The worst thing for me with Jurich being gone is we get to be reintroduced to the talents of the Big EZ. As far as I'm concerned if he was chased from town by Jurich Tom should get a lifetime achievement award. That said...when the postmortem is truly written on Tom's tenure there ought to be a forward, about half of the chapters in the book and an acknowledgment at the end of just how much capital was burned by Jurich protecting Steve Kragthorpe. It cost us with the Brohms. Local sportstalk became even more factionalized and I think was exacerbated by WHAS' contract with UK happening at virtually the same time. Cooper was costly to the extent he was simply in over his head; Kragthorpe was just wholly incompetent and cost us in ways inconceivable because when he was hired we were among the hottest programs in college football and we returned ALOT of talent only to have it spun otherwise.
* I think we have grown so accustomed to losing "early commits" in football and basketball that we may be overlooking the quality of signing of Marcus Riley and Trennel Troutman. You see four star, you hear about how good they are for two years and if you're like me you immediately write them off when you hear them committing early or before their Junior Year.
* One thing that does remain was something I had feared that seems to be unique to our "market" with the rehiring of Petrino; whatever negative commentary will be greater felt locally and in Petrino's four years back he hasn't really landed a high impact recruit from Jefferson County has he? With Strong it was somewhat assumed that they would come here and they were committing early. As I've stated ad nauseum, we're not beating Ohio State for a kid out of Columbus or Cincinnati, Michigan for a kid in Detroit or Notre Dame for a kid from Chicago. So when one of those schools comes in and inks a kid in what isn't even a Big Ten market it's something that kind of ticks me off. Spare me the "some kids just want to go away to college" spiel...I think that's largely a Wive's Tale.
*...but this is shaping up to be a good class nonetheless. If Bonnito does end up at Texas that will be very disappointing to me because he's exactly what we need to have in abundance defensively. Some of our keeps defensively in Goldwire, Riley and Troutman come with great credentials and I think Hicks is a critical piece given the lack of development to this point of Amonte Caban and to some extent PJ Blue (though Blue is likely injury related). Most programs don't rotate multiple linebackers in the middle these days, so having someone to complement Etheridge is important.
...I would love to see Tank Jenkins and another impact front seven guy to fill out the class. I'm like Mark Ennis in being mystified at this offense's lack of getting a real top of the line prep running back outside of Wilson in Petrino's four years here. Hell they were falling in his lap and he had Gates as a junior, Eric Shelton transferring in from Florida State and in a redshirt year and signed Michael Bush and Kolby Smith before we even took the field against Kentucky his first stint. I thought Anthony Allen after George Stripling were perfect back-to-back signees to finish out his last class in his first stint. It's really baffling.
* Nigel Kilby might end up being the signing of the class as far as pro potential.
* To me the basketball attendance isn't a mystery at all. The one game I went to with my family was the season opener and I walked into the arena almost queasy. The kids are great, they deserve our support...but our fanbase has always been a little reactionary. I suspect most fans are a little like myself in looking up at the banners knowing there is going to be redaction, and it makes me madder than Hell.
We're not coming because the caliber of competition has been weak, which has been the case in December games outside of UK since we're gone into the YUM Center; the fact is the garden variety Louisville fan was priced out of season tickets when we moved down there. And that garden variety Louisville fan is fatigued from having almost constantly been put on trial the last five years. We are all that remains...there's no Pitino, we still don't formally know who was involved from among the players though it seems to be Behanen, Montrezl and Terry. There are no assistants from the Championship stretch left. No AD. No President. Hell if you find yourself rewatching the 2013 Title game and look behind the bench at all the family members of the Van Treese's, the Hancocks, the Pitino's, Big Russ, President Ramsey, Jurich and his familiy, Charlie Strong with Pat Moorer. They are all gone. None of the current players were involved. It's just us...and we're a little sick of getting dumped on.
* I think we have grown so accustomed to losing "early commits" in football and basketball that we may be overlooking the quality of signing of Marcus Riley and Trennel Troutman. You see four star, you hear about how good they are for two years and if you're like me you immediately write them off when you hear them committing early or before their Junior Year.
* One thing that does remain was something I had feared that seems to be unique to our "market" with the rehiring of Petrino; whatever negative commentary will be greater felt locally and in Petrino's four years back he hasn't really landed a high impact recruit from Jefferson County has he? With Strong it was somewhat assumed that they would come here and they were committing early. As I've stated ad nauseum, we're not beating Ohio State for a kid out of Columbus or Cincinnati, Michigan for a kid in Detroit or Notre Dame for a kid from Chicago. So when one of those schools comes in and inks a kid in what isn't even a Big Ten market it's something that kind of ticks me off. Spare me the "some kids just want to go away to college" spiel...I think that's largely a Wive's Tale.
*...but this is shaping up to be a good class nonetheless. If Bonnito does end up at Texas that will be very disappointing to me because he's exactly what we need to have in abundance defensively. Some of our keeps defensively in Goldwire, Riley and Troutman come with great credentials and I think Hicks is a critical piece given the lack of development to this point of Amonte Caban and to some extent PJ Blue (though Blue is likely injury related). Most programs don't rotate multiple linebackers in the middle these days, so having someone to complement Etheridge is important.
...I would love to see Tank Jenkins and another impact front seven guy to fill out the class. I'm like Mark Ennis in being mystified at this offense's lack of getting a real top of the line prep running back outside of Wilson in Petrino's four years here. Hell they were falling in his lap and he had Gates as a junior, Eric Shelton transferring in from Florida State and in a redshirt year and signed Michael Bush and Kolby Smith before we even took the field against Kentucky his first stint. I thought Anthony Allen after George Stripling were perfect back-to-back signees to finish out his last class in his first stint. It's really baffling.
* Nigel Kilby might end up being the signing of the class as far as pro potential.
* To me the basketball attendance isn't a mystery at all. The one game I went to with my family was the season opener and I walked into the arena almost queasy. The kids are great, they deserve our support...but our fanbase has always been a little reactionary. I suspect most fans are a little like myself in looking up at the banners knowing there is going to be redaction, and it makes me madder than Hell.
We're not coming because the caliber of competition has been weak, which has been the case in December games outside of UK since we're gone into the YUM Center; the fact is the garden variety Louisville fan was priced out of season tickets when we moved down there. And that garden variety Louisville fan is fatigued from having almost constantly been put on trial the last five years. We are all that remains...there's no Pitino, we still don't formally know who was involved from among the players though it seems to be Behanen, Montrezl and Terry. There are no assistants from the Championship stretch left. No AD. No President. Hell if you find yourself rewatching the 2013 Title game and look behind the bench at all the family members of the Van Treese's, the Hancocks, the Pitino's, Big Russ, President Ramsey, Jurich and his familiy, Charlie Strong with Pat Moorer. They are all gone. None of the current players were involved. It's just us...and we're a little sick of getting dumped on.
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