That's why i laugh at them and the media for giving him all this credit without really paying attention to the actual teams . Yeah they are improved on the field but heck he is what the longest tenured coach in the SEC. So yell they should have better play on the field. As Florida and Tenn as you stated have been in flux over the years . And Napier gonna have them rolling sooner rather than later.
There is absolutely no denying that Mark Stoops has changed the perception of UK football. For whatever reason Barnhart has given him a blank check and they've invested millions into the program and staff over the last decade. Stoops embraced the "win at all cost" SEC mentality and brought on kids tossed out of other programs, dismissed run ins with the law and generally has done whatever it took to get talent on the field. UK football is in a place its never been. But.....the perception that the fans and a lot of the media have is that Stoops is a miracle worker and an amazing coach.
If we were to tier the SEC (including Texas and Oklahoma) historically we could put teams into 4 tiers:
Tier 1: Florida/UGA/UT/Bama/LSU/Texas/Oklahoma
Tier 2: Auburn/Texas A&M/Ole Miss
Tier 3: Arkansas/Mississippi State/South Carolina/Missouri
Tier 4: Vandy/UK
Stoops has elevated them to Tier 3 status. They're certainly the worst team on that tier but UK is still is a bottom 5 program in their own conference. Stoops has made UK respectable and has some good wins and while its unfair to say its smoke and mirrors - its not entirely what it seems. His record against the 8 current members I listed in the top 2 tiers is 6-34. Those 6 wins?
Tennessee 2017 (4-8) - Butch Jones is fired
Tennessee 2020 (3-7) - Jeremy Pruitt is fired
LSU 2021 - (6-7) - Ed Ogeron is fired
Florida 2018 - (10-3) Dan Mullen's first season
Florida 2021 - (6-7) Dan Mullen fired
Florida 2022 - (6-7) Billy Napier's first season
4 out of the 6 times UK has beaten a top tier team - that coach was fired the same season and in all 6 instances the coach was either fired the same year or it was the first year for a new coach.
of his 32 conference wins:
20 of them were against teams that finished the season with a losing record.
5 of them were against teams that finished with 8+ wins.
2 of them were against teams that finished with 9 wins.
1 of them was against a team that finished with 10 wins.
He has beaten two SEC teams that finished the season with a winning conference record.
When they won 10 games in 2021 the only two teams they beat that year that finished the season with a winning record were: 6-5 Chattanooga and 7-6 South Carolina.
When you really start digging into his record its absolutely astonishing that he's gotten the contract he's gotten. Its crazy to think that if you just took Missouri and South Carolina off his resume he'd have 100% already been fired and instead he's signed one of the most insane contracts in college football.
This doesn't even factor in the fact that EVERY year they're decent he's racked up a bad loss.
2022 - Loses to Vanderbilt at home. Gets absolutely demolished by UT.
2021 - Came in 6-1 and then loses back to back games against Miss State and UT teams that finished 7-6
2020 - Weren't good, no really bad losses.
2019 - Loses back to back games vs Miss State and Carolina. Both finished w/losing records
2018 - Was 7-2 and lost to a UT team that finished 5-7
2017 - Lost to a UF team at home that finished 4-7
2016 - Opened the season losing to Southern Miss.
2015 - Lost to Vanderbilt
2014 - Weren't good, no really bad losses.
2013 - Open his tenure losing to WKU.