Tennessee Volunteers
- Thread starter gojvc
- Start date
UK/TN is a sports rivalry, but hasn't been a football rivalry since the 1980s because of massive ineptitude on UK's part.
I went to a few UK/TN basketball games in Knoxville in the 1980s that were extremely competitive, intense affairs. UK's commitment to football was already in decline at that time, but since the mid-1980s, UT has focused on football and UK focused on basketball. That's nearly 2 generations of fans that don't know consistently competitive contests between these teams in either sport.
I went to a few UK/TN basketball games in Knoxville in the 1980s that were extremely competitive, intense affairs. UK's commitment to football was already in decline at that time, but since the mid-1980s, UT has focused on football and UK focused on basketball. That's nearly 2 generations of fans that don't know consistently competitive contests between these teams in either sport.
LOL if you think Tennessee was loaded when Dooley left. Butch took over the worse roster in 40 years at Tennessee.
And that was 10 times the talent UK had when Stoops took over. Cracks me up to listen to UT fans ***** about top 20 classes when UK was hanging out with 1-AA teams in class rankings.
Over half of the players on them top 20 classes left or got kicked out. At one time in Jones first year we where starting 3 walkons on defense. Cracks me up that people look at recruiting rankings and automatically assume Tennessee was loaded. A perfect example is Tennessee in Jones first 2 years started the most freshman in the NCAA but we where loaded with players. LOL
I would agree with PowellVolz, I think UT was a lot closer to UK in talent than many people know or would care to believe. You could look at the players on the field (for both teams) and see they weren't really SEC quality players. They were tiny in comparison to the players on the other teams.
That's not to say UT wasn't marginally ahead of UK in terms of talent, I believe that UT had enough talent to put them ahead of UK by about a year in each team's respective rebuilds. UK made marginal improvements from Year 1 to Year 2, just as UT did. But, I think it would be very difficult for any objective person to say that UK made any meaningful progress from Year 2 to Year 3--and there should have been. The schedule was friendlier, the Division was weaker, Stoops had more of his own players on the field.
IMHO, there are two areas where Stoops has underperformed, if not downright failed at times in the past: 1) bringing in the best coaches he could find and 2) in-game management. Particularly #1 is hurtful to UK's progress. I think Stoops made a really risky (and what proved to be a bad decision) in hiring Dawson. I also think he has made a terrible decision for 3 years in keeping DJ Eliot around when he has done nothing to warrant being the DC at a Power 5 school and its shown on the field with a defense that has been mediocre if not downright awful at times. A third example of Stoops poor choices in his staff is his failure to have a Special Teams Coordinator and that has certainly been to UK's detriment.
That's not to say UT wasn't marginally ahead of UK in terms of talent, I believe that UT had enough talent to put them ahead of UK by about a year in each team's respective rebuilds. UK made marginal improvements from Year 1 to Year 2, just as UT did. But, I think it would be very difficult for any objective person to say that UK made any meaningful progress from Year 2 to Year 3--and there should have been. The schedule was friendlier, the Division was weaker, Stoops had more of his own players on the field.
IMHO, there are two areas where Stoops has underperformed, if not downright failed at times in the past: 1) bringing in the best coaches he could find and 2) in-game management. Particularly #1 is hurtful to UK's progress. I think Stoops made a really risky (and what proved to be a bad decision) in hiring Dawson. I also think he has made a terrible decision for 3 years in keeping DJ Eliot around when he has done nothing to warrant being the DC at a Power 5 school and its shown on the field with a defense that has been mediocre if not downright awful at times. A third example of Stoops poor choices in his staff is his failure to have a Special Teams Coordinator and that has certainly been to UK's detriment.