Oh, and, I've always heard Kentucky is a basketball school.....at least every time the Cats lose to the Cards that's what the UK fans say. So, does that make UK football the side show?

 

Everything is a sideshow when you go to the final four 3 out of 4 years lol. UK will become pretty dang good in a few years. I really like where Stoops is leading this program

I've lived in Western Ky my whole life, and my job requires me to travel to most counties in WKY, I've never ran into a Mizzou fan.

 

I'm from Missouri, and I'm not a Mizzou fan.

Petrino is an excellent coach. However recruiting has never been a strong point. And teams made up solely of his recruits have been awful. Maybe he can coach his guys and no one else can?

 

So far he's been Great for a few years and then leaves destruction.

 

He was pretty darn successful recruiting and winning in his first stint, and that was before Louisville was recognized at all nationally. I think he'll be just fine.

Everything is a sideshow when you go to the final four 3 out of 4 years lol. UK will become pretty dang good in a few years. I really like where Stoops is leading this program

 

Even in the worst, probation-saddled years for UK hoops the football program was still an afterthought. Very few of my UK friends made a point of listening to the FB games (was never on TV in the Cincy area when I was a kid) that I can recall.

As we can see his comments worked. Got UK fans going. Got UL fans going.

The Paul Reiser Show

 

How was that ever a show? :no:

As we can see his comments worked. Got UK fans going. Got UL fans going.

 

Not for me. I don't care what he thinks. He's reaching bigtime.

As we can see his comments worked. Got UK fans going. Got UL fans going.

 

Yep. So when they go 2-10 again he can say "At least I got people worked up in April!"

I'd invite you to NKY to see that it's NOT Notre Dame and Ohio State.

 

You're reaching.

 

His point is spot on and the in-state recruiting shows that - even in the Ville.

 

Being from NKY and a Notre Dame football fan. I grew up and hung out with as many ND football fans as I did UK.

Being from NKY and a Notre Dame football fan. I grew up and hung out with as many ND football fans as I did UK.

 

I also went to 12 years of Catholic school so that may have something to do with it . I will say until UK beats U of L again this isn't an argument worth having. Just like in basketball until Pitino can beat Cal consistently UK is obviously the superior program . But UofL fans have to be a little blind if you don't see the difference in recruiting Stoops has brought to the program. Now until it translates on the field it doesn't matter but for the time being it seems any recruit in this state is in play for Stoops.

He was pretty darn successful recruiting and winning in his first stint, and that was before Louisville was recognized at all nationally. I think he'll be just fine.

 

While I think that Louisville is still way ahead of UK and UK football is not "the show" Cat3x does have a point. Petrino was only at UL for 4 seasons and he was recruiting players to compete against Big East schools. I'm not saying that he didn't bring in talented players, he obviously did. However, the number of those players required to compete against Big East teams was much less than what will be required to compete week in, week out in the ACC. Depth was not as much of a concern in UL's previous conference. The ACC, while not the SEC by any means, is a step up from the Big East or the AAC. By the time Kragthorpe took over a team made up of Petrino's recruits he had a hard time keeping them on the roster and out of trouble. At Arkansas he did very well in his 3rd and 4th seasons but again fell off of a cliff when the roster was made up of only Petrino's recruits. He is a great game coach but if I were a UL fan I would have a few reservations about his ability to sustain a program long-term given his previous history. It will be an interesting run in Louisville this time--I don't think he can use the Cardinals as a stepping stone like he did last time. He will have to bring in players each year and keep them in school if he wants to really take the next step. He might very well be able to do that but thus far no one has seen him do it. I think that is a fair and unbiased assessment.

He was pretty darn successful recruiting and winning in his first stint' date=' and that was before Louisville was recognized at all nationally. I think he'll be just fine.[/quote']

 

He picked up the #1 athlete (Bush in 2003) and then the next year he picked up the #1 QB (Brohm in 2004)...and both were from the city of Louisville, right?

 

Has he landed any other top recruits? Honest question, as I don't follow Louisville football that closely.

In what way is Stoops "rising?" And speaking of nowhere to go, Stoops can't possibly make UK worse. The only option he has is getting better.

 

 

This is coming from a huge UK football fan whose Dad has had season tickets for around 2 decades now. I feel like at this point, I've seen enough "ups and downs" to gauge what gets people out in the seats or tuning in at home, thus putting (enough) money into the program. UK will have some hits and misses when it comes to hires, and even the better hires have had some rough years (Brooks in 2003 and Morriss in 2001 immediately come to mind).

 

 

I think Stoop is winning some small victories like getting people out to the Spring Game, having more fans on the Cat Walk, etc. While he couldn't make UK worse, I would think he's doing a better job than lots of other candidates that UK could have brought in. Following Joker, it was pretty important simply not to have a “miss” this time around.

 

UK football doesn't have the recruiting base to be a national power when they're going head to head against the rest of the SEC (i.e., Florida, Georgia, LSU, Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, etc.). Because of that, most fans don't expect him to bring home a national title or be in contention to win the SEC.

 

I'll firmly say that UK fans would like to: have a respectable record against Louisville, beat their non-conference cupcakes, and "enough" win in SEC games (i.e., Vandy, Mississippi State, and maybe an upset or even 2 in "up" years). In the years where most of those things have happened, it's been good enough (to combine with things like the amount of fans expected to travel and the association with the SEC) to go somewhere like the Liberty or Music City Bowl, and that has been fine with the majority of fans. Even if all of the above doesn't fall into place, people would be fine with seeing an exciting style of play (putting points on the board) and at least being relatively competitive. Even in some of Mumme's early seasons, people were satisfied just to see UK taking risks and throwing the ball all over the field because it was something different than Curry trying to line up and go mano-a-mano with more talented teams.

 

It is what it is, and if you do most of the things listed above, that's a good enough year by UK standards, at least as far as the majority of the fanbase is concerned. Historically, being able to accomplish that means that they've recruited well (e.g., found some diamonds in the rough (Cobb, Jarmon, & Trevathan), took a chance on a JUCO player (Stevie Johnson), and/or had some of the better players from out in the state mixed in with a few from Louisville (Tamme, Woodson, Burton, Peters). Obviously, UK won't win more games until they have the talent in place, but so far, I think Stoops is doing well enough in those regards.

 

I'm satisfied enough to hold out hope that things like getting Timmons, Barker, and Elam from out in the state, bringing in some JUCOs like ZaDarius Smith, and getting a kid like Hatcher will pay off because I know it could be worse.

 

Since the series resumed, UK has picked up 8 wins against Louisville. Both will have their ups and downs. That's just going to be the nature of the programs. Louisville has obviously had much more success recently, but I realistically wonder if their ceiling will be somewhat capped. I definitely don't think they're going to be the new kid on the block in the ACC and just come in and dominate. I think it will be tough, especially on the road, for a team who as geographically isolated as Louisville to get calls against against a traditional power like Florida State or Miami. If I'm looking at their division correctly, they'll have to go through Florida State & Clemson, plus some teams like NC State, Syracuse, and Boston College that have their moments. Add to that potential cross-division games like Miami, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, or even Pitt, and you aren't in the Big East or CUSA anymore. There'll be disappointing years, and "slip ups" probably won't be losing a shot at going to the national title game. I do think the ACC is a good move for Louisville and that in "average bowl years", their new branding will get them to a better bowl than they'd have gotten previously, but being the days of being the favorite for a BCS berth are probably numbered and running out quickly.

 

 

All that said, I think it's fair to say that UK is definitely the "show" in Lexington (their town). The same is true for the state as well-- there definitely isn’t a huge landslide for the numbers in Louisville, even though there are still UK fans there, but if you look at the state as a whole, I think you'll see a strong preference for UK. When Brown said that they were “the show”, I took it to mean that, regardless of who was actually better, they were the team who’d have more support statewide. From that perspective, I think it’s hard to argue with UK.

He picked up the #1 athlete (Bush in 2003) and then the next year he picked up the #1 QB (Brohm in 2004)...and both were from the city of Louisville, right?

 

Has he landed any other top recruits? Honest question, as I don't follow Louisville football that closely.

 

 

I may be mistaken, but I'm thinking Petrino is more of a Florida guy. He'll obviously try to keep the top talent in Louisvillle at home, but looking at a list of Cardinals in the NFL (which you'd think would be a decent indicator of the talent he's signed), you'll see quite a bit of Florida (huge surprise there, especially given his emphasis on skill positions).

 

I think at Arkansas, you'll probably see more of an influence of talent from instate, but that's likely a product of having more talent there. Petrino will go where he needs to go to try and get the kind of players he thinks he needs to win, but I'd imagine that Florida is one of the first places he looks.

 

 

 

NFL Players by College - L - National Football League - ESPN

 

Bobby Petrino proves he still knows how to recruit Florida

OK...where's the UK Spring Game thread. Wasn't that yesterday?