I still believe Stoops gets this program turned around. We just need our young guys to mature into men. Just going to take time. We are close.
Still fully support Stoops....
- Thread starter RLSmith
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I agree with you, but we can't have losses like the Vanderbilt loss. They started a true freshman at QB and a true soph at RB and are not markedly more experience than us, and they are certainly not markedly more talented.
Close to what? Not to take a whiz on your post but seriously close to what, beating EKU in regulation?
I still support him, but my support is fading. We aren't close, we are regressing. Next year will be the barometer year.
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We are going backwards, circling the toilet bowl as this season goes down the drain. What are we close to? Polishing off another crappy season of football futility?
I had a bad feeling when we couldn't put away ULL early in the season, which was confirmed when we eeeked our way past EKU.
Larry, Moe, and Curly along with Lloyd Christmas would make a better coaching staff at this point.
I had a bad feeling when we couldn't put away ULL early in the season, which was confirmed when we eeeked our way past EKU.
Larry, Moe, and Curly along with Lloyd Christmas would make a better coaching staff at this point.
Turn it around to what extent? 6-6 and 7-5? Yeah, I can see that. The delusions of anything more probably need to be put to rest IMO. The guy is not a good coach. That doesn't mean he cannot get better, and cannot get us to bowl games in coming seasons (maybe even this one), but he is not going to outcoach guys who have better players...that much is a given.
The goal this season was to make a bowl, we beat charlotte and have UL at home with a chance to go bowling. Anyone predicting a 10-2 season was just plain stupid. Stoops has a long ways to go but to think midway through yr 3 we were going to look like Bama is just ignorant. Do people remember the dumpster fire he took over? As far as the Vanderbilt game goes, Vandy did just go TO FLORIDA and basically shut them down. And that freshman QB is a bigtime QB...he is better than Towles right now. Stoops cant make Towles accurate. We will be fine, just need to become grown men.
The coaching has been pretty abysmal to say the least. Really disappointing. Would be utterly shocked if he somehow became succesful. He doesn't look to be cut out for the head coaching position. He's one of the worst there is to be honest as far as coaching goes.
I'd like to address your comments. I respect Charlotte but this is their first year in D-1 football. I believe we're about a 24 point favorite. To win that game shows nothing. UL is very average but if we beat them I'll admit it would be helpful. Calling people stupid and ignorant on a message board doesn't give a person a lot of credibility and I don't think too many people predicted 10-2 and I can guarantee you no one compared us to Alabama. Yes Stoops did take over a mess but you can't compare the Florida / Vandy game to the UK / Vandy game. Hell, we almost beat Florida so no need to go there. Saying that another QB is better than Towles isn't saying much at this point since Stoops just benched Towles in favor of Barker. You say we'll be fine ? I hope you're right but you're in the large minority right now so saying that "we'll be fine" is much easier said than done.
I too think he can still get things going. But, my goodness, has he made the road much harder for himself than he needed to. If I'm a defensive coach.......turned first time HC........my first order of business is to make sure that the OC and ST coaches are extremely strong and veteran. I don't want to have to step in and worry about those postions.
I want Stoops to do well here, and I think it's starting to cloud my judgment a little too much.
I still have confidence in Stoops and his staff, but I agree with the poster above, he has certainly made it a lot harder. Overall the team is in better shape talent wise than in recent past. I hope the coaching staff has learned from this season.
The mistakes that were made in Vandy game can be corrected, I think we can win the game with Charlotte and still have the incentive to go to bowl game by beating Louisville. We need to regroup and put the Vandy game behind us.
Its going to take a while folks
He has lost a lot of people, myself included. The question is if he can get them back. If he doesn't make some changes to his staff this off-season, that will be the straw that broke the camel's back. He made poor choices on a number of his hires.
An inexperienced head coach should have known to surround himself with experienced coaches. If you owned a company, would you bring in someone to run your company that has no experience at that level of management and let him promote a bunch of low level supervisors into upper management? That just seems to be asking for your company to fail.
An inexperienced head coach should have known to surround himself with experienced coaches. If you owned a company, would you bring in someone to run your company that has no experience at that level of management and let him promote a bunch of low level supervisors into upper management? That just seems to be asking for your company to fail.
Still like Stoops, but he has definitely made some coaching blunders this year...in years past we were so bad that I don't think he even thought about the 50/50 type calls (4th and 1, always a punt...etc)...now that he thinks he has some talent, he has made some poor aggressive choices.
I think he needs to do everything he can to bring in his brother Mike as an experienced right hand man...I would also figure out what exactly I wanted with an offense...then pick a decently experienced coordinator...Dawson is simply not a good play caller, and hasn't out schemed any defense yet.
I think he needs to do everything he can to bring in his brother Mike as an experienced right hand man...I would also figure out what exactly I wanted with an offense...then pick a decently experienced coordinator...Dawson is simply not a good play caller, and hasn't out schemed any defense yet.
Literally couldn't have worded stoops coaching miscues better.. The fact he messed up hiring all these guys. Shows how clueless he is he seriously wanted a staff with zero experience at their current positions. It was pretty much a guaranteed recipe for failure. But the real question is.... Why even try that? Free coaching opportunities in the SEC for everybody who wants one? You do? Ok come on down! Let's all try and be good at something we've never done before in the most difficult football conference in the country at the same time who's in?
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If he bunkers down and makes no changes to his staff, he is done. If he conducts a critical thorough evaluation of every aspect of his program, especially including himself, and makes significant staff changes to bring in experienced coaches, he has a slim chance.
If he makes significant changes to staff, I think he has more than a slim chance. The roster will have talent, and that talent will be experienced enough to win. He needs an offensive playcaller and schemer, and he needs a right hand man (experienced) to be a figure head for the defense and to keep his game management/decisions in check.
Maybe gg. Unfortunately, I think he may be too stubborn to admit that he needs to make changes and needs to listen to someone more experienced.
Was thinking the same thing after my post...you know that man is stubborn!
Like I said earlier - his brother Mike - former head coach, now assistant at OK, who is playing great ball and knows how to win. Stoops would trust him and would be an easy transition...but can Mark make the tough decisions and let go some of his boys? Hope so
Me too. I really like Stoops, but you articulated my exact concerns.
We can not change offenive coordinators every year and be successful. We have had three the past four years. We need some kind of stability. We gripe about not being consistent on offense, and we want to change again. Hard to be consistent when everything changes every year. First we recruited to randy Shannon's needs, then Browns, and now Dawson wants a certain type of player. We need at least a three year consitency.
"We" also cannot keep one that hasn't got an eff'n clue what he's doing. Next game you go to, I ask you to watch Dawson on the sidelines.
What could any offensive coordinator call with a back who only runs east and west, a line that can't get a push on run plays, a line that gives up more sacks than anyone in the sec, recievers who have important drops for six or first downs every game. Qb who run scared because they are looking for un impeded blitzes, with terrible field positions because special teams give up at least 100 hidden yards a game with bad field position.
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At least Dawson had a play chart/sheet on the sidelines vs. Vandy...hadn't seen one with him until that game!
Did better without one. It was probably just a take-out menu anyhow...At least Dawson had a play chart/sheet on the sidelines vs. Vandy...hadn't seen one with him until that game!
Wouldn't you think an OC that stays on the sidelines would at least talk to the QB when the D is on the field? Talk to his OL coach and/or RB coach? Interact with someone?
He would be much better off up in the booth...at least we would only be complaining about his play calls!
I've been in the same mind frame as many of you these past few weeks mainly because like many of you I'm a long suffering football fan who has waited so long just for us to be relevant in college football. As bad as we've always been, there is no other fan base in America that is as passionate about being better than us. None.
That said I've had time to reflect on my discontent this past week and I've decided I'm going to stick with Coach and here's why . . .
1. No matter how mad we are about his shortcomings so far, the fact is he's not doing them on purpose just to piss us off. He wants this thing to succeed as much as we do and he was just as excited with his early efforts (recruiting etc) as were and Id say is just as dismayed at the current let down as we are. Whatever we want to accuse him of, it's not a lack effort or lack of enthusiasm for the job.
2. We all are bent to let the latest occurrences frame the total outlook on anything. Yep the current outlook looks bad as far Coach and his staffs ability to actually game coach, or develop talent. But is was just a few short months ago we were all on top of the world thinking this may be the most optimistic time in the history of this program to be around it because of the unprecedented way he was bringing in recruits and building a base for the future. And he was just as excited about and believes that too, that's why he says just wait. I'm not sure it's fair to completely highlight the shortcomings and let them completely erase the positives that are still there. The loss to Vandy does not undo 3 straight high level classes of recruits for us.
3. The shortcomings that are all too glaring, as bad as they seem, are all fixable things. He and his staff are still young coaches. This doesn't mean some changes aren't needed, but what I'm saying is coaches like players can get better and Coach Stoops needs to work on getting better at what he does. And again, I don't think for one minute he doesn't know that and will bust his butt to do it. He knows he has to be a better manager, he knows he has to be a better teacher of details, he knows he has to be better at game calls and adjustments.
I know we all want him and the team to be better right now and in many ways they should be. But a bad run like we've seen these past 5 weeks doesn't mean they can't fix it or it will never happen, especially when we know he has worked miracles in the area most coaches have never been able to fix and that's talent level. Seems like knowing that we need to give him and the staff the chance to fix the other things that can certainly more easily be fixed with some work.
I'm not sure Id feel this way if I didn't deep down feel like he's still the guy we all were all in with just a few months ago. He's still a good guy that is excited as hell to be here, he's still the guy that came in with a vision to finally change our program, and he's still the guy that started his job by doing what none of us though he could do and make us relevant on the recruiting trail.
That said I've had time to reflect on my discontent this past week and I've decided I'm going to stick with Coach and here's why . . .
1. No matter how mad we are about his shortcomings so far, the fact is he's not doing them on purpose just to piss us off. He wants this thing to succeed as much as we do and he was just as excited with his early efforts (recruiting etc) as were and Id say is just as dismayed at the current let down as we are. Whatever we want to accuse him of, it's not a lack effort or lack of enthusiasm for the job.
2. We all are bent to let the latest occurrences frame the total outlook on anything. Yep the current outlook looks bad as far Coach and his staffs ability to actually game coach, or develop talent. But is was just a few short months ago we were all on top of the world thinking this may be the most optimistic time in the history of this program to be around it because of the unprecedented way he was bringing in recruits and building a base for the future. And he was just as excited about and believes that too, that's why he says just wait. I'm not sure it's fair to completely highlight the shortcomings and let them completely erase the positives that are still there. The loss to Vandy does not undo 3 straight high level classes of recruits for us.
3. The shortcomings that are all too glaring, as bad as they seem, are all fixable things. He and his staff are still young coaches. This doesn't mean some changes aren't needed, but what I'm saying is coaches like players can get better and Coach Stoops needs to work on getting better at what he does. And again, I don't think for one minute he doesn't know that and will bust his butt to do it. He knows he has to be a better manager, he knows he has to be a better teacher of details, he knows he has to be better at game calls and adjustments.
I know we all want him and the team to be better right now and in many ways they should be. But a bad run like we've seen these past 5 weeks doesn't mean they can't fix it or it will never happen, especially when we know he has worked miracles in the area most coaches have never been able to fix and that's talent level. Seems like knowing that we need to give him and the staff the chance to fix the other things that can certainly more easily be fixed with some work.
I'm not sure Id feel this way if I didn't deep down feel like he's still the guy we all were all in with just a few months ago. He's still a good guy that is excited as hell to be here, he's still the guy that came in with a vision to finally change our program, and he's still the guy that started his job by doing what none of us though he could do and make us relevant on the recruiting trail.
My support for coach Stoops has never wavered. I still think he has the right plan in place for UK to succeed. But not getting a couple yards on the goal line against Vandy showed me that our OL is truly horrid and no plan will succeed without at least a decent OL. That's why I believe Stoops should seriously look at getting another OL coach after the season. After looking around a possible replacement could be Greg Studrawa from Maryland. He has SEC experience coaching at LSU from 2007 to 2013 and he recruits Ohio were he's originally from. I don't know if he would be a possibility or even if a change will be made but I do know something needs to happen. The OL play needs corrected immediately if this team wants to compete in the SEC.
How many years does it take for those young men to mature?Some have been at UK three,four ,and five years,three of which have been with Stoops,and no sign yet of that maturity(?) you are looking four.
Can't understand why thoughtful fans continue apologizing for UK's poor choices in football coaches.People did it for Ray,Curry,Claiborn,Mumme,Phillips ,and now Stoops.If a coach can't put a competitive team on the field in three years,then they should be on their way out.
Here's the thing: The dudes from Stoops' first complete recruiting class are RS Freshman and sophomores...he deserves to see them to their 3rd or 4th years in the program. I do think he needs to make changes around him or he will have a tougher time seeing that 5th year.
This doesn't excuse the pathetic coaching from the Vandy game though. The players were 3 TDs better than Vandy.