The House of Blue

I like it JJ. Give 'em hell!!!

Ironic (and hypocritical as hell)

That's one D&G with NO ANSWERS.... Next?

Come on JJ. Lets not sink to the level of TOS.

I am a sunshine pumper so I can only offer the following:

We all thought the defense would be ahead of the offense and I think physically we are not as bad as we performed on D. Alot of out of positon and bad angles, etc. fixable issues.

I was impressed by the O.

The biggest improvement in college footbal is week 1 to week 2. Given we have 2 weeks before a big boy I'll reserve judgment for now on the remainder of the season.

I for one will continue to go to game and support the program.

I watched alot of college football this weekend and offensively there were a significant number of teams that did not execute as well as we did.

I hope we add some D-lineman and Linebackers to this years class.

Go Cats!

It was intended to be hypocritical...in an effort to show you that you were being one...oh nevermind. You aren't sharp enough to catch on.

Keep blasting the fans how the downfall of UK football is their fault!

"You are NOT real fans if you discuss how the team played bad. You are NOT a fan unless you say the coaches are doing a good job. Only true fans always find the good!"

While I hate that this seemingly vindicates those who have had their sky falling for 40 years around here, there is some validation for those who had a bit of the wind taken out of their sails yesterday.

Biggest plus for me is we have a serviceable (at worst) offense. Our O-line was great, Max stood tall and delivered the football with brass balls all day long, and if Coshik figures out how to use a little Stick 'Em, he's good to go.

Biggest issue for me is the defense appeared leaderless yesterday. Guy and Trev gone was bigger than I realized (given the track record for leaders stepping up -- Micah when WW left, and Trev when Micah left, etc.). Brause should live under his bed in shame forever after the way he was manhandled, and even though our Dline played well (they were held ALL day, yet still stuffed the line), the scheme breaks down when the linebackers don't make things happen. Also, to total lack of containment has to change--every time they ran or screened on us and we didn't tackle in the first 5 yards, it was guaranteed to be a 25-30 yarder.

All in all, we won't go 0-12, and we don't go 11-1 either. BUT, I at least saw enough to think there is a foundation at least capable of being built upon.

1. Nice try... but you failed in your attempt to backpedal.

2. Show me where "I" made such a claim... you can't, so again, you failed

3. Do you have to quote "spin", because you don't have any answers? That BS sounds more like a guilty conscience to me.

... on all counts

I suspect it was more of the Fire Minter threads and Joker has forced Mitch's hand and let's quit at halftime than the criticism of our play. There is enough justification for criticism without going off of the deep end. Regardless of how bad the D was on Sunday it goes down as 1 loss. There are 11 games left and our chances in those are as good as they were yesterday, only difference is we have something to base our opinions on.

I don't have the answer. Luckily, that's not what any of us are paid to do. That's Mitch Barnhart's job, to find the answers to a situation that has obvious, major problems.

As fans, all we know is this. We the "fans" and season ticket holders were sold the idea of allowing Joker to replace Rich Brooks for a variety of reasons by Mitch Barnhart. We were told that the UK Football Foundation had been set by Rich Brooks and the reason to bring Joker in was to provide "continuity" and "stability".

By keeping Joker as the HC, the fanbase obiously was not expecting the massive dropoff that we are seeing.

We were sold on the idea that Rich had helped UK climb several rungs of the SEC ladder, and letting Joker take over was the way for UK to make it up the next rung.

It isn't happening.

In fact, in 2 years and 1 game, UK has fallen back to a level of play not seen since 2005. UK has gotten progressively worse since Joker has been the head coach. Right or wrong?

So, those are the problems that 99% of the fan base clearly sees. Like I said, we aren't paid to fix the problems, but Mitch Barnhart is. Will be very interesting to follow his communications within the media and at fanbase functions over the next 3 months.

What is his plan?

1) it appears to me at this point is our solution to winning 5-6 games is to rely on our offense which will probably get better as we go forward

2) my advice in dealing with the rest of the season: drink a lot of alcohol, especially before we start conference play

I don't write letters to Mitch, I will never make a derogatory statement about this team, and I will never stop watching these guys. I just think we all had a huge dose of reality yesterday.

No brilliance here, but our defense is a massive turd that needs to be polished. Sure, everyone vents in a different way and as long as it doesn't break any board rules then it should be allowed. Man, I'm fifty years old and have learned to deal with adversity so it doesn't bother me as much as it did in the past but I think people on this board should be able to express themselves at this point.

We all want the same thing. Hell, let the next two weeks go by and we'll be 2-1 heading into the UF game; pumpers will be expecting a win and gloomers will expect UF to score sixty. That's just the life of a UK football fan no matter what stance you decide to take.

... +1 kind Sir

Btw, I never said fans didn't have a right to show their frustrations and express themselves... I simply asked for more "answers" and LESS bitching and moaning. Griping gets old... lets hear some realistic solutions.

Recruiting better players is a Catch-22 but it doesn't make it any less of an answer.

To me there are essentially a handful of options to get to that end game.

You can pour money into facilities and a recruiting budget in the attempt to supplement what you already have or to lure a new coach (Arkansas did this with Petrino). Unfortunately I don't see that as an option given the University's response to funding something as basic as a video board and audio system and we don't have a Walmart-esque donor willing to write that check for football.

You can open the pocketbook and go out and make a lofty pitch to a reputable coach and give him the money to hire a good staff. Then hope with the "name" the recruits come and winning comes with that. South Carolina is a good example. The con is that it's hit and miss (see Bill Curry), but it's going to the cheapest route to go.

Go out and hire an up and coming coach looking for a spot in the SEC and hope he catches fire. Unfortunately I don't know that you can get a Kirby Smart type guy and even if you do it's entirely possible you're just exchanging one former coordinator for another. And it may not make a bit of difference in recruiting.

And that's just tip of the iceberg. Personally, I think the administration needs to take a long hard look at how they market and maintain the program. Maybe some fresh eyes in the approach. I hate to bring up Vandy because of the Franklin/Joker comparison but look at the way they have marketed their program with the Anchor Down approach. People and recruits notice things like that. If you're going to stick with Joker you have to find other viable options to help him out. Every little thing counts.