brainesman

Recent Comments
Xavier kinda needs a PG who can shoot and his numbers from deep were scary last year. Was there a reason, should I have any hope it gets better if he winds up at Xavier?
There are about 3 games a year where the crowd at Rupp is amped up and presents a challenge for the other team. It's as tough as any arena on those days. The atmosphere isn't great for every other game. Part of it is that the lower bowl is mostly old, rich people. The other part is that the students don't show up and bring it most nights. I know Rupp is off-campus and the seating location isn't ideal but it should be better.
I agree, not saying they'd win, but I felt like Kentucky could've potentially beaten everyone other than Bama and UGA. Not saying that they'd be favored or win a majority of the time, but I'd have felt decent about Kentucky's chances against anyone else.
Joe is obviously awesome, but the defense went from about the worst in the league to a solid unit. There's been points this year where the defense was much better than the offense. Now that the offense is clicking, the team is as fun as it's been in my lifetime.
There's plenty to do, just not a lot of clubs/nightlife. That's fine by me and I bet, especially in a year like this, that Joe prefers it that way too.
He really wants an indoor practice facility (they have one now but it's not a full field as the end zones are rounded and it's shared with track and field) and a larger salary pool for assistants. AD Mitch Barnhart has said the field is coming but is dragging his feet on actually beginning the project. The second one should be addressed soon. If LSU really went hard after Stoops, I could see him leaving. He may still. But I do think he's using their alleged interest to get what he wants. That's the hope at least.
Will Levis has a deal with a Lexington steakhouse where he gets to treat his OL to dinner on Sundays after games. All you can eat, imagine that's worth quite a bit.
I've long thought the solution is (and I think Lane mentioned it last week) to hold players off the field for a set amount of time after the has to be held up due to an injury. A time penalty is possible (but might be a bit tricky to enforce) as well as holding players out a set number of plays. If it were me, I'd make the rule three possessions. So, if a defensive player "got hurt" on early in the other team's drive and the game had to stop to get him off of the field, he'd have to sit out the rest of that possession, his team's next possession, and then the other team's next possession. He would be allowed to return on his team's second possession from his injury (though he likely won't given he's a defensive). Harsh? Absolutely, but this needs to stop. If an absolutely vital player got hurt (think QB), a team could use a TO (while this is starting to make it really complicated, I'd be fine with giving both teams one free pass each half unrelated to TOs to allow a player to return to the game before his time is up) to avoid having the player sit out. I like this rule from a player safety standpoint as well, it will prevent players with legitimate injuries from rushing out before they are ready to.
Considering that since Montana last won a Super Bowl, about 29 of the 32 played were won by QBs who played a style closer to Montana than Mahomes and Allen, I'll take my chances with a Montana-like QB. For reference, I have Mahomes, Russell Wilson (not sure he should even count given his size requirements, but the style of play Colin is referring to), and Steve Young (ditto) as the scrambling, types. I'd count Favre and Elway in Colin's example, but Favre actually plays fairly similarly to Burrow (but did have a stronger arm) while Elway was old and didn't scramble as much by the time he won. Honestly, I do think the vast majority of non-Brady QBs need to be able to move well, but Burrow does move very well in the pocket and behind the line-of-scrimmage. No, he doesn't have ideal arm strength but it's not like he's even even below-average in that regard. I just found that statement to be weird, but almost all of the recent Super Bowl-winning QBs play closer to Burrow's style of play than they do Mahomes and their style of play isn't even drastically different.
I think the TO-run was more fluky than anything. Levis does have a propensity to force a deep shot about once a game but many of those TOs were ball carriers losing the ball with minimal contact. Josh Ali had a few and he's out Saturday. Chris Rodriguez had a bunch over the first few games, but had only fumbled once in the previous two years and hasn't fumbled the last two games (supposedly he was battling a minor wrist injury). Levis may throw a pick (though usually they are deep enough to effectively be punts and he's been pretty good at avoiding any terrible ones) but I doubt Rodriguez is about to start fumbling again. Honestly, the ridiculous number of TOs in the first four games kept those games closer than they should've been and fighting through them was fairly impressive.
As a Xavier grad, I don't want Dayton invited even though they probably deserve it and make the most sense. St. Bonnie is too small and doesn't really have any sort of tradition. I know they are solid right now but there's evidence they will be once their coach leaves. SLU is a probably my choice, it's the best basketball product in a major market. I'd prefer to add only one at this point to stay at 12. I'm also not sure that expansion really would help get a larger TV payout per school. The conference won't be trying to get its network into cable packages in new cities. None of the proposed additions, outside of a probably unfeasible Gonzaga, really raise the profile or competitiveness of the league. None of the schools have large or passionate fan bases, save maybe Dayton. It made sense to break from the mostly Catholic, all-private model and add UCONN. Doing it again to add VCU could make sense, as they've developed into a solid program with a large and passionate alumni base. I just don't know that any of these options make the league better or make the league more money, so why bother?
As a Xavier grad, it's an awesome league. I know UGA fans don't care because they are terrible at the sport (trust me, they would if they were good) but it's a really fun basketball league.
That's basically what Stoops said after the game. He felt it was going to be either TD or a punt from the end zone (or even better). I'm glad to see them play aggressively.
UK's lineup is rough, hopefully Levis lives up to the potential. I think Stephon Johnson should be QB1. I know he wasn't great, but he was probably the best passer and was a winner. He didn't have quite the defense that the Cats have enjoyed since 2018, they needed him to win some shootouts. Otherwise, I think Bazelak is better than Lock and definitely Bryant. I never understood the Lock hype. Obviously he had a big arm, but was fairly inconsistent against decent competition and wasn't much of a winner. I understand why he's QB1 at the moment, but I bet Bazelak passes him up by next season. Bazelak should be higher than Bryant, who definitely didn't live up to the hype which led to his coach getting fired.
This isn't about him playing in the NFL (which was one atrocious game and two decent outings). And he only wanted to be in college for three years so why sit behind Fromm for two of those years? "Quitting" a team by transferring is a notion created by coaches who make a ton of money yet want the stability of a bunch of college kids patiently waiting for a turn that might not come. Kirby should've played him when he had a chance.
I think this is a good matchup for UK this weekend. My hope is that LSU is enough of a name-brand (along with a hyped crowd again) that they'll get UK's best shot. UK stops the run and the deep pass, I'm not sure Max Johnson is consistent enough to dink-and-dunk his way into the endzone while UK ought to be able to run the ball. But if UK does come out flat, LSU is more than talented enough to make them pay. Side note: for all of these reasons, the MSU game and all the cowbells in Starkville later this year terrifies me.
Yeah, we thought that in 2018 and they laid a clunker at UT.
You can pick this team a part through the air. Kentucky will let you throw ~7-10 yard passes. Those were there against Florida, SC, and Mizzou, the latter was the only that actually took advantage of it (Florida just didn't call enough pass plays because Mullen doesn't trust Jones). That being said, it's hard to throw in the red zone against UK's defense. UK is kind of lucky to avoid Ole Miss, perhaps the only team in the league that could really devastate them.
The crowd Saturday was impressive, no doubt, but I don't agree with the implication that UK never has good crowds. The last two Florida games were just as rowdy but just didn't end in a field storming because those obviously didn't turn out well for the home fans. The right false starts were fun, but those were probably a product of the fact that Florida hasn't played a real away game in nearly two years. The crowd was awesome, but we've had several crowds like that over the past few seasons. Meanwhile, Kentucky's office has to get much better. I do think there's reason for hope this season where there wasn't in the past. Coen's offense has struggled the past three games and he seems to be saying the right things. Remember, this was an entirely new offense brought in. It may not get better but there is hope that it will.
I think the AR-15 hype needs to stop. He didn't play a ton, but looked very human against a non-overmatched defense. Running over FAU and USF's defense isn't all that impressive on its own. I know Mullen is getting a ton of flak right now (deservedly so) but he's more of the two in practice than anyone.
We need to put the narrative to rest that he got hurt last year because the line was terrible. That's wrong in two ways: 1. The line was actually playing decent by the time he got hurt after a horrendous start to the season and 2. The play where he got hurt wound up being a sack because no one was open and he had to hold the ball through his first few reads. Honestly, being a UK (football at least) and a Bengals fan is similarly aggravating because the media never actually watches the teams' games, but still try to comment on them like they are after a quick glance at a box score.
Look, I understand that Richardson is the next great thing. Just start him now. The last thing we want to have happen is for the Emory Jones to struggle through a quarter and half in Lexington only for AR-15 to come in and lead a comeback. I've seen that movie too many times. Just start him and let's play this one straight up from the beginning. Kentucky fans know that the most dangerous player on the other team (especially when that other team is Florida) is the backup QB.
I'm not terribly sympathetic for MSU regarding the punt return. The players are not standing around the ball because the ref blew the play dead, the ref doesn't blow the play dead until the Memphis player has the ball. Had they overruled that on replay (which they perhaps should've done though the ref beginning to blow the play dead doesn't appear to affect any MSU players effort level) then you would be rewarding MSU for a referee's mistake that didn't appear to have any bearing on the play. I'd be much more sympathetic to complaints about Memphis having two #4's on the field. That should've been called.
Okay, I understand some angst surrounding Coach Cal after last year, but you posted this right around Chris Livingston's commitment. You could divide UK's upcoming class in half and each would be in contention for the best class in America. He's embraced and is poaching top established players. I get the recent frustration but you're being willfully obtuse if you think the program is in some sort of decline.
I don't know if I'd call that making a play, Rodriguez began to reach for the end zone and just lost the ball. His second fumble was due to the defense though. I think it's apparent that the UK offense is much better this year, so I wouldn't worry too much. Mizzou ought to be way better than USC, UT, and Vandy. I don't like Florida (people forgot how bad USF is) and that's at home as is a Texas A&M team that may not be able to score. Much like Kentucky, every game left on the schedule outside of Georgia is winnable, Mizzou can have a nice year.
I only know Robert Morris for beating Kentucky in the NIT in 2013 so, as far as I'm concerned, they a athletics powerhouse in my mind.
Yeah, the quote and the article imply that there is not any sort of indoor facility at all, which isn't the case. But Mitch Barnhart indicated that it was coming (and would probably be here but for the pandemic) last week on KSR so hopefully it gets done soon.
Good luck Grant, hope to see you a lot tomorrow night!
I don't know what half the stuff in this post means but it seems amazing. Anyways, Who Dey!