Definitely not a surprise... Great guy, good teammate, good attitude. Not a great quarterback. Despite that, he somehow had some really good games here and there that would keep you on the hook wondering if he could get better? But this season kind of showed he was not progressing past the Auburn and Ole Miss games (which were both losses). Some people point to Gran, or Stoops or lack of effective receivers. But as bad as Kentucky was for a long period of time, they never had an issue with passing the ball. I'd be willing to bet the receivers we had with Dusty Bonner, Hefty Lefty, Hartline and Towles were not significantly better, but they somehow got the ball downfield. I don't know. I'm sure he had some uncertainty with a new OC and two pretty talented guys behind him in Gatewood and Allen and decided it was time to move on as opposed to a QB competition as a 5th year senior. In any case, best of luck to the kid!

I would trade a Final Four for an SEC East Championship any day... They have a long way to go for that to happen, but Stoops has put the program on the right path. They have plenty to fix at skill positions, but with Gatewood and Allen ready to take over, they have the tools if our coaches can develop them into SEC quarterbacks. If you look back to the Joker Phillips days, or even Stoops' first couple seasons as he transitioned to a head coach, it was tough to watch... At least with the current roster, they could knock off a top tier team on any given Saturday if the ball bounces the right way. Remember when there was talk about joining the ACC? Hogwash. I'd rather compete in the best football conference in America than muddle through All Cupcake Conference any day. Go Cats!

No doubt Stoops and the staff have to earn their money through development. While our recruiting classes have improved, it's still lower half of the SEC. Tough place to play, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. Love seeing these guys get a chance and take advantage of it when they do!

Wow- all I can say is wow... Super classy Vols. Thank you for that.

Tennessee's D-Line did not play badly. Cats may have put some drives together in the 2nd half, but that seemed more to do with how TN decided to move around their defensive schemes. Seems more likely that JP would have fired his quarterback coach. Take away the two pick 6's and it's a 20-7 game.

Even with an extremely small sample size, it would be hard to keep Gatewood off the field. I think Terry starts the game and he stays in as long as he's effective. But if he makes some mental mistakes and the offense stalls, Joey should get some snaps to mix it up. But you can't blame drops and costly drive ending penalties on the QB. The defense has to replicate some of last week's success... They are surely better than they played in the first two weeks, but surely not as good as they seemed with Miss State. I think this will be a close game and decided on a handful of plays...

That's how we feel losing to Mizzou... Oh I forgot, we don't. And I'm willing to bet you won't beat either KY or SC this season, but good luck with that!

Booches, you are wrong when you say the SEC isn't competitively deep. 5 or 10 years ago and you may be right, but with the coaches we have now, it's a tough conference that beats each other up like in football... This season you could look at TN, FL, AR, MS State, AL, GA, MS, AU, LSU among others that are full of athletes and scorers... The schedule is a grind. It may be down a little over last year, but the quality of the overall schedule is still a good one. Teams like Dayton and SD State may have great records, but they're not out there playing physical talented teams twice a week and getting the snot beat out of them... I have more respect for SEC basketball now than ever before.

I wouldn't even give them credit for being a Florida State or Miami (since UL can't even beat them in their worst years) but I get your point... If their fans weren't so out of touch with what kind of team they actually are as opposed to who they think they should be. Do you realize they were a win or two away from playing in the Orange Bowl??? I can barely stomach it. If they played in the SEC they'd be a 2-3 win team. Dreadful

Kentucky will be more talented and have a better team than Looserville, but again, they play in the ACC and they'll notch another 8-9 wins against that competition. In fact, I think UK will dominate them again head to head. They're a small team and they haven't added enough pieces to make a difference. Either way, I can't wait for the season to start!

Imagine if USC or some other California team won the natty- wonder if they'd boycott the White House? Joe Burrow was classy- that kid is headed for big things

A "successful" UK program should be able to beat Florida once or twice a decade and the same thing with Georgia. Tennessee has had terrible luck with coaches, but has somehow managed to recruit good athletes. With the recruiting base for 4 and 5 star athletes being so small in-state, we're always going to lag behind other SEC schools. We're blessed with a good coaching staff that's developed players beyond the "stars" assigned by recruiting services. Recently, they've actually been able to land some high end talent that should pay off in the next couple of years. Call me crazy, but have an occasional 10 win season, beat traditional powerhouses once in awhile, and we'll be happy with that. Give us an occasional special season where we have the chance to play in Atlanta. It's a tough conference, but I wouldn't trade that for anything. Teams outside of the SEC will never get what it's like to look at the schedule and see that you're going to play regular season games against some of the best programs in history...

I hate to say it, but I felt that this game was a loss for the Dawgs before the kickoff after the altercation at practice. No doubt Louisville was playing a depleted team, but Miss State still had better athletes against a small (albeit quick) Louisville team. Why they got away from the RPO's is beyond me (refer to their second drive that went 99 yards pretty much unchallenged). The staff had a month to figure out how to exploit a very thin and untalented defense and how to contain the Louisville offense and they just didn't do it. I don't blame Miss State fans for being pissed off...

I'd almost like to see Sawyer Smith play QB in this one and reduce the chance for Bowden to get hurt. Sawyer looked pretty sharp in the first half against Florida until he hurt his wrist and I don't think VT is preparing for much of a passing game. They've had a month to look at tape and I think Bowden is going to take a beating if he plays QB against a good defense...

If you've never been to Lexington, it's a pretty cool city (town). In addition to that, the football facilities have gone through a major upgrade in the last couple of years thanks to an AD who finally put money behind it. Despite the reputation as a basketball school, Kentucky fans love football in the SEC. While we don't put the same number of fans in the stadium as other SEC schools, Commonwealth Stadium is a great place to watch a football game with tailgating, facilities, etc... On top of that, Stoops finally has positive momentum to sell these kids, and a staff that does a great job promoting the program. And playing in the SEC vs some Big 10 or ACC school is where kids want to be. Play the best teams and compete with the best teams in the most historic conference in college football.

Joker's records in his 3 season were 6-7, 5-7 and 2-10. Mark Stoops is 2-10, 5-7, 5-7, 7-6, 7-6, 10-3 and 7-5. In Joker's 2010 season his out of conference games were UofL, Western KY, Akron, Charleston Southern. In 2011 he played Western KY, Central Michigan and Jacksonville State. His undoing came in 2012 when his schedule was Kent State, Western Kentucky (Loss) and Samford. In addition to the same 'baby seal' games, his recruiting was not only bad, it was trending worse. Stoops has trended up in both recruiting as well as wins and losses. I liked Joker as an OC. When they named him HC in waiting when Brooks was retiring I thought it was the right move. But his teams were not getting any better and he wasn't bringing in any talented kids. That put Mitch in a tough spot and he had to go... On to your point about playing better non-conference games... I do think they're finally in a position to remove a MAC-type team and replace it with a power 5 program. But there would be no point in jumping into that when they've been building where they are now. The Citrus Bowl last year is exactly what they needed to land the current recruiting class and they wouldn't have gotten there without a 9-3 regular conference record. You've got to give this time, but Stoops is headed for the best win-loss total since Bear Bryant and that's saying something. I also agree with some of your takes on developing a solid HS QB. We've had talent with Gunner, Danny Clark, Patrick Towles and Drew Barker and none of those have really panned out. I think they need to recruit a QB that's effective in the RPO as is the case with Terry and Stephen Johnson. Beau Allen is a decent runner, and the kid from Auburn fits right into this. However, I'm not going to second guess what the staff has done with the results they've had...

UofL is awful- the only way Miss State can lose is if the players don't want to be there and they don't show up to play. Hopefully Moorhead can avoid that. Aside from the UK game, I'll be rooting almost as hard for Miss State and Indiana (can't believe I'm writing this)...

I live in Louisville. Love the city. Hate UofL anything. I was listening to the local AM sports radio, and they actually have the nerve to discredit Miss State as a less than sexy opponent. In my mind I'm thinking the Miss State fans can't be overly excited to play a team like UofL. The Dirty Birds think way too highly of themselves. I hope the Bulldogs beat them by 45 points. To all the other posts on here, run the ball and put a little pressure on their QB. They are a God awful excuse for a football team. Their 7-5 record in the ACC would be 2-10 in the SEC. Go Dawgs!

Why don't you throw your name in the hat to coach our team? You obviously know everything about everything. I'd love to see how 'our version of Paris' would work out! Haha. See if we can get our SEC West Match up switched to Alabama to boost our strength of schedule. Maybe eliminate the series with Louisville in favor of Clemson. I'm sure South Carolina fans would happily agree to that trade. And in all honesty, get Mitch to approve alcohol sales, because it will be fun to watch you on the sidelines while drinking a frosty beer.

So would you be happier if they swapped their "Baby Seal" games for Clemson, Notre Dame and Penn State and missed a Bowl Game to prove your point? There seems to be a small part of our fan base that doesn't remember the state of the program coming out of the Joker era. The cupboard was bare for talent. This staff and AD have built a solid program that's had 4 consecutive 7 win seasons for only the 2nd time in school history. We're still not ready for a top 10 strength of schedule. And honestly when you play a schedule that's built in with Florida, Georgia, Tennessee (which looks to be improving), Miss State as well as a game with SEC West, why do we need to go out and schedule tough non conference games outside of Louisville? We need the extra practice a bowl game gives us. Even with the recruiting class we've got coming in, Kentucky will be on the bottom half of rankings in the SEC. It's always going to be hard. I'm pretty pleased with what this staff and team has been able to do. Be competitive, get 7-9 wins a year, occasionally beat a Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and this fan base should be ecstatic.

Paris, please tell me who you think is a better available coach that would come to Lexington? Please- who??? I'm always amazed at how delusional your posts are. Stoops has built a solid program and has done well with what talent he's had to work with. If he leaves, we likely lose a pretty good recruiting class only to have some up and coming coordinator come in and install a new game plan and we start over. The vast majority of fans recognize what a solid job he's done and are grateful for his hard work. The SEC is tough every year. There are more recruits in the greater Atlanta area than in our whole state. It's just a fact. The only way Kentucky remains competitive is with a consistent coaching staff and developing our 3 and 4 star players. We should be satisfied with that- and when we have a 10 or 11 win season every so often it will be a special season. I'd much rather be competitive in a conference as great as the SEC than go to conference championship in the ACC or Big 10. With all that said, I'll hope that I don't have an opportunity to say "I told you so"...

I assume you think that the stadium enhancements, and recruiting/practice facilities were brought about by somebody other than Mitch/Stoops? When you look back at Stoops coming here for his first head coaching job, you can see how he's improved over the years. He looked lost in clock management and personnel issues. He didn't know if he should be coaching or trusting his coordinators. Every year he's gotten better in coaching "in the game" and his ability to actually "coach" players during practice to develop talent has never been in question. It's not easy to recruit to KY and compete in the hardest conference in football. Ask TN. Ask Mizzou. Ask SC. Ask either school in MS. I love where Stoops and the staff have taken KY. I suppose you don't remember when we NEVER competed against anyone except Vandy? And maybe Miss State? And it's not a fluke. Mitch gave Stoops enough time to build a program the right way. Run the ball. Redshirt kids to build depth. This year was going to be tough with a young secondary and losing Benny and Allen. But what they showed in the FL game demonstrated that we can play with about anyone in the SEC (exclude GA, Bama and probably LSU). That makes my Saturdays fun. I hate that we made mistakes against FL- but given that we were down two safties and a DE from an already young defense, what can you do but try to zone it up and hope the front seven can make a play. And they almost did it. Should have done it. KY is where it needs to be. And will continue to be. And that's better for the whole conference.

Mizzou L, KY L, GA L, FL L, TN W... Couldn't make me much happier. SC fans are delusional in thinking they're actually better than they are.