Our we the "Kansas" of the SEC in football?
- Thread starter Glenn Fohr
- Start date
"Our" we?
And, yes, of course we're the Kansas of our conference. This is news to you? Hell, perhaps even worse. As recently as 07 Kansas had a season where they went 12-1 and won the Orange Bowl (and had several other good seasons under Mangino), whereas we've not reached one of the "major" bowls in 65 years.
And, yes, of course we're the Kansas of our conference. This is news to you? Hell, perhaps even worse. As recently as 07 Kansas had a season where they went 12-1 and won the Orange Bowl (and had several other good seasons under Mangino), whereas we've not reached one of the "major" bowls in 65 years.
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It's not BCS for sure but we did play a good Penn State team. It's not the Independence bowl for certain.
That's a mighty low bar you have for the word major, then. We finished 7-5 and unranked in that Outback Bowl season (we only got the OB bid because the SEC was wayyy down that year), you really think unranked 7-5 is a "major" bowl caliber season?
To me "major" means one of the 5 traditional major bowls--Rose, Sugar, Orange, Fiesta and Cotton--everything else is just varying degrees of quickly-forgotten glorified exhibitions to most people
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In fairness, history will always remember that Outback Bowl ... because of the whole child rape across state lines thing.
http://www.tbo.com/sports/colleges/grand-jury-report-sandusky-brought-victim-to-outback-bowl-302400
100% agreement on the football front.
Great basketball traditions in both places but just can't get over the hump in football. Man, I would give Barnhart's left arm for a national contending football program.
We are in no way considered a legitimate football program in the eyes of over 99% of the nation. The responsibility for this falls on our AD's and those responsible for their performance.
On the positive side I see some signs things are changing and I attribute that to the up-rising of fans during Joker's final years. Our fans finally voted with their feet and their wallets and a change in attitudes and behavior resulted. We as fans need to keep the pressure on.
On the positive side I see some signs things are changing and I attribute that to the up-rising of fans during Joker's final years. Our fans finally voted with their feet and their wallets and a change in attitudes and behavior resulted. We as fans need to keep the pressure on.
As a UK fan who has lived out of state and in 9 different states for the past 32 years, I can say that this opinion is absolutely true. No one outside the Commonwealth remembers or cares about the "golden years" of Rich Brooks (or even considers those years as "successful"). No one tracks our close losses to UF, UT, and AU. All they know is UK is a BB power without FB success and they assume it is because the fans and admin don't care. Establishing FB as a priority at UK is job 1 for our AD IMO.
I know many are pissed about how the football season ended (rightly so), but I'm guessing MB does care a bit about how the football team performs. Saying otherwise, no matter how emotional you are about it, is simply ignorant. His livelihood is revolving around how well the football team does over the next few years. If things don't get turned around (at a school that has historically sucked, long before MB keep in mind), then he is squarely on the hot-seat, if not out-right fired.
You can be upset with how the year went and that is fine. But to act like MB does not care at all about football is literally ignorant and there's no other way to put it. Let's just all hope MS and company can turn things around. It's easy to continue to ***** and moan about the season, but there are four or five plays that, if they had gone differently, could have resulted in UK having 6 or 7 wins. Personally, I believe that something happened to fracture/divide the team around early/mid October. The performance before then, though against weaker competition, was simply much better than afterwards. The team didn't forget how to play football, but something definitely changed in how they played.
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I get what you are saying and I want the FB program to succeed as much as anyone, but UK is, and always will be, a basketball school in the general public's eyes. That's what happens when you have one of the two most successful college bball programs of all time. Doesn't mean that we can't improve the football program (IMO we have done so in the past several years with facility updates and improved recruiting... it's a small step but a step nonetheless), but UK is a basketball school. Nothing wrong with that as long as money is being put into football as well which, hopefully going forward, it is.
How so? He may one very good hire (Brooks is very good by UK's historical standards), one awful hire, and one we are still up in the air with. Recruiting is better than it has ever been (rankings wise) and there are big improvements to facilities under way. If the team is still failing to get to bowls and appearing to be in one big hot mess in years four and five (if Stoops gets a fifth year), then I would be wiling to bet that MB will be let go.
No matter how many people want to ***** and moan...having a quality, high caliber overall Athletics Department with top notch facilities and student-athletes is important at the top for a change. Barnhart has done that from the ashes of a disgrace (when your damn track facility is considered an OSHA violation and a safety hazard you have serious problems) and his only failure up to this point is the same one everyone else has had: making Kentucky football a consistent winner. Time will tell but time is running out for a lot of folks (myself included) who really, really want a winner. Not just a competitor...a winner.
The difference between us and Kansas is that our football fanbase is much, much larger and much, much more passionate. Our facilities are better. We have a better recruiting base. We're in a part of the country where football is god.
The similarities are that we both have AD's that have football low on their list of priorities and aren't able to hire a good head coach. The whole basketball school excuse is getting old considering what North Carolina, Duke, Michigan State and a long list of other schools have done lately. And please don't tell me about the advantages that those schools have over us because if they have any they're only marginal.
The similarities are that we both have AD's that have football low on their list of priorities and aren't able to hire a good head coach. The whole basketball school excuse is getting old considering what North Carolina, Duke, Michigan State and a long list of other schools have done lately. And please don't tell me about the advantages that those schools have over us because if they have any they're only marginal.
Are you unfamiliar with our history? If not, I suggest you review our season be season records over the last century. 5-7 is essentially considered a success compared to our historical average too.
But it hardly matters. Debating whether UK or KU has the better football program is like debating whether Rosie O'Donnell or Melissa McCarthy has the hotter body.
No, we are not THAT low. Kansas is a complete train wreck. Post Mangino, they haven't been able to get better than 3 win seasons. They went 0-12 this year. I see many bitching about a coordinator as a head coach, they hired a POSITION coach from A&M. Not even a pro position coach, a college position coach. How is that for commitment?
Fans have very little to with changes in athletic concerns. True empty seats speaks to the AD in terms of ascetics, but revenue has already been committed.