The pressure on Stoops shouldn't just be to win more games. I mean they've been a football program for 120+ years and played in 15 bowl games....winning games at Kentucky is very difficult and its not something very many coaches have done in their history. Kentucky plays in the toughest conference in the country and...even though their fans may not want to acknowledge it or admit it...they have one of the bottom tier "Power 5" programs in the country. They're a program with no history, no in state talent, at a basketball first school in a football first conference....changing over a century of losing tradition isn't going to be done over night and its ESPECIALLY not going to be done over night in the SEC. So to expect Stoops to come in and just start sending UK to bowl games (for reference UK goes to a bowl game about once every 8 years on average) after 2-3 seasons is sort of crazy.
Now, what Stoops has had fall in his lap that has been really, really rare for the state of Kentucky is having highly rated in-state talent be available as soon as he took the job. Its rare that kids like Drew Barker, Tate Leavitt, Landon Young, Matt Elam, Kash Daniel, etc were produced in Kentucky. So he's benefited greatly from a rare insurgance of in state talent. He's been very impressive on the recruiting trail but it seems to me that he and Vince Marrow probably aren't the best coaches to scout talent. They're either relying too much on rankings, are terrible scouts, or they have absolutely no ability to coach and develop talent. We're coming into Stoops 4th season and you would be hard pressed to find a single player who's gotten substantially better. Maybe I'm spoiled because Bobby Petrino is one of the best coaches in the country at not relying on rankings or stars and relying more on his scouting ability and system fit but Stoops has been terrible at developing talent.
Another aspect Stoops has been terrible at is actual in game coaching and management. Stoops made the huge-huge mistake when he was hired - as a first time HC - that he brought in young, inexperienced position coaches and coordinators. Kentucky was basically an entire coaching staff of men that had no idea how to coach, game plan or manage a team. Bringing in Eddie Gran should help with that some but he still doesn't have a ton of experience on his staff and its shown these past 3 years. Petrino basically ran the same plays all game last year - just out of different formations and Stoops was completely clueless as to how to stop them. Not only that but his golden boy QB, his 4-star Army All American - who redshirted and has been with UK for 2 years was absolutely destroyed by a 3 star kid who had been on campus 4-5 months by the time he took the field that day.
Stoops has been bad - 0-9 against UL, UT and UF, 1-2 vs Vandy...4-20 vs the SEC losing by 20 points per game . Stoops has been bad....here's what I've told all of my UK friends that are big football guys....completely forget that Stoops has recruited well at Kentucky the last 4 years...look at his stats and remember what you've seen from him these 3 seasons. If you completely remove his recruiting classes from the equation he's been a train wreck. Stoops doesn't necessarily need to take UK to a bowl game - like I said thats a rare occurrence in its own right. He just has to show signs that he's a competent HC. He has to not allow his team to collapse during the second half of the season or make dumb coaching decisions during games or come out of timeouts with 9 guys on the field or not completely bungle the goal line offense or begin to show that some of these highly ranked kids have actually gotten better. UK doesn't have to win 6 games this year to show improvement...they literally just have to show signs that the program is headed in the right direction. Because the last 3 years have been small glimpses of moving forward, surrounded by huge glimpses that the program is a complete dumpster fire and Stoops isn't close to capable of putting it out.
