RE: Is Mark Stoops' seat warm?
I agree with the OP. it's easy for the outside observer, especially our SEC brethren who have seen lots and lots of lousy UK teams over the years, see a 7-5 type team with improved recruiting and think, "why UK would be crazy to let him go, this is as good as they've been in forever!" - but as a lifelong UK fan, and a very close observer of every single game they play, I can tell you that Stoops is an absolutely atrocious head football coach. Yes, recruiting has been vastly improved under him, and I appreciate that, but all it does in the end when you don't have the coaching to go with the talent, is just have even more frustrating losses like last night.
It is absolutely indefensible to lose that game last night with UK fans as high and up as we've been in forever, in the matter it was lost, with not one, but TWO wide open receivers catching TDs in a relatively low-scoring game, and both those plays came OUT OF TIMEOUTS. And it isn't even the first time that's happened in a game to us - Vandy crushed us in a game a few years ago that included a couple similar boneheaded, inexcusable breakdowns like that. Those are the plays people will remember, but he did some other stupid things, burning timeouts when he shouldn't, and taking two to halftime when he could have called one to help set up a better, non-rushed FG attempt before the gun from a kicker who rarely misses from that distance - in a one-point loss, yeah, that made a difference.
Listen, I am a lifelong Bengals fan in the NFL too (can you imagine following the Bengals and UK football your whole life?) and I have seen some awful football on the field, and maddening sideline stuff. Mark Stoops is about as bad as I've ever seen when it comes to stuff like clock management, getting alignments right on the field, etc. And that's coming from someone who's watched Marvin Lewis on Sundays, on a weekly basis for the last 15 years.
OP is absolutely correct about the schedule. I know it seems funny given our history to say, "UK should go 10-2" with this schedule, but it's absolutely true, imo. When will we ever have the schedule we do this year? The stars have aligned for about as good a schedule as we're ever gonna have - 8 home games, including some "Swing" games on paper, the games versus Florida, Tennessee, Louisville, all at home. Of the four SEC road games we have, three of them on paper, were considered to be very winnable (Vanderbilt, South Carolina and Mississippi State - I realize MsSt looks better than most people thought, and Vandy does for that matter, yesterday's game notwithstanding, but still, certainly three games that UK has a real chance in). In addition to our annual game with State, our other SEC West team we happened to draw this year - Ole Miss. In Lexington. Certainly a winnable game.
if there is EVER a time we could EVER go 9-3 or 10-2, and for heaven's sake, actually ONE TIME EVER win the SEC East, this could have been it. I know we aren't Georgia or Florida or Tennessee, but I mean, if South Carolina and Missouri can win the SEC East, why can't we? Just ONE TIME. (I am not disrespecting my Gamecock and Mizzou brothers, I am just saying - no reasons UK can't ever have a year like those programs have). Yeah, it's just two games into SEC, but the home loss to Florida, with a road game against UGa on the schedule, has pretty much extinguished whatever long odds we may have had at winning the East. About as crushing as a September loss can be, imo.
Everyone knows about the 31-game losing streak to Florida. But an absolutely staggering stat they shared last night as well, is it has been FORTY YEARS - 1977 - since UK started 2-0 in SEC play. Isn't that mindblowing? I mean winning two games in a row in league to start the year - it shouldn't take a Herculean effort to do that one time in 40 years.
Too many people have too low expectations for our football that they are glad to be closer in games,and have pretty good recruiting classes, I am afraid. We have a chicken little AD who gets way too much credit for a hire he never made (Barnhart did not even hire John Calipari), and his hires have been Joker Phillips and Billy Gillispie and giving out way too early or undeserved extensions to Tubby Smith and Stoops in this case, in addition to way overpaying a women's basketball coach who has yet to make a Final Four, and running off a great baseball coach after breaking many promises to him about facilities. But I DIGRESS.
Some of my SEC brothers, give me something to daydream about - if UK did let Stoops go, who would be a realistic hire that maybe has some sideline coaching acumen that could give us long-suffering fans hope??
|