It’s a well known story told in Lexington that the Bear left when he realized UK would always be a bball school. The story is that after their best football season ever he was given a gold watch. The same year, Adolph Rupp got a new Cadillac. The account is disputed but Bryant said “ATM here I come.”
the Stoops family has done nothing BUT back down from challenges “Big Game Bob” is literally slang for sucking hind tit in big moments, and it came from his insistence at ducking bigger jobs for the comfort of Norman, Oklahoma and exactly ONE big challenge annually at the Texas State Fair. lil bro has stayed at UK to continue basking in the unending admiration of a football fan base so starved for success they practically define mediocrity. plus, they have slimy Miami ties.
Bob Stoops is the reason we got our first Natty. The Gators went 32-5 during the three seasons that Stoops coached under Spurrier.
The Stoops brothers are solid football coaches. I believe Mark has done well at UK and that success has been achieved through hard work and a willingness to “stay the course”. His teams are defined by toughness at both lines of scrimmage, scrappy defense and an offense that is not exactly innovative but, just effective enough to win games. I also think he is allowing dirty play to become part of his teams mojo. As I said, he was at FSU immediately after the Bowden/Andrews regime which was continued by Jimbo. “You lay down with dogs, you wake up with fleas”.
Another one of his tricks is to incessantly whine at the refs for the first half of a game until the refs give in and start calling ticky-tacky fouls on us. He's just a whiny fat man that uses every psychological trick, and dirty plays, he's picked up from the worst coaching in college football. Don't believe me, watch him closely the next time we play that fat ba$ta&rd.
Interesting thread. My "whine" of course is that my son and I went down to G-ville for the KY game. I was SO SURE after Utah that UF / AR and the season ahead would be wonderful. Not so. The second half of KY was one of the biggest SHOCKS I ever experienced as a Gator fan. AR could not hit a second half pass if KY's defense left the field. One of the most pathetic QB peformances I have seen at UF since the CHUMP or Mac Butter Teeth days. All I could tell my poor kid on the drive home was - 'It's going to be a long tough season". OK, back on topic - Football is cyclical. Perhaps less so now with the very top programs but for most squads it still is. We beat KY what? 32 - 33 straight or something crazy? Gee, a statistician could probably tell you that, eventually, KY would adjust that "Graph" curve, at least a bit. Regarding the tit for tat between Uftaipan and The Player - I do not disagree with Uftaipan that an SEC championship may be out of KY's (Stoops) grasp. UGA, BAMA, - Then a second tier of UF, UT, TAMU, LSU and so forth, thats a tough mountain to climb. Could UK / Stoops win the conference title? I would say YES with the proviso that Stoops will have to up his recruiting game BIG TIME. Given that UKs annual recruitiing rankings are outside the top 10 and often outside the top 20, it will be very difficult for UK to ascend to the top of the SEC. Conversely, it's hard to deny that Stoops has not elevated the KY program significantly.
I agree with your statement but historically speaking, even the greatest programs: Bama Oklahoma Ohio State Notre Dame Michigan It was not that long ago we were mocking Alabama............. More recently: USC trojans down Clemson down Miami down UF down FSU down Nebraska way down, as in bums UT just got off life support LSU nuttin special since Burrow Texas "Meh" to quote our very own "Marine Dentist" lol UGA - Great now but it took 40 years between titles. Yes it is cyclical, IMO of course.
Just like Miami and FSU view us. The latter looking forward to beating us (again) on our homefield this year. Hire the right coaches and get (pay) the right players and we won't be run over.
I'd love to drink the Kool Aid but we have little-to-nothing to counter their mobile QB with. And there's a real likelihood that the FSU coach is better organized and can outwit ours.
Norvell doesn’t exactly strike fear in my heart. FSU had one of those years where a lot went right for them. If I’m not mistaken Syracuse went to Hell a game or two before FSU played them. NC State had significant injures before playing them and still beat them. In the opening game LSU played terrible and FSU had the advantage of getting a few kinks out playing mighty Duquesne the week before. We played them pretty even and had a chance to tie/win at games end but…. We will atone for that this year. FSU improved last year but with their schedule I can’t put a lot of stock into that. They wouldn’t have fared as well with our schedule. I’ll stick with our guy for now, Player. You can have Norvell.
Why would you say that? We love our Coach at Kentucky, as do the players. I had no idea this would get press. I’m glad he got on to them because evidently they needed a wake up call. I’m expecting us to be pretty good, but I guess we will all find out.
I don't want Norvell and I'll never root for him. But I need to see results from [Coach Napier] in terms of game-planning, clock management and hiring the right people (like an OC) to do the job.