The House of Blue

All those waiting for UK to start pulling in 4-5 star guys from Ga, Fla, S. Car. etc, I hope you are not holding your breath. You can continue to say it all you want it is not going ot happen. Let me repeat, "It's not going to happen."

We will "build" and "project" and "scheme" and "redshirt" etc, our way to the 8-9 win mark and that's just the way it is. But if you think were going to recruit with the UGA's and the UF's and the LSU's of the world you are living in a parallel universe. I wish I were wrong. I'm just not. I'm a realist.

I'm in that same rowboat with you.

That is so very, very wrong.

The players qualities. Too many project types in this class, who for the most part lack quality offers. I can see 3 to 4 being really good, while others will provide depth at best. Last years class was a step in the "right" direction. However, you want to improve class by class. You don't want to finish 11th or 12th in the SEC in recruiting. You know where that gets you? Finishing 11th or 12th in SEC play.

As am I.

What about you? You offer your doom and gloom posts but how would you do things differently? What exactly are you offering to the discussion? What is Joker doing wrong? Apparently, the answer is not cheating, lol.

I get what your saying, but like someone already tried to tell you, we are slowly closing that gap and that's where we are right now. You need to accept that and then you will see the progress we are making. Are you honestly expecting us to just start randomly recruiting 4 and 5 star players?

So unless a kid has offers listed on a recruiting site the summer prior to his Sr year he is a "project" at best. That I assume is based on this staff never having shown the ability to project talent. Wow just wow.

I don't get all the doom and gloom .I think what we need is the perfect storm .We need this years team to beat at least of Tennessee or Florida .We need to be exciting on offense and unpredictable on defense .We need one or two players to have better than average seasons ... such as Newton ,Ukwu or Clemons .
We need Randall Cobb to be Randall Cobb .If he or any other ex UK players can make some noise then it helps the UK brand .Their name recognition becomes our recruiting tool .Then maybe we change the minds of our own fans and some of the four and five star recruits .

Spin what? Do you deny that we've recruited better? Do you deny that we've had winning seasons (for the most part) over the last 5 yrs? (And you can't reference our weak OOC schedule.....go back and look, we've been playing a weak OOC schedule for the last 10-15 yrs) Do you deny that we beating teams in the past 5 yrs that we haven't in a while? Do you deny that we are not losing as badly to teams as we have? Do you deny that we are putting more players in the NFL on average than we have? Do you deny the fact that 247, Rivals, Scout, and ESPN have touted the fact that our recruiting is getting better? What if we put together a decade of 7 win seasons and a couple of 8 win seasons....what will your excuse be then?

I would argue that your "spin" is to downplay everything someone posts. Perhaps for attention (like I'm giving you now), perhaps to satisfy your ego, perhaps to placate your pessimism. Whatever the cause it's annoying and time to move on.

You just have a very naive of how the recruiting game is played in the SEC. People talk about how great Steve Spurier is but what was his SEC record his first 3 seasons? 11-13 with back to back 3-5 records. This while recruiting the very fertile grounds of SC and with a lot of support from untraceable donations from boosters that "assist" the program. KY isn't going to sign 4-5 star talent. They are not going to cheat, we have already gone down that path multiple times, so their only option is to project talent. Your refusal to understand how recruiting really works is truly amazing. Outdone only by your stubborn refusal to even remotely complement our coaching staff and their abilities.

UK coaches are not Gods, they make plenty of mistakes but they don't cheat and I respect they understand Ky doesn't have a recruiting base and a number of obstacles you apparently don't think exist. I can appreciate the resistance to try and bend the rules and take short cuts with the prodding of so called fans like yourself. I think this is a great staff and guys like Nord, Summers, Martin, Turner, Pardue, Minter and Rock Oliver are only here because of Joker. Without Joker you don't have any of them.

As for Steve Brown, punching bags and scapegoats go with being fans but enough already. Why wouldn't Joker want to keep an accomplished DB coach. Why wouldn't he want to keep a coach that played DB in the NFL and coached DBs on a super bowl winning team. You don't know what impact Steve Brown has made in recruiting other then what you read on a few fan sites which means you know absolutely NOTHING. The coaches respect Brown the players respect Brown and just because an uneducated group of fans that only understanding of football comes from playing video games is meaningless.

Whats amazing to me is that a group of fans like yourself spend more time following recruiting and are completely clueless about on field performance. I imagine you are one of the "fans" calling for Chuck Smith head. He didn't get Dawson so fire him. But how many years in a row has Smith put and All SEC LB on the field? Lets count them.
Woodyard
Kelley
Johnson
Maxwell
Trevathan

Yea, that just screams incompetence.

Big Uglies win Football games, plain and simple. I think 8 to 9 OL and DL in every class is ideal. The rowbaot is filling up. I'm in. I CANNOT WAIT TILL TOMORROW NIGHT!

My here TIFWIW:

Hard to judge a class right off the bat. Have to give it some time. The two players I was most excited about in the 2010 class--Jerrell Priester and Alex Smith--aren't even with the program anymore.

With that being said, I think this group is the best looking group I've seen come through UK since I've been covering the team.

But when you talk about UK making improvements in recruiting, this isn't something that's just going to happen over night. You can't just expect UK to start beating out Florida, Alabama, etc. for recruits on a consistent basis yet. Just not going to happen. It'd be like South Carolina or Auburn beating out UK for basketball recruits. Just not realistic.

In my opinion, UK has to continue to pick its spots with the higher rated recruits and make its money evaluating talent and making the most of "mis-fit toys" like Trevathan, Ukwu, et al.

Just my

It's sad that no matter how much UK improves year in and year out, the football team is still the ugly step-sister on campus! J Drum & other guys who make it their job to evaluate recruiting classes, and give critism where it's needed, say that this incoming class is the most exciting class they've seen! Does that in its own right not make you want to stop and think, "Hmm. Maybe the table is turning and we're finally making some significant progress?" I believe beyond the shadow of a doubt that there are several future NFL players in the '11 recruiting class.

I don't know about the rest of the fans on this site, but I am sick and tired of reading all of the critism thrown at Joker. All I hear around the office is, "Joker's not the answer. Fire Joker and give the team to someone else. We need a REAL coach to come in and right the ship." Wake up people, we have had a wonderful coaching staff for some time now! These high school kids relate to the staff in place now and absolutely love Coach Phillips. The past seven years has seen the most consistent improvement in UK football ever! Go back and check the record books. We were a couple of plays away from winning the SEC East last year! Also, take a look at how many players Coach Brooks and Coach Phillips are getting to the NFL as compared to previous decades. I'm sure there is absolutely no comparison.

So, the next time you find yourself feeling as though UK football is not progressing, do a little research and look at how far things have really come. If landing 4 & 5 star guys is the only thing you worry about, take a look at all the college programs, that have been traditional power houses, that are being investigated and punished for decades of cheating. I'm so thankful that we are not one of those programs! I'd rather keep pushing along with these baby steps of evaluating talent and fielding an exciting and competitive team that is getting better year in and year out, than to see us take another huge step back like we did with Mumme and the Air Raid Era.

Keep up the good work J Drum and crew & GO BIG BLUE (Beat those Toppers)!!!