No wonder Stoops didn't play Towles......

[Gary4UK]

He must have caught wind of the guy leaving.... Nothing else beside that could have made Stoops stay with Barker... I'm kind of relieved that Stoops wasn't that goofy by leaving Drew in the game...

On Towles, the guy was fine as long as he played... Barker just kept chipping until he got his chance... I guess Towles is too good to sit on the bench, and play himself back to a starter.... All I can say is, good luck Towles....

 

[andreIGUODOLLAsigns4UK]

You say that. As if towles outperformed barker. But in towles last 7 games. 1 TD 10 INTs. It doesn't get worse than that. Barker never got real experience headed into the Louisville game. The week before he wasn't able to get in any real experience in because of the weather conditions and quality of opponent. Barker has a million times more upside than towles considering towles has proven what he is at his best. Consistently atrocious. Barker will be a very good QB. I find it comical how people are acting like he's a horrible player while he's a FRESHMAN QB! Give the man a year to work out the kinks as a sophomore this year. Then see what you got with him. I think midway thru next season. He will be acclimated to the game and way better than towles ever was.

Gotta give the kid a chance. Towles had like 25 chances before enough was enough. Let's at least give barker 1 chance until we decide he won't get it done or not. It's very hard to judge a freshman quarterback in his first real game action with coaches who do a horrible job preparing and coaching an entire team let alone a freshman QB. And if you're going to act like he can't get it done after one game. Then you all just have no chill in life. The potential is there. He doesn't have happy feet like towles does. He'll actually stand in the pocket and looks calm doing it. That's a very good sign out of a freshman QB. Considering towles was a 4th year junior standing in the pocket chopping his feet as if he was in practice doing up down drills. Never seen anything like what towles does in the pocket. 4 years. And he still chops his feet as if his life depended on how fast he can chop his feet! Classy guy. Never going to attack his character. But honestly one of the worst to play the position. I put him in with the Morgan Newtons of the world as far as QB play goes.

 

[TheBigBlueSpectacle]

He must have caught wind of the guy leaving.... Nothing else beside that could have made Stoops stay with Barker... I'm kind of relieved that Stoops wasn't that goofy by leaving Drew in the game...

On Towles, the guy was fine as long as he played... Barker just kept chipping until he got his chance... I guess Towles is too good to sit on the bench, and play himself back to a starter.... All I can say is, good luck Towles....

Well, that's certainly one take...."he didn't want to compete"
Or there are ways to not villainize him that maybe he just needs a fresh start? Maybe he had trouble getting along / fitting in? Maybe he called no joy on the offensive line and would rather play behind another one?

Or you can just say he whined and quit

 

[Randy Bob]

Hard to understand why Towles would leave with just one yr to go, had to be something between him and the coach i thank..He played what every game but the last 2 for 2 yrs..

 

[OHIO COLONEL]

I don't think it's hard to understand. He got demoted and probably realized that his chance had passed and that Barker is the future. He still wants to play and figured that it wouldn't be here. Think I read where he's graduating, so he'll have a degree from UK...and he'd have had 4 years on UK's football team....the school he has been a fan of all his life. So now, taking in all that, he'll go somewhere where he thinks he can get playing time, and perhaps (big if to me) have the type of improvement/season where he'll be noticed by the NFL. It's not uncommon these days to transfer for your Sr. year....at one time yes, but no more.

 

[Grumpyolddawg]

Hard to understand why Towles would leave with just one yr to go, had to be something between him and the coach i thank..He played what every game but the last 2 for 2 yrs..

Its really not, its happening quite a bit now. Kids want to play, he has been a multi year starter and didn't want to sit his sr year and it looks like UK has made their choice at qb. Most likely he will move down a level in competition and have a pretty good year, like UF's ex qb who ended up at a smaller school. Will hurt UK's depth, but barring an injury shouldn't have much affect on the team.

 

[CloverforkCat]

He should have been in the game at the start of the 4th qtr. The game was tied at 24 all, and Barker had been quite frankly a disaster after halftime. We may have been talking about a different scenario had he played the 4th qtr., or maybe not. We will never know !

 

[andreIGUODOLLAsigns4UK]

He should have been in the game at the start of the 4th qtr. The game was tied at 24 all, and Barker had been quite frankly a disaster after halftime. We may have been talking about a different scenario had he played the 4th qtr., or maybe not. We will never know !

When they did decide to put towles in. He threw an INT. we probably would've lost by 4 scores had they replaced barker for towles. Can't count how many times this season towles needed to be benched after halftime. As bad as barker played. That's as bad or maybe a little bit better than towles has played the entire year. Towles last 7 games. 1 TD. 10 INTS. Very crazy and scary statistic. No need for 4th year juniors putting those kind of numbers up and remaining on the team. There's really no room for that kind of trash. He's a good person so I hate to say it like that about him I really did want him to succeed. But that's what it is he's a trash football player. He wasn't the only problem though there were many problems this season for sure. And you also gotta look at the fact that the staff did a horrible job preparing barker for the game, and as a true freshman QB he needed good preparation, this staff doesn't provide much coaching if any they never make adjustments to help the cause.. Very putrid coaching going on here

 

[Ugoff]

Maybe he wanted to go play where the players aren't holding the coach hostage and determining who the starting QB is.

 

[thefolker]

When they did decide to put towles in. He threw an INT. we probably would've lost by 4 scores had they replaced barker for towles

We were behind and in clear desperation mode by that point.

 

[bigblueinsanity_rivals250340]

Id say after Vandy, the staff told Patrick that Barker was the choice moving forward. Then sometime before yesterday Id say Patrick informed the staff hed just move on.

In a weird way, I kinda feel like Towles did this as much for the betterment of the program as for himself. I dont think we've ever had a bigger UK fan playing for the blue and white.

 

[StubbornPenny]

The very second Barker replaced him, Towles was going to transfer. It only makes sense. As a coach, he had to know that.

 

[andreIGUODOLLAsigns4UK]

We were behind and in clear desperation mode by that point.

Yup. Same for the last 7 games he played in too. Where he had 1 TD to 10 INTs.

 

[thefolker]

Yup. Same for the last 7 games he played in too. Where he had 1 TD to 10 INTs.

Yeah, it would've been crazy to put him in to start the 4th quarter after 19 yards of total offense in the 3rd quarter. I mean we might have lost the game.

 

[lwbb_rivals101553]

I hope his leaving in his mind will give the players on this team a chance to come together and a better chance to win.

 

[andreIGUODOLLAsigns4UK]

Yeah, it would've been crazy to put him in to start the 4th quarter after 19 yards of total offense in the 3rd quarter. I mean we might have lost the game.

Towles has had worse quarterS this season. So I really don't get your point towles has shown nothing to indicate we could have won the game with him in the 4th. Nothing at all.