October 27, 201510 yr I tend to believe that all of the hype around Big Blue Madness at UK, as far as people camping out and everything that goes with BBM, definitely has an adverse affect on the football team. I get that Kentucky is that rare scenario where basketball is the bigger sport at the school, but if I was a player on the football team I would be very discouraged that people just shift their focus to basketball so quickly. At the time Kentucky only had 1 loss and it was to a very good Florida team. Ever since, they have looked horrible. They don't appear to have the same drive that they had to begin the season. I don't think Miss. St. is leaps and bounds better than UK. I just think it would be hard to be a football player at UK when in the middle of your season, a fair percentage of your fan base is already more worried about basketball. To me it would be very hard to recruit football players to come here. Typically schools bring recruits to the big conference games like the one coming up, but if a recruit was walking around Lexington right now they would more than likely hear much more talk about basketball than football which would turn me off as a recruit. With that said, why would a basketball player choose elsewhere besides Kentucky, but thats another conversation. Don't take this as me knocking BBM or basketball because clearly that is the higher priority at UK and for the fans, but it would have to be hard to be a football player at UK.
October 27, 201510 yr Author No correlation between their performance and BBM. You may be right, but it would definitely be harder to play football at UK than lets say Tennessee who has had the same lack of success recently as UK has. At UK the fan base is 100% basketball if you aren't winning, but Tennessee still manages to fill their 100,000 seat stadium even though they haven't been particularly successful recently either.
October 27, 201510 yr You may be right, but it would definitely be harder to play football at UK than lets say Tennessee who has had the same lack of success recently as UK has. At UK the fan base is 100% basketball if you aren't winning, but Tennessee still manages to fill their 100,000 seat stadium even though they haven't been particularly successful recently either. The atmosphere around town before the Auburn game was completely electric. I don't see how the fans could have been more enthusiastic. The team laid an egg--that's on them. They followed it up with a road game. That is on them as well. If the players are playing for the fans and media coverage and not for each other then you're recruiting the wrong kind of players.
October 28, 201510 yr I would think most kids know that Kentucky is a basketball crazy school when they sign their scholarship papers. It shouldn't come as a surprise to them....
October 28, 201510 yr Stoops has done a really good job of building excitement amongst a fan base that generally tailgates when the weather is nice and disappears after BBM.
October 28, 201510 yr The atmosphere around town before the Auburn game was completely electric. I don't see how the fans could have been more enthusiastic. The team laid an egg--that's on them. They followed it up with a road game. That is on them as well. If the players are playing for the fans and media coverage and not for each other then you're recruiting the wrong kind of players. Ding, Ding, Ding
October 28, 201510 yr Author The atmosphere around town before the Auburn game was completely electric. I don't see how the fans could have been more enthusiastic. The team laid an egg--that's on them. They followed it up with a road game. That is on them as well. If the players are playing for the fans and media coverage and not for each other then you're recruiting the wrong kind of players. I can see how the fans could have been much more enthusiastic, I think the atmosphere at most UK games is pretty bland compared to other schools. The only game that I've been to that the atmosphere seemed electric to me was the Auburn game the year Cam Newton was there. But UK consistently struggles to sell out Commonwealth especially starting around this time of year. But I'll bring up Tennessee again, they consistently sell out a 100,000 seat stadium for almost every game. I get it that Tennessee obviously has more of football tradition than UK, but recently these 2 teams are very similar and both have been void of successes recently but the fan base is still supportive there. I just believe the football fan base or lack there of as soon as things go south, has to be noticed by the players on the team and to say that this doesn't have an effect on them is just plain ignorant.
October 28, 201510 yr Actually the schedule just gets tougher around BBM time. UK fans would LOVE to have a product to cheer for.
October 28, 201510 yr Author Actually the schedule just gets tougher around BBM time. UK fans would LOVE to have a product to cheer for. But you do have a product, just not one that one that is currently competing all that well. All I'm saying is that it's hard to build a football tradition at a school that at the first sign of hardship, jumps off the wagon and starts talking about basketball. I'm not saying don't worry about basketball until after football starts, I'm saying you can't expect the football team to play well if the fans aren't behind them fully. You can't have your cake and eat it too.
October 28, 201510 yr There are enough fans to support both sports. I know many who are die-hard football fans and many who are die-hard basketball fans but they are all die-hard UK fans!
October 28, 201510 yr Author There are enough fans to support both sports. I know many who are die-hard football fans and many who are die-hard basketball fans but they are all die-hard UK fans! Fair enough and I know that the die-hard football fans will support no matter what. So I figured that this thread wouldn't get that much support on here because the majority of the UK fans on here are the die-hard ones that you described. But the UK fans on BGP couldn't sell out commonwealth by themselves. They need the fair weather fans to become die-hard fans, but that is hard to do when you have a basketball team that is wildly more successful and easier to root for.
October 28, 201510 yr I can see how the fans could have been much more enthusiastic, I think the atmosphere at most UK games is pretty bland compared to other schools. The only game that I've been to that the atmosphere seemed electric to me was the Auburn game the year Cam Newton was there. But UK consistently struggles to sell out Commonwealth especially starting around this time of year. But I'll bring up Tennessee again, they consistently sell out a 100,000 seat stadium for almost every game. I get it that Tennessee obviously has more of football tradition than UK, but recently these 2 teams are very similar and both have been void of successes recently but the fan base is still supportive there. I just believe the football fan base or lack there of as soon as things go south, has to be noticed by the players on the team and to say that this doesn't have an effect on them is just plain ignorant. How exactly could the atmosphere for the Auburn game have been better? Details please....
October 28, 201510 yr Author How exactly could the atmosphere for the Auburn game have been better? Details please.... I don't know how, it's just doesn't feel as electric. It just always feels like people are waiting for something bad to happen. It's like the Bengals the majority of my life time. Yeah people are passionate about them and support them no matter what, but there is just always this sense throughout the fan base that something bad is going to happen. You can just feel it, I can tell it from talking to UK football fans and they just seem very passive aggressive about the team at all times. You look at programs across the country and especially in their own conference and it just looks like UK is the odd man out when it comes to football. Heck, most UK fans I know cheered harder for Alabama last year when they played Ohio State than they usually do for Kentucky games. That shouldn't be the case. But as far as the Auburn game being electric just visit another big school for a big night game and it won't even compare. I would suggest Ohio State, but your SEC bias probably wouldn't allow you to judge them fairly. I want Kentucky football to be good, I think it would good for the school and good for the state. I think Kentucky football being good on the college level would transition into better football on the high school level in the state as well. But I think the first step to a successful team is a fan base that still cares about football even when basketball starts.
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