Who should the (Big Blue) Wildcats schedule (future) OOC?
- Thread starter 12375CAT
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Maryland or Virginia. Both are power 5 and both have fertile recruiting grounds.
I like the idea if rotating Indiana, Duke, UNC and Kansas. We already have a natural rivalry with these schools from the basketball side of things. If the Stoops experiment works out, we should be able to beat any of these schools on a regular basis by the 2017 season. It would be a win over a respectable P5 opponent and would help our power ranking come bowl selection time. OTOH, the occasional loss to one of these schools that is having a good season won't hurt so bad as long as it doesn't knock us of out of bowl contention. But....first things first, we have to become a consistent 7+ win program.
I like a 2 year rotation of Home and Home with Duke / UNC / Iowa / Maryland or Virginia
Bring back Indiana, at least on a semi-regular basis. Often great games, was the best (only competitive?) football rivalry we had for a generation ... and now both programs need each other to full up their stadiums.
I like teams that could be basketball rivals as well:
Indiana
Kansas
West Virginia
Indiana
Kansas
West Virginia
Duke and UNC are no where near the level of Indiana or Kansas. Duke is 27-`13 the last 3 years and UNC won 11 games last year. If they retain their present coaches they aren't a pushover for any team. UNC played Clemson to a single score game in the ACC championship last year.
I said they were respectable but most years they would be no better than mid pack in the SEC. I expect UK to be a little better than mid pack most years. We are obviously not there right now but I am looking ahead. If we lose to an 11 win team, so be it. We just need to beat the Vandy, Miss St, USC, UofL and Mizzou's of the world on a consistent basis. Our goal should be to be a top 15 program. We will lose 3 or 4 games to other top 15 programs that we will play. I would like to be close to the level of your Dawgs but a whole lot more consistent. UGA has the infrastructure to be top 3 in the East every year. I would like UK to also be top 3 most years.
I personally would rather not see basketball rivals at football games, it just means the announcers will spend more time talking about basketball then football, which is not the message we are trying to set. Football needs to establish it's own identity.
I get what you are saying but the truth of the matter is that we are the number one basketball school in the country. Many times over the years that has worked against the the football program. This, however, is a chance for us to use our basketball success to actually put our football program in the spotlight. You have to use every tool available when you are clawing your way to the top. This a good tool in my opinion.
We haven't had a winning record in the SEC in almost 40 seasons. But here's hoping!
Right now, Duke and UNC have very good coaches, not elite but very good, Cutciffe isn't going anywhere I think he is home, but Fedora might be getting a call from Baylor at the end of the year, no idea if he would leave or not. NC is a good recruiting area, it can't support the 4 P5 teams instate, but they have several very good players every year. Most years Duke is probably mid level SEC, but UNC might have won the East last year and might be good enough to win it again this year.
Richt was good enough to be top 3 in the East almost every year, but when you are picked to win it and finish top 3 it isn't good. Bottom line its why he is no longer our coach. I don't know how well Kirby will do as a head coach, naturally I hope he is pretty good at it. But he has more excitement in the program with the players, fans and recruits than we have had in 25 years. He has to produce some wins to keep it, I don't expect more than 9 and that's with a bowl win because of our qb situation, either a true frosh or a bad qb isn't good for wins. But if he managed to get to 10, it will keep our recruiting class together and we will be very good in 17.
If a second OOC opponent is to be a P5 team than I would prefer a mid tier B10 or B12 team - Northwestern, Iowa, West Virginia, Texas Tech. Personally since we already have Louisville as an OOC team I would rather keep three non-P5 teams right now, two of which preferably cupcakes/money games.
Until we get to where we can play at or near .500 in the SEC (no small feat for us given our history), we should schedule FBSs teams that we can beat.
This topic pops up every few months and the answer is still the same. Because our conference schedule is so difficult our only option is to play 3 cupcakes and 1 decent P5 team. So, your choice is to either play UofL every season, or change up opponents every year. It does us no good to consider any other scenarios. It's the same pattern that essentially every other SEC team follows. This is not a situation where we want to be the exception to the rule.
I'd like to see IU back our schedule. When playing in Bloomington there was just as much Blue as Red in the stands!
Bring back Indiana both home and away.
Get a couple of years with Kansas.
Play Duke
Play Maryland
Get a couple of years with Kansas.
Play Duke
Play Maryland
I liked some of the older opponents like IU, WVU, VT.
Wished we could play at a level to go into tOSU, PSU, Michigan without getting our heads handed to us if that's the areas we are gonna recruit.
UVA might be fun with Bronco there. Wouldn't mind seeing Navy but I'm sure CMS would hate preparing for them.
Heck schedule a WSU-U Hawaii during fall break.
One of the things that I respected about Howard Schnellenberger when he was rebuilding the school down the road was he took that team anywhere to play anyone - like UT in Neyland even though they had no business there at the time. They didn't back down. They took their lumps but they didn't back down.
I know we have to be realistic and schedule for six wins, etc but it would be nice to get to a level to schedule some interesting combos.
Wished we could play at a level to go into tOSU, PSU, Michigan without getting our heads handed to us if that's the areas we are gonna recruit.
UVA might be fun with Bronco there. Wouldn't mind seeing Navy but I'm sure CMS would hate preparing for them.
Heck schedule a WSU-U Hawaii during fall break.
One of the things that I respected about Howard Schnellenberger when he was rebuilding the school down the road was he took that team anywhere to play anyone - like UT in Neyland even though they had no business there at the time. They didn't back down. They took their lumps but they didn't back down.
I know we have to be realistic and schedule for six wins, etc but it would be nice to get to a level to schedule some interesting combos.
I know these would never happen for financial reasons, but I would love to play a decent school at a neutral site:
UC at Paul Brown Stadium
Purdue in Indianapolis
For a home and home series, I would enjoy seeing the following teams:
Purdue
Northwestern
Iowa
Iowa State
Illinois
Georgia Tech
Virginia
Maryland
Syracuse
NC State
Colorado
UC at Paul Brown Stadium
Purdue in Indianapolis
For a home and home series, I would enjoy seeing the following teams:
Purdue
Northwestern
Iowa
Iowa State
Illinois
Georgia Tech
Virginia
Maryland
Syracuse
NC State
Colorado
Everybody wants to build the program but scheduling as many cupcakes as you can is not the way to do it unless you're happy with mediocre teams every year. UK vs UL is not going away anytime soon due to the SEC-ACC rivalry schedule. Just get better and beat them.
You think so eh? That isn't the way UL built their program. I can't stand UL but you have to admit they built a program and didn't go through a meat grinder in doing so.
1 respectable non Div1 school
1 respectable non power 5
1 of Va. Tech, Arizona, Maryland, WVU
1 Military academy
1 respectable non power 5
1 of Va. Tech, Arizona, Maryland, WVU
1 Military academy
They also were playing at a different level as far as recruiting and facilities went than an SEC team was, but they were able to win against similar competition and work their way up. Whether through apathy, mismanagement or negligence UK has always squandered their opportunity to enjoy the benefits an SEC membership brings.
In any case Kentucky will not be playing a bunch of cupcakes as long as they are a member of the SEC and almost all the SEC has a long history of playing teams far beneath their level in their OOC schedules. Why don't we get use to a winning record before we start talking about making our schedule harder?
Anyone we can beat. Heaven only knows where they will come from.
This from a life long fan which probably explains my attitude.
This from a life long fan which probably explains my attitude.