M. Stoops WILL git ur done!

12375CAT

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Feb 15, 2012
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Agree?
 
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greginky1957

All-Conference
Oct 10, 2008
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I personally agree. It is a good thing that the fan base doesn't get to make the call or he would not get the chance to show it.
 
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Bluetick2100

All-Conference
Apr 15, 2007
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Just don't know at this point.
So far he has been somewhat of a disappointment in my view.
He has been suffering from on the job training.

He may yet turn out to be a good coach, but it is time to see some improvements.

There are expectations with his job and extension of his contract, time to meet those expectations this season.

I expect to see a team get better as the season goes on, not worse as the last couple seasons.
 

jauk11

Heisman
Dec 6, 2006
60,631
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I hope so. Lot of money tied up in his program and facilities.

You are correct. I hope it is enough to overcome the TEN YEARS of doing nothing above bare maintenance of the program.

I think it will be, and I have noticed that better talent AND some experience always seem to make the coaches look a lot better. Brooks AND Joker never really had a chance. The team Joker took over had TWO (both JC) four stars playing, and still upset top ten USCe, and came withing three point of the Cam led NATIONAL CHAMPIONS, and Brooks actually did beat the NC in 07.

This team could put an offense on the field that has ALL four stars at ALL of the the skill positions (with a couple being 5.9s) behind an OL that could average a 5.875 plus a Remington candidate------compare that OL to Brooks starters in 07 that AVERAGED about a 5.2.

On D we could start four DBs that are all four stars, considered the strength of our D, coincidence or ?------but two of them have been beaten out by three stars, still VERY talented players that were underrated-----but possibly an indication of better coaching. Our front seven is considered our weakness on D, and there are no four stars there, (again, coincidence or not?) BUT we don't have to start many two stars or walkons, still a lot of talent there.

With the added experience most of our team has it is time to compete, we play in the SEC, tough schedule, don't expect too much, etc, but we should compete in every game except maybe one------and strange things do happen in football, like forty point favorites being upset once in a blue moon.

But then I doubt if we are playing Bama on a blue moon, maybe I will look it up.
 
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Nov 29, 2015
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The talent is there, just needs to learn how to fire up his team, learn to compete and not roll over, and actually make adjustments during a game, him and staff seemed clueless when other teams switched up an offensive or a defensive scheme. Never seen such bad halftime adjusting (or lackthereof) from any staff at any level in any sport in my life. He's been a terrible in game head coach and game manager at this point, on top of that players are dropping passes and towles puts the T in terrible.

Now it seems the talent is there and stoops just needs to do his part and actually make adjustments during games and fire up the team like a coach does, our team played very uninspired last season and that's a reflection of the coach. Idk if he can do it and I'm on the boat that think this is his make or break year. If I see the same mistakes and the same uninspired team and the sams results as last season, then he needs to go. But we'll see. And I'll hope. The first step was firing Shannon Dawson (an atrocious hire to begin with) and that was done. The 2nd step was towles no longer playing, and he transferred, and the staff seemed to have this thing where he was just unbenchable and it was absolutely unwatchable but i still watched, and i still attended, and I still screamed like a die hard does. Now that those 2 very big obstacles have been hurdled, let's see what we got. I'm excited but very cautiously optimistic. 4-8 or 5-7 would not surprise me given our schedule and the fact I've watched Kentucky football my whole life. But 6-6 is a possibility that I'll be praying for. I see 7-5 as stoops ceiling for his tenure at UK. He's got the talent but he's not near the coach brooks was.
 
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jauk11

Heisman
Dec 6, 2006
60,631
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Not a bad post, although I think you are a little hard on Stoops, sometimes you have to learn from experience which is a hard teacher, and I like our staff MUCH better now. I think he will have a lot more help from his MORE EXPERIENCED talent and the new staff.
 

*Bleedingblue*

Heisman
Mar 5, 2009
39,602
30,446
113
Not a bad post, although I think you are a little hard on Stoops, sometimes you have to learn from experience which is a hard teacher, and I like our staff MUCH better now. I think he will have a lot more help from his MORE EXPERIENCED talent and the new staff.
Ya he was a little rough on him but it was the truth. Sometimes the truth hurts.
In order or solve issues you have to single those issues out and correct the problems. Most of our problems has been DL OL and QB play. We may have to have 5 star players across the entire OL to make them look like a serviceable unit same for the DL. It's very plain to me if we have average Ky talent our lines play well below average ky line play. Why do you think that is?
 

KyCatFan1

Heisman
May 6, 2002
30,808
31,521
113
I have been in wait and see mode, but I am leaning toward no. I hope I am wrong, but collapsing 2 straight years is not a positive sign. If it happens one more time and we don't make a bowl again, I think he is done here. I am not sure we are running the best type of defense for the players we can get here. I hope the offense is much improved with the coaches we brought in because we likely will have to play shootouts to be able to win most of our games. I still think we would have been better off running a style of offense like Baylor runs. At least until we are loaded up on experienced SEC level players.
 

CHAMPCAT11

All-American
Jun 16, 2009
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No x2. He's fought the good fight but his good recruiting hasn't brought success on the field. He's a competent assistant but way over his head as a head coach in the SEC.
 

WeepNoMore

Junior
Jan 2, 2005
1,144
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Always hopeful, but my optimism has waned.

Recruiting has improved, but we are still in the lower echelon of talent. Thus, we need superior coaching in order to beat the more talented teams on our SEC schedule.

Unfortunately, superior coaching simply has not been there--not on the practice field and not on game day. The evidence--(1) with a few individual exceptions, players are only marginally improved, if at all, in fundamentals since the Joker era, (2) effective game-day organization, decision-making, and adjustments have not improved, in fact, they seem to have declined, and (3) the mid-season collapses we've witnessed the past two years.

Can this all change in year 4? Of course, it can. But will it? I, for one, am not holding my breath!
 
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My dad used to talk about filling in the grabs between recruiting classes. We are close to this and I think that once we build the consistency that Stoops wants, things will be just fine. Stoops has made mistakes that have cost us wins. He's also won games that we usually loose. I'm saying that we make a bowl this year
bc it's time and Stoops knows this.

BBN
 

CB3UK

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Apr 15, 2012
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I've expressed my reservations I'm various forms on here but I still have faith in Coach Stoops. This isn't an easy process. I expect a bare minimum of bowl eligibility this year. Whatever your thoughts about the who's what's where's and why's, it simply isn't unreasonable by any timeline for us to be at least .500 in Year 4. It just isnt.
 

Poetax

Heisman
Apr 4, 2002
29,410
20,887
0
Just don't know at this point.
So far he has been somewhat of a disappointment in my view.
He has been suffering from on the job training.

He may yet turn out to be a good coach, but it is time to see some improvements.

There are expectations with his job and extension of his contract, time to meet those expectations this season.

I expect to see a team get better as the season goes on, not worse as the last couple seasons.

I would bet that even Stoops has been upset with himself over some of his game decisions and he did himself no favors by having a all young rookie staff in the beginning. He's been around football all of his life but separating the emotional part of the game has been terribly hard for him to do. Now that he has Gran, maybe his calmness will rub off onto Stoops.
 
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Levibooty

All-American
Jun 29, 2005
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I think that Stoops has done a decent job since arriving here. I think people saying we have had two collapse's are being very unfair to Stoops. When those collapses include playing hard SEC schedules with freshmen and sophomores his second season, well that is just not well thought out and a pretty darn blue-tinted rosy expectation. Last year, was I hope, an outlier due to Dawson and all the turmoil on the team. I seem to recall Cal having a difficult year with a team in turmoil so sometimes coaching can't overcome some problems.

Ky football fans can feel so unduly entitled at times and they can't help but to step on their own false hopes.
 
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Jazzycat

All-Conference
May 23, 2002
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This is his watershed year....either he coaches up the talent and develops and molds this group into an SEC caliber team or he is unable to do so... Hoping for the best overall and that the guys have a winning season with major improvements.
 

clawsowitz

Junior
Nov 29, 2015
213
360
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I agree jazzycat. Fair or not this is a watershed year. 6 wins and the wind is at our backs. Fewer wins and it will be rough sailing.
 

sluggercatfan

Heisman
Aug 17, 2004
35,953
29,631
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I think that Stoops has done a decent job since arriving here. I think people saying we have had two collapse's are being very unfair to Stoops. When those collapses include playing hard SEC schedules with freshmen and sophomores his second season, well that is just not well thought out and a pretty darn blue-tinted rosy expectation. Last year, was I hope, an outlier due to Dawson and all the turmoil on the team. I seem to recall Cal having a difficult year with a team in turmoil so sometimes coaching can't overcome some problems.

Ky football fans can feel so unduly entitled at times and they can't help but to step on their own false hopes.
"Being unfair to Stoops"...with a chance to win have six wins down the stretch we were outscored 263-131 in'14 and 220-108 in '15 I pretty much think you can call that collasping...
 

cardsfan53

Junior
Apr 15, 2005
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This is his year he got his players and talent on the team and know his system i think he goes to a bowl at least
 

jauk11

Heisman
Dec 6, 2006
60,631
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Ya he was a little rough on him but it was the truth. Sometimes the truth hurts.
In order or solve issues you have to single those issues out and correct the problems. Most of our problems has been DL OL and QB play. We may have to have 5 star players across the entire OL to make them look like a serviceable unit same for the DL. It's very plain to me if we have average Ky talent our lines play well below average ky line play. Why do you think that is?

Well, you have to admit the upgrade in the OL talent has been nothing short of phenomenal, you do realize that if we get our home town five star in 17 we will probably start an OL that averaged OVER a 5.9 as commits. If the 07 team can do what they did with an OL that averaged a 5.2 then I think we have the talent to get a lot of points behind that OL.

And in fact the other six starters for UK in 17 could ALL be 5.8s (and above) while the other six starters in 07 averaged less than a three star even with Woodson (5.467) then you might even think the skill players won't even need that much help to be good.

I still maintain that UK's main problem this century has been raw talent, (due to near ZERO support from UK) and this staff is doing a fantastic job correcting that problem-------we still need some more experience from the players AND the staff.
 
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Oldtrainer_rivals

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Aug 12, 2008
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I'm pulling for coach Stoops and think new coaching hires are positives! Imo his sideline coaching to date are very questionable. Unknown, will he let these new hires do their job. Coach has upgraded our roster to a quality all time UK high! This season and 2017 will dictate Mark Stoops UK future!
 
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Chuckinden

All-American
Jun 12, 2006
18,974
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This is his watershed year....either he coaches up the talent and develops and molds this group into an SEC caliber team or he is unable to do so... Hoping for the best overall and that the guys have a winning season with major improvements.
This is the year I have marked in the Stoops era to see how improved we are. This is a watershed year, no doubt about it. If we don't show marked improvement this year, the air will be out of a lot sails and then Mitch has to start thinking how much longer should we give Stoops to "git er done".
 

dvillecatfan

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Feb 1, 2006
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Im giving him until 12-1-17 before passing judgement. At that point, i feel the programs sucess or failures will be his to bear. As for expectations...lower tier bowl this year, with a BBN invasion of some southern city late in 2017 or early 2018.
 

Jdhays21

Heisman
Jan 16, 2013
16,082
22,656
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So a coach comes in and takes over a MAC roster playing in the SEC. He goes 2-10 with Jalen Whitlow as QB and no other talent on the roster. The following year he goes 5-7 with a bad roster that he's upgraded significantly. The next year all the talent on the roster still lies within freshmen and sophomores and we go
5-7 with a QB that has terrible instincts and accuracy problems. We were one game away from going to a bowl both years and everyone being thrilled. We now sit in a position with the most talent a UK football roster has ever had and an incredible class getting ready to come in and people want to call him a failure? Get real! He's a young coach and learning but what he's done for this program in 3 years has been more than has been done in 30 years. We're in the SEC with a historically awful football program. Nick Saban isn't waking through the door and continuity is the best chance we have of building a successful program. We are looking at a future of having Landon Young and Jedrick Wills as our tackles with Mac Jones behind center. That would be the best two exterior lineman we have ever had and one of the best QB's to ever come here all on the roster at the same time. I can't wait for a future with CMS and Mac jones taking us to heights we haven't seen since the 70's!
 

*Bleedingblue*

Heisman
Mar 5, 2009
39,602
30,446
113
Don't think I've read a single post complaining about the talent we have brought in, just the coaching they have recieved.

Just like the other poster commenting on what the '07 team occomplished when having very low rated recruits.
The OL looked tremendously better then than now, today we have a far superior line on paper and have vastly underperformed. What I was saying is that we may have to have 5 star players at every position just for the unit to be serviceable. The OL had higher ranked recruits on it when the staff took over from joker than when Brooks was going to bowls.
Maybe these 5 stars will rely on talent and instincts to get the job done than relying on coaching to hold the line.
It's just funny how horrid our OT play has been but yet he is looked at by the nfl??
Same thing on the DL as well.
That's why I'm glad Stoops is now bringing in experienced coaches. Maybe Gran will step in and look at what is goin on with his OL play and see what the problem is.
 

RV

Heisman
Jun 26, 2005
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If the offense performs like I expect it to, threads like this will be looked back on with amusement.
 
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Goingfor9

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Jan 27, 2003
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I don't know what he's gonna get done but an sec schedule with out of conference games against UL and Southern Miss sure isn't going to be easy.
 

Katwatcher

Sophomore
Feb 17, 2003
563
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Just don't know at this point.
So far he has been somewhat of a disappointment in my view.
He has been suffering from on the job training.

He may yet turn out to be a good coach, but it is time to see some improvements.

There are expectations with his job and extension of his contract, time to meet those expectations this season.

I expect to see a team get better as the season goes on, not worse as the last couple seasons.
I think the team has gotten better the last 2 seasons. Maybe not in the WL column, but on the field yes. Its going to take more than 2 years for this to improve in my opinion.

You just don't catch up that quickly in the SEC. UK has a long way to come just to be even with the bottom 7 teams. We have to start being competitive with Al. Tenn. Aub. Geo. Texas A-M etc. before we even think about being a serious threat to the majority of the teams. We have had about 50 years to get to this point. I believe we have a better chance of turning the program around with this group of coaches than we've had in long time.

If we don't give them the time needed to bring a turn around we will have took 10 steps forward and twenty back. We have to be stronger at every position and improve upon that every year.

We have had different coaches at just about every position since Stoops arrived, that in its self makes it hard for the team to improve quickly, but necessary sometimes.

Its encouraging to see more money going to football, which has brought much well needed improvements .Getting anxious for the opening game.
 

KyCatFan1

Heisman
May 6, 2002
30,808
31,521
113
If you look well coached and finish 5-7 is one thing, but in my opinion we haven't looked well coached since Stoops has been here. Whether that is a young coach learning on the job or someone who is in over their head is yet to be determined. I believe a good coach could have won one more game in at least 1 of the last 2 years. We haven't and that is what has me worried. You have to be able to coach up your talent to be successful at a school like UK. You will never win on talent alone besides a couple of out of conference games a year. We've seen other coaches at other schools coach up their teams to successful seasons in major conferences. It has even happened at Vandy. It is time to put up or shut up.
 
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UKWinsAgainYep

All-Conference
Nov 11, 2014
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Hard to say...

I like Coach Stoops as a person, but the truth is that recruiting is the only thing he's brought to UK so far...which is exciting, but not enough to win in the SEC.

His coaching has been average at best in the SEC. Call me not impressed. I don't think he has a clue about the offensive side of the ball and don't like how he's handled that side with so many coaching changes, pathetic QB coaching, etc.

Losing to UL for 2 years straight and to Vandy last season is just not getting it done IMO.

Will things change? We shall see, but it's not looking very good right now.
 

Jdhays21

Heisman
Jan 16, 2013
16,082
22,656
108
Hard to say...

I like Coach Stoops as a person, but the truth is that recruiting is the only thing he's brought to UK so far...which is exciting, but not enough to win in the SEC.

His coaching has been average at best in the SEC. Call me not impressed. I don't think he has a clue about the offensive side of the ball and don't like how he's handled that side with so many coaching changes, pathetic QB coaching, etc.

Losing to UL for 2 years straight and to Vandy last season is just not getting it done IMO.

Will things change? We shall see, but it's not looking very good right now.
Ok a couple of things here and it's not just you. People have got to stop acting like Neal Brown was some big failure that was shuffled out. He got a freaking head coaching job. Secondly, I hate them but UofL has a damn good program right now. They are a legitimate top 25 program right now so beating them is always going to be a tall task. We can't act like beating them in football should be guaranteed every year.
 

hmt5000

Heisman
Aug 29, 2009
26,976
82,650
0
Ooc games, missou, scar and vandy Games are what will tell the tale this year. Very similar talent or more on our part. New or revamped coaching staffs on those squads. We look better prepared and coached in those games and we'll be happy. We're still a year away from having the experience to beat uf, uga, UT, and other upper tier teams.