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todd said...
I just hope we can start to atleast perform like a SEC team once the season starts... Some of you can say what you want but we should never loose by 40 to SC or 30 to Vandy, period. It's fine to disagree about Mitch, I think everyone is right to a degree. Mitch has done some good things for football but the truth is it doesn't compare to other schools at or near the bottom like UK is. Mitch has said many times that "We can pay any coach's salary" Mitch has also said that "We could pay our bills if the State would Bond us" (I know that's not exactly what he said I can't remember all the fancy words he used).
Since Mitch can't get UK top flight facilities through state bonding yet, he does need to do all the band-aids possible like upping the recruiting budget, upping the marketing and doing everything he can (afford) to make UK a legit school to more of the big time prospects... Everyone should atleast agree to that. I will give Mitch and Joker both time, nothing happens over night, however it would be nice to learn in the near future that Mitch has atleast devised a plan to help our current situation. I think Mitch is a very smart man, he does seem to be a straight shooter for the most part. If the "Band-Aids" would just help us get 1 or 2 more 4 star type prospects a year I really think it would be worth it because Randy and RIck do have solid schemes when they have talent...
Joker also deserves credit for the job he has done on the trail the past 2 years, but he still has his work cut out for him in 13. Facilities aren't everything, Vandy doesn't have nice facilities yet and they are tearing it up, I think Joker could do just as well if he had the resources to get out and sale the program more. All the L's we have had the past 2 years has really seemed to start showing up on the trail thus far. I also think if we could show that we can compete this year Joker could start to make some noise. It kills me that we have went 0 for 5 (maybe 6 if we don't get Ryan T) with the top guys in 13. I really hope that never happens again. One thing I can promise is i'm still going to buy my season tickets and support these guys no matter what, it just sucks that we were so close and now it seems we are so far away... GO CATS!!!
hoptownukfan
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zcats said...
law, thank you for part of that post and I won't disagree that Brooks was responsible for the direction of the program just like Joker is now. My only point was that no matter what hat he wears Joker is the recruiting guy at UK and has been from his first day back in 2003 with Brooks. He was and still is the key coach on the vast majority of recruitments.
I get it that Brooks was a loyal guy and a number of his coaches didn't recruit. I am sure it hurt recruiting but what happened between 2003 and 2007-8? Brooks got enough talent in the door to have very good teams for UK and then he couldn't? The staff stayed the same.The answer to all this in my opinion is that Brooks and his staff got a lot out of a few stars and a lot of average football talent by coaching them up and making good personnel and game calls. I have not seen the current staff achieve the same success. Maybe it is due to the level of athlete dropping, maybe it is poor roster management and personnel decision making, maybe it is poor game management, maybe it is bad luck. Frankly, I think it is all of the above. Clearly we didn't have a Randall Cobb the past two years but I think the fact that skill positions were so bad with the exception of running back has to fall partially on the shoulders of the offensive brain trust for the past 5 years and that is Sanders and Joker.
The question is if the "better recruiting classes" can be effectively utilized by this staff to have a winning program. I have been following football recruiting for decades and the fact is that the fans have no idea how good a class will turn out for 2-3 years and any early reports are subject to wild inaccuracy, intentional or otherwise. I am still waiting for Cecil Bowens and Al Baker to get serious Heisman consideration. I think this version of the Wildcats has potential to perform much better than last year and possibly back at the level we saw 3 years ago but it takes some good decisions and some luck. Give me a couple of months and I will be excited again and predicting 7 wins like always.
hoptownukfan
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hoptownukfan said...
A couple of points.
A. We caught lightening in a bottle with a batch of top in state talent (by uk standards) that wanted to be at UK. Burton and Tamme were considered guys that were not sec talents. Morris had not offered either. Woodson was a terrific QB prospect that chose us in a time when it wasn't a logical move. He committed to MOrris but stock with it when brooks came.
Woodyard and some others were reaches who turned out to be great players. Joker was the lead recruiter on guys like him, Braxton Kelly etc... The elite players we have gotten over the years were almost Joker recruits. Little? Woodyard? Kelly? Jarmon??? All Joker guys.
Joker could not be everywhere at once. he couldn't do Higgins, Petri, Ort's job for them. The bottom line is that Brooks was a good coach and Joker was a very good o-coordinator. Our offense was terrible under brooks until Joker took over. We caught lightening in a bottle with a very good group of skill players on offense and some very good players on defense who were not highly regarded.
While those guys were here we did an awful job of filling in the classes behind them. Cobb was a great talent and Locke was a nice find. Trevethan and Guy were nice players. But the depth was not there.
I think if you look at our roster now compared to two years ago it is much deeper. Joker has done a great job considering the circumstances he had.
IMO he has the talent to win 7 games this year. Will his coaching back it up? If he goes 4-8 he should be fired. A season like last year's with bad losses and he should be fired. But IMO he has the talent on the roster to get to a bowl this year and to take a major step next year.
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JHB4UK said...
Read this excuse all the time, and it just becomes more nonsensical and illogical the more it is repeated. Joker was entrusted with the responsibility of running the program the day Brooks leaves, and is given that title by the encouragement of Brooks....but then he has LESS say and responsibility in our recruitment? Trying to make Joker completely blameless for our recruiting in 2007-2009 is just not a credible claim.
Everyone who repeats this....you do realize you are making Joker sound like a toothless powerless weak staff member, or the exact opposite of what you would expect the person with the title Head Coach In Waiting, right?
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zcats said...
Did I ever say he should have been the only guy recruiting? My only question is why did their recruiting work OK up to 2007-8? The same guys were there. Look, Brooks brought us back from probation and a 15 year sentence in purgatory (with the exception of an occasional season). He gave us something that no coach had done in 30 years and started from scratch. How anyone can blame the struggles of Phillips on Brooks is just crazy in my opinion. UK never had top talent even when we were going to bowls and beating some good teams. When Brooks retired he left momentum and a stock of decent football players who had been winning for four years and going to bowls. Joker didn't start anywhere near where Brooks did and he had a running start by being here 6 years and either recruiting every player or no players depending on which argument is being pushed.
This is just a revisionist argument trying to deflect the blame from Phillips. I still don't think it is all about talent except at the QB position and receiver last year and I hang that on Joker and Sanders since they went into the season knowing that situation. The coaching, including game preparation and strategy, has been really bad the last two years. Everyone can see it. This is not just my opinion. You don't get on a bunch of national 10 worst coaches lists by making a lot of slick moves. Let's just see what happens this year which will make or break this regime. Unless someone looks like they can run a football program this year better than what we have seen the past 18 months there won't be any 1 or 2 more "improved" recruiting classes. That is just the way it is. I really like this staff and would love for them to make it. I am not sold on Joker as a HC but I was really happy for him to get the job. I changed my mind about him in that role over the past two seasons.
hoptownukfan
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CatsPause Exclusive Barnhart Q&A - Part 3: The state of football