lawdog22

Honestly? No one really knows because it just appears to be something different every week. The one consistent is that the O Line is absolutely horrible. Levis has played hurt/running for his life all season. The defense was solid until Tennessee when it went back to Joker Phillips era levels of bad. But then it bounced back, played really well, then today happened and Vandy looked like a running juggernaut. It's just mystifying at this point. The only explanation I can come up with is that it's karma for Mark Stoops taking a shot at Calipari calling Kentucky a basketball school/former players bringing up the loss to St. Peters.

Correction - the loss 100% spoils Kentucky's season. Came in with projections to win between 7-9, outside chance at 10 with a top ten NFL draft pick QB and one of the best backs in the league. Instead going to likely finish with 6 wins and get blown out by Georgia. This is the most disappointing season UK has had maybe ever when compared to preseason expectations.

He was excellent in protection last week. Had the block of the night. He'll get there.

UT beat Arizona THIS YEAR. And LOST to Villanova. By 18. At home. It's easier to imagine them beating Arizona than Villanova given it has already happened once and UT is red hot. Villanova, on the other hand, is a big matchup problem for UT and gave Chandler and James fits. The biggest question for UT is going to be how far have Chandler and James come since that game. The biggest thing in UT's way (when they have good teams) now is the same thing that historically gets in UK's way in football (when we have good teams). They're just snakebit. I'd be more worried, in many ways, about that second round game ATM. CSU's David Roddy could go for a 40 piece. Michigan is better than their record. Both of those things spell trouble for a team fighting curses. For the record - I think UT is the best team in the country right now. It's just a question of closing loops.

I know money talks, but I just don't see Stoops leaving. He is making over $5 million a year, gets bonuses for bowls and wins over 6. He is finally in a place where he is genuinely competing with schools like LSU and Florida for out of state recruits. Speaking of which, both are about to retool, and could have a down year or two ahead of them. If he wins 7+ at UK every year he will be here as long as he wants and they will eventually name everything after him. That said. One thing I can see motivating him to leave: SEC expansion. Nine plus SEC games every year is exactly what UK did NOT need at this time. We are finally turning the corner and winning seasons in the SEC, in its current form, could become normal. But add Oklahoma and Texas into the mix and potential realignment. For example, imagine if there is a new SEC east without a pod system that slaps Alabama and Auburn in there. Might be good for recruiting, but UK is not ready to compete with Bama at all and is just now getting its nose under the tent in terms of competing with Auburn consistently. The truth is that expansion just as UK was gaining true respectability in this league is bad news for the Cats. Might make Stoops roll the dice elsewhere.

I do. We've got a lot coming back, but it's a lot coming back from the worst season in program history. There are questions in the front court about defense/rebounding. Oscar Tshiebwe is a proven commodity in the Big 12, but can Kellan Grady adjust to the SEC quickly enough? Will Toppin and Brooks make the jump they need?

I swear some of y'all are just hell bent on jinxing this team.

I think you guys will get us pretty handily, honestly. It's not that we aren't good because we are. It's just that this team is still putting it together with a new offensive scheme. Next year could be different though.

I just keep reminding myself: old Kentucky would be 1-2 right now.

Yeah if anything Wilks should be proud of some of the things MU was able to do given that UK has one of the top three offensive lines in the SEC, meaning easily top six or seven in the country.

100%. Showing he can catch the ball shows he is a legit 3 tool guy. He can pass protect, run, and catch. Every first string NFL back has to be able to do that. Sadly for UK, I'm pretty sure that means he is gone after this year. Wouldn't be surprised to see him sneak into the second round if he keeps showing he can catch the ball/avoids fumbles.

Even better money, really. G-League contracts for high schoolers are max around 500K. More marginal guys, like Kai Sotto, make a lot less. A future first round draft pick at a place like UK? They can make seven figures easy.

Yeah that doesn't make any sense to me. If anything he should have gone up. UK's run defense made the guy end up throwing 50 times and he wound up with 4 TDs and only 1 pick. A lesser QB would have also melted after throwing that awful pick right after the half. Instead, he brought MU back from 28-14 and nearly won a game MU had no business winning.

ETSU picked him twice and he averaged about 5.5 yards per attempt in that game. And Seals threw three more picks than Nix even though he played fewer games. C'mon now.

For reference, South Carolina State's QB did basically just as well against Clemson as JT Daniels and generated exactly as much offense. With basically zero help. I know everyone has decided that JT Daniels (who has the weirdest eyebrows in the SEC since Anthony Davis) is the next coming, but his best numbers came against MSU last year and they were absolutely horrible. Not to mention beating CU at the buzzer.

Glad to see Tyler's out there living his best life

I think they're actually basing that off of the Fordham game, not the Illinois game. Martinez was pretty pedestrian in that one.

Definitely early and definitely against a bad team, but that's what a really good football team is supposed to do to a bad team: bully them into the ground. Without those turnovers the score would have been more like 59-0.

You know what? I think every year we should have a bowl game between the worst two power five teams right before the national championship.

I'm trying to temper my excitement, but the fact is they haven't even opened up the playbook. For example, Coen's system uses a lot of tight end plays and they haven't even called one yet. So far they're just playing a lot of back yard football. Run down the field and sling it. And the fact that's working is..... I mean...

I don't think Heupel really opened up the playbook here. If UT has any shot of getting SEC wins, they need to be able to surprise people on film. Heupel and team called a super boring game. By keeping this one simple, nobody really got a good idea of what the offense might look like opened wide up. UT have back to back winnable SEC games in MU and SC. They need to have some things up their sleeve to do that.