Yesterday I asked rhetorically how Kentucky could expect to do better with another coach replacing Mark Stoops, but that was before I stumbled across this:
Jeebus. And this was a guy who was considered to be a defensive guru when they brought him on board. When you’re worse than Joker Phillips in your area of supposed expertise, then, yeah, it’s fair to ponder the alternatives.
Get The Picture 
Kentucky can’t play defense, and Vanderbilt can’t play offense. This is like a rule. Kentucky is occasionally allowed a good offense and Vandy a good defense, but that is as far as the football gods will be pressed on this matter.
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Kentucky’s defense would be worse, much worse, if they had to play a Big XII schedule.
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Danny Kanell promotes this statement.
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When you are in a low talent state, you really have no chance. Sure, Stoops goes into Ohio, Florida and Georgia and picks up a few players, but most of those are the P5 leftovers. No one chooses a Kentucky hat in a football signing day ceremony.
For a 2nd or 3rd tier P5 program, the Duke blueprint under Cutcliffe is the pattern to follow. Put together an excellent staff, find players who fit your philosophy and have a good upside, and develop the hell out of them. Cut has done more at Duke than anyone could have imagined when he took that job. Why schools like Kentucky and Vanderbilt haven’t copied that pattern is beyond me.
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Good comment. The Kentuckys, Vandys, Wakes, etc. have to work everything from a different angle (without going to a scheme like GT and boxing themselves into a corner.)
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That’s a great point. The trade school took a completely different approach with Fish Fry. Now they are going to have to pay the piper when they run Johnson off or he decides to retire. Unless his successor comes from the triple option school, he is going to have to rebuild the roster completely (especially on offense). That ain’t going to be easy.
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He’s raised the level of Kentucky football. They would be foolish to let this coach go. Believe that he will eventually leave for a better job and will be successful.
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Leaving the vet. Going home, grabbing the other crew, heading to Nancy’s.
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Lol, that post was supposed to be a text to my wife. Go Dawgs.
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Glad it was a clean one.
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You mean you don’t know what “grabbing the other crew, heading to Nancy’s” really means?
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It makes more sense than some of the posts I see.
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Wins and losses matter more than STATS!!! Stoops is 2 games under .500 the last four years. That’s not bad for kentucky.
Notwithstanding STATS!!! UK’s w-l record regressed each and every year under joker: 6-7, 5-7, 2-10.
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Joker Phillips was pretty bad, but it’s not like Stoops has elevated the program much. Phillips went 6-7 and 5-7 in his first two years before he cratered in year three. Putting his first year aside, Stoops has gone 5-7, 5-7, 7-5 and 7-5. And last year’s 7-5 was one of the uglier I’ve seen, as even with pretty favorable turnover luck, they still struggled to beat Southern Miss, Eastern Kentucky, Eastern Michigan and Missouri. I don’t know if Kentucky fans should expect to do much better than make bowl games every other year, but shouldn’t they at least try to be better than around .500?
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And should’ve been 8-4 and ended a 30 year drought had the “defensive guru” just put a corner on the same side of the field as a Florida receiver… and not just once but TWICE!!!
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Remember when the name Stoops was synonymous with stout defense……….?
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So apparently, “Stoops” and “good defense” just don’t go together.
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Cut the guy some slack. He’s HC at Kentucky—not Bama.
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Or Oklahoma’s DC.
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