, but they fell apart when Gier was suspended. Vandy will put a good defense on the field with Mason, but their offense is bad, or was. Looking at all that, how is that a tougher conference schedule than last year? Sure Bama will be good, but even if UK loses to them it's only 1 loss and counts the same as the AU loss. Southern Miss lost their coach too, otherwise that might have been closer than many want, UK is seeing 4 teams with new coaches, new systems, 3 in division, it doesn't get much more inviting than that. Plus UK's talent level is probably better than USC and Missouri right now, probably not UGA but still have to put it together. Pretty inviting schedule to make a move upward, maybe the best opportunity in years with all the new coaches.
Stoops has been a disappointment.
The Joker excuses are gone.
Big money has been spent on coaches and upgrades.
He has increased the talent by leaps and bounds which in turn should show better results. But that hasn't happen.
Late season melt downs, turmoil in the locker room, basic special teams failures.
Their are expectations that come from all the changes that have been made.
Now once again some fans are expecting us to blow off this coming season
and wait for the 2017 season.
Stoops needs to prove he can win this season!
The Joker excuses are gone.
Big money has been spent on coaches and upgrades.
He has increased the talent by leaps and bounds which in turn should show better results. But that hasn't happen.
Late season melt downs, turmoil in the locker room, basic special teams failures.
Their are expectations that come from all the changes that have been made.
Now once again some fans are expecting us to blow off this coming season
and wait for the 2017 season.
Stoops needs to prove he can win this season!
Stats are pretty close. Barker started in a winter storm and rain...the other QBs in the starts Barker had threw for a combined 38% to his 41%.
Just not good passing days...
Barker also was in his 1st and 2nd starts...Towles had 22
Barker played decent against Vandy, decent against Charlotte and good against UL (before Boom Williams injury)...can you tell me how Towles did in games Boom was out or injured?
Thanks
well going from
2-10
2-10
to
5-7
5-7
is something. ain't great, but it isnt the same.
Agreed. No way should we have missed a bowl game last year. You can only tout recruiting successes for so long. Eventually you have to start winning games. Stoops is clearly on the hot seat. If he fails to make a bowl game and keeps his job it will totally because of the irresponsible contract and not because he has earned a 5th year. If Stoops doesn't get to 6 wins this year it is likely that he never will. The schedule is a little more difficult than this past year but we should still have a clear path to 6 wins. You can even argue that we should be favored in 6 games and that's not counting UL and Miss State which should also be winnable. Underdogs maybe but winnable.
UK won the game when Stanley was "suspended" and also won the Mizzou game in which he was benched. After Barker "led" the offense to minus 4 yards in five second half possessions against a common Louisville defense, Towles came in and was 3 for 4 for 71 yards.
Yes. With the schedule this year, we may very well have 4 wins. While I think we keep him, his arse is going to be a little red as the heat may get him a bit.
Dosen't transfer in's and walk on's look as good as the ones who left the different Classes? Class Maintenance or like there of is what killed Joker. He should have went out and got more Juco's and redshirted some if necessary to keep more older and more developed players.
Against a prevent D - and you forgetting about his final pass vs UL?
Pointing to the EKU game as a positive for Towles? Lol
He did play great against Mizzou, no doubt about that.
How he do against UGA without Boom?
I assume you mean unproven, hopefully you haven't written off Barker who was a highly recruited 4 star elite 11 QB after little more than a game under his belt. Lots of new faces along the D line as well but how about we wait and see what they can do before we flush them.
You were touting Barker's play against Charlotte and Vandy. Let me type that one more time - CHARLOTTE and VANDY. And you want to question the competition Towles had some success against? I remember the INT Towles threw. Look, you can make all of the excuses you want - that's what UK football fans are best at - but if you think Barker was an upgrade over Towles, you don't know football. I understand why Stoops threw in the Towles - the team was in a tailspin with two winnable games left on the schedule regardless of who the QB was. But Barker was not an upgrade.
If touting is saying decent than color me guilty.
Towles sucked against EKU btw.
Barker is a definite upgrade when you consider that he has three years left and Towles 1.
Towles was starter for 22 games...he only took the final snaps in 2 wins of importance in those 22. I think he was given enough chances.
Pretty much agree with this. I would call his seat warm now but anything less than a bowl this year will raise the temperature to hot. But due to an ill advised contract renewal in the middle of 2014 a 5th year is likely regardless of 2016 due to buyout provisions. The real heat should be on Mitch
As grumpy points out (and discussed in another thread), notwithstanding AL, the schedule is really no difference than most UK schedules. No doubt an opportunity was missed last year with so many SEC opponents having "average" years. As discussed in other threads if the Cats have improved any at all a 6 win season is a reasonable expectation.
If a "true" turnaround is really happening non-elite FBS teams with similar records as UK's under ex-CJP usually show something (i.e., win 1 or 2 you are not supposed to win) by year 2 and almost always by year 3. Of UK's 9 FBS wins in 3 years only 1 (SC, 7-6 in 2014) has come against team with a winning record. The collective record of these 9 teams is 34-67. No getting around it; the UK football program must show more than "potential" this year.
IMO, Mitch's best football decision so far was to give Brooks a 4th year and his worse was to extend Stoops after 5-1 start against nobody in his second year.
Peace
At a school like UK def will always be tough to build and that is went I have said for a long time now that MS must embrace a high scoring offensive philosophy because we are going to have to outscore most teams and not expect to stop that many people...I sincerely believe that if this squad can scoring 30+ppg we will do quite well this year...with that said, if the other units can help attain that number it will be all the better. ..GOATS! !!
You assume right. I don't write off freshman players. My experience in the game tells me most college football players don't approach peak performance until their junior season. I watched Barker in November, and he isn't close to ready. Part of the problem could be blamed on poor protection. But even when Barker had time, he locked onto the primary receiver and threw into coverage. Young quarterbacks do this. If you attended our games in November, you know he can't make plays or sustain drives yet. If you are expecting Barker to light up the scoreboard this year, you may be disappointed. That's why Coach Hinshaw brought in a juco quarterback. Not much mystery there. I'm not saying Barker can't become a good quarterback eventually.
You can't be serious. Did you actually attend these games? I wish the kid all the success in the world, but let's be honest. He was awful. Good news is he was just a freshman.
5/8 - 60 yards 1 TD, 1 INT and 26 rushing yards vs a good VU defense
16/29 for 129 vs Charlotte - but 9/10 on 3rd and 4th down passing attempts. In snow...
5/8 for 129 and rushing TD vs UL in 1st half. Most of half with Boom Williams, as I said. Many of his 1st half completions being 3rd down conversions.
So like I said, he played decent vs Charlotte, Vandy and Good against UL before the Williams injury...don't think that is overhyping or sunshine pumping at all. He is still mostly an unknown...but Towles was a known, and we know it wasn't good enough.
Finally, in this thread of opinions all over the map, there is a voice of reason. Thank you. Sir.
another 5-7, 2 sec win season and the seats will start to get warm...
I doubt anything drastic happens after this year if that is what we end up with, but I think Stoops and staff would be going into the following season as essentially lame ducks in need of a miracle...
If we're not playing in bowls and sniffing 4-5 conference wins with in two years...then I think an overhaul will have to come...
I doubt anything drastic happens after this year if that is what we end up with, but I think Stoops and staff would be going into the following season as essentially lame ducks in need of a miracle...
If we're not playing in bowls and sniffing 4-5 conference wins with in two years...then I think an overhaul will have to come...
You don't think touting a guys performance against Vanderbilt and Charlotte is sunshine pumping? Those two programs went a combined 6-18 in 2015, with two wins against FCS schools. And Vandy played in the lowly SECE.