The House of Blue

Geez no kidding. I'm really sick of hearing about how good Vandy and Louisville are.

You don't win games within being IN games. Joker is Dead Coach Walking because we aren't competitive. 5-7 with respectable losses to the likes of Florida, South Carolina, and Vandy, and you're not hearing half the grumbling that you are (I'll give him the LSU thumping-- they were that good).

In two years, Joker's losses are by: 34, 7, 3, 13, 7, 10, 17 (2010), 7, 38, 28, 51, 12, 30, and 9. That means of those 14, four were one possession games... So if the ball had bounced his way a couple more times, 11-14 could be as good as... say, 15-10.

On the other hand, Vandy lost in Franklin's one year by: 18 (to the team that beat UK by 51), 34 (to Alabama), 5, 3, 5, 6, and 7. If the ball bounces his way a couple more times, Vandy is 11-2.

Now sure, woulda, shoulda, coulda, I know. But I also know that it's a lot more viable to fix a team coming up one play short in a five point loss than to fix 34, 38, or 51 points losses. Not to even get into the fact that Franklin won six games with a team that Vegas predicted to win two or three before the season while Joker won five with a team that Vegas predicted to win six.

I'm much less sold on Louisville than on Vandy. If the season is going to be saved, that's the place to do it.

So, if Franklin loses a few games (particularly Georgia, SC, Florida) by more than 1-2 possessions in 2012, is he a Dead Coach Walking? Regardless of number of one possession games, Franklin was 6-7 (2-6) with a bowl loss in his first year, an identical record to Phillips' first year. By your logic, if Vandy goes 5-7 (2-6) with bad losses to three good teams (granted, he probably needs a bad loss to a mediocre team as well), he should be fired.

You're giving credit to Vandy's shoulda-woulda-coulda without giving the same credit to UK. If Phillips had a 9 win regular season in 2010 and a 6 win season in 2011, he would have been extended before the 2010 bowl game. We would have went to a bowl last year, be on a 6 year bowl streak, with 5 straight wins over the "mighty" Cards. Everyone here would be talking about whether or not 2012 or 2013 would be the year we would compete for the SEC East. But none of that happened, and we are where we are today, hoping for some progress in 2012.

I don't believe that you can make an accurate prediction for the upcoming year based upon the previous year's failures. It just doesn't work that way. If it did, Vandy and UL wouldn't have beaten us last year, and we certainly would not have beaten Tenn with a WR playing QB. You still have to play the games.

Been saying this for years, but it doesn't seem to get us anywhere. UK got blasted in the press just fro changing the game from the opener to later in the season (when played in Lexington). CANCEL THE SERIES!

Why when UK comes up close ala Auburn in 2010 that the fans are outraged..."a loss is a loss" " who cares about morals victories" "blah blah blah"...but other teams get to build off of those close losses...

If "a loss is a loss" then 51pts=1pts if you are on the wrong side of the scoreboard.

Now I believe in judging each game and every loss not being equal, have to judge it on the play. But I hate that the people who gripe about the moral victories are also the ones who pout emphasis on the margin of defeat and victory(like we only beat WKU by 11...)

The Louisville game is very important and for those who think it is not must be afraid that we are going to lose.

People have very selective memories concerning this game. The reason Louisville quit playing UK was in the past the game was not competitive. And IMHO, it still should not be. Fellas UK is a SEC team playing week in and week out the best teams in college football. For this to be anymore than a easy season opener says a lot.

Beat Louisville.

Dear Lord Jeff, you've said for years that it's all about Jimmy's and Joe's...are you denying that Franklin is kicking our ass on the recruiting trail? We are dead freakin' last in the conference in recruiting with a coach that is cutting his teeth in the toughest conference in the nation...it's a f'n recipe for disaster.

Jeff, they have eight commitments at this point...two four star and six three star. It's Vanderbilt...

Rob, it's still early in the recruiting process. Don't panic until closer to signing day to see how many of their commits stick.

Whitaker, normally I'd agree with that but I think this year we accept commitments slower. I don't expect more than 3 commits before the UL game. Come mid-season if we are struggling and not getting any verbal's then I'll start to worry.

Good point. I keep forgetting about the low number of rides we have this season.

I'm glad we're taking it slow because every year we lose out on talented kids because of so many early season commits. The staff did a much better job this past class of that and we added Henderson,Whitlow, Taylor and the DB from OH.

Of the 3 'cupcakes' of last year's OOC schedule , UK was outplayed by Western Ky and directional Michigan.

Right now, there are no cupcakes for us. Like it or not, the program IS low on talent.

We will see.