The Key

[OFortuna]

Re-watching last year's Missouri game, I was struck by the "juice" with which the team appeared to play, and the contrast with later "ho-hum" efforts as the season continued. Even the announcers commented on how they were playing loose and having fun. This, of course, was the game in which Boom didn't play a lot, and after which he "disappeared." From here the season seemed to slowly spiral into dysfunction as it became increasingly evident to everyone that something was terribly wrong within this team.

It is hard to quantify "attitude" in terms of points or wins, but there is no question that a UK team without the undercurrents and divisions of last year should be able to achieve more. Certainly they should be more fun to watch and root for. As amorphous and simplistic as it sounds, I'm going with "attitude" ("leadership," in Stoops' jargon) as the #1 key to success this season, not only in the win column but in terms of fan support and as a crucial building block for a hopeful program.

 

[vhcat70]

It was all Towles fault.

 

[JPFisher]

It was all Towles's hairdo's fault.

Fixed

 

[BlueRaider22]

Nothing solidifies attitude like winning and losing. Win and almost everyone is positive and rowing the boat in the same direction. Lose and everyone points fingers and swims in different directions from the boat.

The last few yrs we sprung out to 5 wins fairly quickly and all was well. But lack of depth and maturity led to a loss or two losses....then everyone jumped ship. They didn't have the leadership, depth, and maturity to pull them through the bad times.

As they say, "time wounds all heals..." We will see....

(And yes, I said that incorrectly on purpose)

 

[rock264]

UK needs to accomplish two objectives in 2016. Defeat the teams it is projected to defeat and win one game it is projected to lose. If there are more desperate struggles against OVC, MAC and or Sunbelt teams, UK will not be able to keep all of key its commits in the fold, no matter how many whirlpools and Barcaloungers they buy. I feel better about the depth and hopefully off-season staff changes put the internecine cancer in remission, but what happens if Barker goes down early?

 

[Mr Schwump]

It was all Towles fault.

Wrong...it was Towels fault.

 

[CB3UK]

I think people need to remember how optimistic we felt even in Stoops first season about how much better we looked even in a 2 win season. Even more so, the night and day improvement in season 2. Last year was a set back...due to whatever happened with Boom, due to new croots wanting Barker and old players wanting Towles, and due to Stoops/Dawson never being on the same page.

Coach Gran and Stoops have clearly gotten Boom ' s mind right (or he's a great bullshitter in interviews... Seemed more mature to me anyway), Barker is the man and the team is not wasting this offseason debating it, and Coach Gran, Hinshaw, Thomas, etc are now on board to help fix the (mostly) unnecessary screw ups on the O from last year.

Will it work out? Well see. But to act like Stoops is oblivious or isn't trying to get the ship back on track is foolish. For my part many of the mistakes that have been made are simply part of being a first time HC. It's not going to go 100% perfect but Coach Stoops has done a damn fine job off the field and I expect we will be back on track and bowling this season (which = a damn fine job when you put us on a football timeline instead of the ignorant expectations the basketball fans have for a turnaround. )

I look at the jobs Spurrier and Mullen did at Carolina and State. Hell, look at what Bielema is up against at Arkansas. Georgia even, with all their embarrassment of riches, can't get to where they expect to be in a very down East.

Tl; dr: I like what the football staff has going on, I expect the ship to get back on course after last year's (almost bowling in spite of) detour, the team needs our support this fall, and get CJ Conrad the damn football.

 

[KingsportKat]

Wrong...it was Towels fault.

....the real reason he transferred. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

 

[Stenchymouse]

You guys are being facetious about Towles, but the fact that the team wouldn't follow him was a big issue.

I don't think that it's necessarily his fault that the team never got behind him, but it DOES reflect on his lack of leadership skills.

When things quit going our way, we needed SOMEONE to step up and lead, and that person is usually the QB...

Depth, leadership, and Melvin Lewis getting hurt kept us from making a bowl last year.

I think we'll win a few that we're not expected to win this year and then many on this board will get all silly and start predicting SEC championships in the future.

 

[OFortuna]

As Blue Raider points out, winning solves most attitude issues. Problem is, we ain't winning all the time (few do). So the question becomes, what happens when things aren't going well? What do we have in the tank (the heart, wherever it is) that sustains us through the bad times? Maturity? New coaches? New leaders? Find that and we have a shot; otherwise we're still talking about potential and "next year" in December.

 

[PTUKBlue]

It was Dawson's fault. How can anyone run the option and never intend to run the QB. CRAZY!!! And especially when you've got a QB in Towles who was our leading rusher the year prior. Dawson was a moron. Terrible hire and mistake by Stoops. Towles is never going to be all world pro style QB, but he wasn't bad as a duel threat. And he always seemed to play a lot better once he'd ran the ball a few times and taken a couple hits. Dawson refused to even use that. Instead he ran option with out ever actually running the QB keeper. Stupid!

 

[LowCountryCat]

You guys are being facetious about Towles, but the fact that the team wouldn't follow him was a big issue.

I don't think that it's necessarily his fault that the team never got behind him, but it DOES reflect on his lack of leadership skills.

When things quit going our way, we needed SOMEONE to step up and lead, and that person is usually the QB...

Depth, leadership, and Melvin Lewis getting hurt kept us from making a bowl last year.

I think we'll win a few that we're not expected to win this year and then many on this board will get all silly and start predicting SEC championships in the future.

Towles wasn't great, but it's hard to lead when you put it on the hands and they drop it constantly.

 

[WeepNoMore]

Gotta disagree on the key. IMHO, the key is whether we have a fundamentally sound football team and a fundamentally sound coaching staff. We were no more fundamentally sound as a team in Coach Stoops' third year than during the Coach Phillips era.

And the in-game coaching wasn't any better either. The only thing Coach Stoops and staff can hang their collective hat on is recruiting. Give them the players Coach Phillips had and they'd be lucky to have won a game.

 

[pikespeak1]

Gotta disagree on the key. IMHO, the key is whether we have a fundamentally sound football team and a fundamentally sound coaching staff. We were no more fundamentally sound as a team in Coach Stoops' third year than during the Coach Phillips era.

And the in-game coaching wasn't any better either. The only thing Coach Stoops and staff can hang their collective hat on is recruiting. Give them the players Coach Phillips had and they'd be lucky to have won a game.

Put down the pipe and slowly back away from the computer.

 

[Poetax]

Wrong...it was Towels fault.

Yeah the real intelligent fans did say that.

 

[OFortuna]

Gotta disagree on the key. IMHO, the key is whether we have a fundamentally sound football team and a fundamentally sound coaching staff. We were no more fundamentally sound as a team in Coach Stoops' third year than during the Coach Phillips era.

And the in-game coaching wasn't any better either. The only thing Coach Stoops and staff can hang their collective hat on is recruiting. Give them the players Coach Phillips had and they'd be lucky to have won a game.

It's impossible to know how much "attitude" issues contributed to last year's failures. Clearly, though, the team we saw beat Missouri was vastly different from the one we watched later on. What's amazing is that we came as close to that elusive 6th (or more) win in spite of ourselves as we did. Maintain an undivided house this year and just play and we'll at least give ourselves a chance to be what we can be. Hell if nothing else it's a reason for some optimism.

 

[Stenchymouse]

Towles wasn't great, but it's hard to lead when you put it on the hands and they drop it constantly.

You're absolutely right, and it seemed that Towles was kinda behind the 8 ball from that beginning.

Some players are mentally strong and are natural leaders...

I don't think that Towles had the special mental makeup to be an exceptional leader.

The other players just never took to him and that's really not debatable.

 

[Levibooty]

Gotta disagree on the key. IMHO, the key is whether we have a fundamentally sound football team and a fundamentally sound coaching staff. We were no more fundamentally sound as a team in Coach Stoops' third year than during the Coach Phillips era.

And the in-game coaching wasn't any better either. The only thing Coach Stoops and staff can hang their collective hat on is recruiting. Give them the players Coach Phillips had and they'd be lucky to have won a game.

I can't agree with this. Joker took a solid foundation that Brooks had built and basically scrapped the staff that had be successful in turning Kentucky around to hire his buddies. His first moves as a head coach even made Brooks mad. I think this years staff may be one of the best staffs Kentucky has had in a long time. Joker took a solid program, not great but solid from Brooks and turn over a completely depleted roster and moribund program to hand over to Stoops. Jokers last year we averaged 11 points a game in the SEC and gave up an average of 36 points. No we were not a fundamentally sound team under Joker and it got progressively worse.

Oh and BTW I was a Joker supporter when he was made HC.

 

[Glenn Fohr]

Yep, some of Towles throws were on the money and the receivers just failed on him. Other times he was behind them or missed them. Shame he couldn't take the Missouri game and put it in a bottle and put it out every Saturday. He was downright All SEC that night. 24 out of 29, two tds, no pics. The auburn game mirrored his career. Great sometimes, awful sometimes. He doesn't throw that pick in the end zone and hits Johnson instead we win. He hits Bone in the flat on the last play of the game we keep the drive alive and possibly tie it. And if Baker catches the throws he dropped against Auburn and Florida we go bowling. Again, the kid lost confidence and the team lost it in him.

 

[VilleCat_rivals377292]

It was Dawson's fault. How can anyone run the option and never intend to run the QB. CRAZY!!! And especially when you've got a QB in Towles who was our leading rusher the year prior. Dawson was a moron. Terrible hire and mistake by Stoops. Towles is never going to be all world pro style QB, but he wasn't bad as a duel threat. And he always seemed to play a lot better once he'd ran the ball a few times and taken a couple hits. Dawson refused to even use that. Instead he ran option with out ever actually running the QB keeper. Stupid!

I think the biggest problem was the Towles/Dawson off the field relationship, they were best friends and the other players hated them.

 

[CatDaddy4daWin]

Last year, I believe, turns out be an anomaly. We have a very good, experienced staff now so most of the issues on offense should be fixed. That was the biggest issue in my mind. We dropped nearly 6 points a game when we should have been improving. That's on Dawson. Add to that a pretty bad oline at times, inconsistent QB, and receivers who did not focus enough, and you've got a recipe for disaster. Yet, a caught interception in UL game, score with 2 opportunities on goalline against Vandy, or a caught TD vs Florida completely changes the projection of the program. That's how close we were to an 8 win season. With all of those issues.

This team is getting more talent and are now full of guys with game experience. I expect us to compete and win games we've lost in the past. A much improved offense will do nothing but help out the defense and the psyche of the entire team.

 

[Anon1712931820]

There's two keys only for this season that determine bowl or no bowl:

1) Most important is Drew Barker
2) How our defensive line stops the run

 

[JPFisher]

There's two keys only for this season that determine bowl or no bowl:

1) Most important is Drew Barker
2) How our defensive line stops the run

2) how our front seven stop the run. It's not so much up to the line to stop the run in a 3-4 as it is in a 4-3.

Our line needs to eat up blockers, and our linebackers need to know the system, shed blocks, and make quick reads. Our run defense hinges a lot on how good our linebackers are and how many reps our starting line can give us.

If the linebackers think too much, run defense falls apart. If the backup line has to come in too often, how effective will they be realistically? I think Dubose, Hyde, Daniel and others can be good reserves this season, but how good?

 

[Anon1712931820]

2) how our front seven stop the run. It's not so much up to the line to stop the run in a 3-4 as it is in a 4-3.

Our line needs to eat up blockers, and our linebackers need to know the system, shed blocks, and make quick reads. Our run defense hinges a lot on how good our linebackers are and how many reps our starting line can give us.

If the linebackers think too much, run defense falls apart. If the backup line has to come in too often, how effective will they be realistically? I think Dubose, Hyde, Daniel and others can be good reserves this season, but how good?

Agree, but the front 3-4 need to clog holes and make it tough on the backs. Any SEC running back that gets a full head of steam on a linebacker who has to be reading which hole and responding is going to win most battles. Should have said also getting pressure on the QB from the front line.

 

[JPFisher]

Agree, but the front 3-4 need to clog holes and make it tough on the backs. Any SEC running back that gets a full head of steam on a linebacker who has to be reading which hole and responding is going to win most battles. Should have said also getting pressure on the QB from the front line.

Should have. At this point, though, I'd be happy if our line just soaked up blockers. That'll be a huge improvement over last season.

 

[WeepNoMore]

I can't agree with this. Joker took a solid foundation that Brooks had built and basically scrapped the staff that had be successful in turning Kentucky around to hire his buddies. His first moves as a head coach even made Brooks mad. I think this years staff may be one of the best staffs Kentucky has had in a long time. Joker took a solid program, not great but solid from Brooks and turn over a completely depleted roster and moribund program to hand over to Stoops. Jokers last year we averaged 11 points a game in the SEC and gave up an average of 36 points. No we were not a fundamentally sound team under Joker and it got progressively worse.

Oh and BTW I was a Joker supporter when he was made HC.

I agree that we were not a fundamentally sound program under Coach Phillips. BUT, my point is that we are no more more fundamentally sound now than we were then. If anything we are less so.

 

[WeepNoMore]

Put down the pipe and slowly back away from the computer.

:sunglasses:[roll]:sunglasses: :sunglasses:[roll]:sunglasses: :sunglasses:[roll]:sunglasses: :sunglasses:[roll]:sunglasses: :sunglasses:[roll]:sunglasses: