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Posted by handycat (Member # 2323) on 09-09-2024, 09:46 AM:

I stole this topic from a FB site. I thought it might be an interesting topic here. Here is my opinion. It didn’t go over well on FB.

I was against the Stoops hire but readily admit he has accomplished more than I anticipated. A lot of people are starting to call for his head. I don’t believe he can take this program to the next level. Unfortunately I don’t think anyone else can either.

We are, and will always be, a basketball school. Majority of our NIL money will go to fund the basketballI program. I also believe this is what our big donors want. I don’t feel our donors have the deep pockets of a lot of big name football schools. I don’t have the statistics to back any of this up, just my believes until someone convinces me otherwise. If true, big problem.

We play in the Sec and will seldom, if ever, compete for a championship. Big problem.

Stoops contract has an unrealistic buy out clause. Another big problem.

Unlike the basketball program, we will never have a chance to get big name players based on our reputations. Big problem.

In short, I feel we should forget replacing Stoops and just limp along with the occasional good season. He may leave on his own in the next couple of years anyway. Rumor has it he wants to coach somewhere that has deep pockets for their football program.

[ 09-09-2024, 10:11 AM: Message edited by: handycat ]

Posted by ukman (Member # 3032) on 09-09-2024, 11:09 AM:

I think Mitch needs to go along with Stoops. Mitch has big screw up when it has come to Cal's contract, and Stoops contract. There is no way Mark Stoops should be making 8.6 mil a year. I believe that's top ten in the country. Stoops has don well enough to fool Mitch into giving him these giant pay raises, and for what? Yes, we will never compete for an SEC championship, but we should be middle of the pack, and should not be paying our current coach this much. For that much money we should be able to get a really good coach who has some creativity on offense.

Posted by Bama Cat (Member # 153) on 09-09-2024, 01:03 PM:

Agree with most everything said. I don't know how you'd convince a top coach to come here. It's like you said, Bear Bryant cleared out when he seen he could never be on pay level of Rupp. Same thing right now, even though we have a young BB coach who will probably do well. BB has the edge, you only have to play 5 kids at a time where you need 22 kids to cover all the starter spots in FB. A little harder to fill the positions with top recruits.

Posted by Tiptree (Member # 844) on 09-10-2024, 09:10 AM:

I hear Nick Saban is available.

Just sayin'

Posted by ukman (Member # 3032) on 09-10-2024, 04:27 PM:

But Bama, our football coach makes almost as much as Cal was. stoops is currently 10th in the nation at about 9 mil a year. I would think we should be able to get a pretty solid coach for that much money. If we are fine being mediocre, then go get a better coach and pay them less. He is not anywhere close to earning his 9 million a year imo. There is no creativity on offense, or defense.

Posted by Trey Ball (Member # 332) on 09-11-2024, 07:39 PM:

handy,

I agree with most of what you said. I would say Stoops got UK to a level, but he has dropped down from the that level the last few years and I don't see him changing his coaching philosophy.

I would rather go with some young energetic, offensive minded coach, and see what happens.

UK is boring to watch play. Boring is ok when you are competitive, but let's face it Stoops has never even been competitive with the upper echelon of the league. Heck even Arkansas/Miss State/etc from time to time beat UGA/Bama/LSU (years when they are good).

Rich Brooks had UK competitive with the upper echelon because he was a true X and O coach. I think people forget that UK beat LSU who went on to win the National Title that year.

Stoops has done great recruiting, but I don't think he can coach his way out of a box. I don't think it is any coincidence that since John Schlarman passed that UK's offensive line has gone down hill fast. Schlarman obviously was a great offensive line coach because he consistently turned out NFL caliber offensive lineman out of 2 and 3 star players.

[ 09-11-2024, 07:44 PM: Message edited by: Trey Ball ]

Posted by handycat (Member # 2323) on 09-12-2024, 07:31 AM:

Trey, I think the answer is for Stoops to pull a Cal. Trouble is, I don’t believe there is an athletic director out there who will pay him that kind of money.

I think ukman may have it right, get rid of Mitch.

[ 09-12-2024, 04:39 PM: Message edited by: handycat ]

Posted by Trey Ball (Member # 332) on 09-12-2024, 06:26 PM:

quote:
Originally posted by handycat:
Trey, I think the answer is for Stoops to pull a Cal. Trouble is, I don’t believe there is an athletic director out there who will pay him that kind of money.

I think ukman may have it right, get rid of Mitch.

Yep....I thought Texas A&M was going to help UK out, but that turned out to not be the case.

Agree on Mitch as well.

Posted by Tiptree (Member # 844) on 09-13-2024, 03:40 PM:

I really think Mitch would be a great assistant AD in charge of non-revenue sports. He has done wonders in those.

But, not so much in football, or basketball, IMO. He has had some pretty bad hires, and when he gets a good one, he overpays and offers them crazy buy-out clauses.

We need a new AD who can elevate our revenue sports to where they can, and should be -- dominant in basketball, and competitive in football (even against the top-tier SEC teams).

Let's see if Stoops can right the ship and make a respectable game against Georgia, and maybe eek out a 6-6 season. If so, maybe somebody will hire him away from us, and we can shop for a new coach.

Last thought: In the world of NIL and the transfer portal, I am not sure what kind of coach we need. It makes everything so unclear that I am pretty much bummed about college sports these days. I went to a talk by Larry Arn, the president of Hillsdale College; a man and an institution I admire. He had a conversation with a very senior person at the NCAA who basically admitted that they have lost control of the big conferences. I don't think that cat will ever go back into the bag, but I expect the NCAA to make some changes that will either restore the game to what it was pre-COVID, or split the college game into a few semi-pro leagues and the rest of the schools.