Yeah, he brings up Ed Reed and his connection every now and then in conversation. The plus side of him developing the talent is the coordinators are better, so if he does leave perhaps the AD can get one of the two coordinators to stay. Still UK actually pays Stoops pretty well, so smaller schools with a need don't bother me as much like somebody like Nebraska does.
In my experience at a program like UK that doesn't have consistent football history, it is about not continually resetting the coaching style while you bring new coaches in. In the past they'd have a pro style offense, and then bring in a spread guy. But they wouldn't have enough talent at WR to play the spread so they would take a bunch of Ls waiting for that to come in, people would bitch about it, coach would get fired, and then by the time they hired the next pro style guy, they would have spread talent. So after every coaching change it would be like a three year turnaround in playstyles with two or three win seasons. Or like Joker you could just hire a guy who is suited for coordinator positions but not being the head coach and have that blow up in your face.
Probably wouldn't be as bad with the transfer portal being what it is...........but I don't want to find out.
Earlier: Vandy had two 9 win seasons instead of ten wins like I remember. Still a program like Vandy with way higher academic standards than anybody else in the conference should not have had more success than UK as a program in that stretch, but that is how bare the cupboard was when Stoops took over.
