Kentucky Sports Radio
[Moderated by Matt Jones, Drew Franklin and Tyler Thompson]
[Moderated by Matt Jones, Drew Franklin and Tyler Thompson]
It’s been exactly one hundred days since that fateful moment when Twitter accounts in Kentucky exploded with heart-felt “STOOOOOOOOPS!” and hundreds of puns that never seem to run out (looking at you, “Stooping ice cream”). Let’s take a look at what Stoops has managed to accomplish in such a short time.
-An absolute circus of an introductory press conference. Stoops, Mitch Barnhart, and the UK Athletics department pulled out bells, whistles, smoke, mirrors, strobe lights, and more at a party disguised as a press conference; as Caroline Hall told me, “the only thing missing was an open bar.” Stoops’ press conference was the equivalent of the Ray Lewis dance entering the stadium, and the excitement has only risen from there.
-Hiring Neal Brown. Brown spearheaded one of the most productive and exciting offenses in the nation last year at Texas Tech, and as a Kentucky native and former UK wide receiver, luring Brown to Lexington was a huge “get” for Stoops. Cue the Air Raid sirens in Commonwealth, y’all.
-Landing Kentucky’s highest-ranked recruiting class in his first season. After barely two months on the job, Stoops had a signing day that Kentucky fans had been dreaming of for years that ended up being the 28th-ranked class in the country. More specifically, Stoops exploited some Ohio connections and converted four-star defensive end Jason Hatcher from University of Southern California to his home state school. He also landed hometown hero Ryan Timmons, who had offers from Ohio State and Florida. Stoops recruited aggressively right off the bat, making it known that Kentucky was no longer content to sit at the bottom of the SEC.
-Selling over 33,000 tickets for the Spring Game. Let’s put that into perspective- that’s about 4,000 more people that attended Kentucky’s football game against Vandy last fall. At this rate, Commonwealth Stadium will have a Top 15 crowd watching the Cats scrimmage under the new Stoops and company. The Spring Game sales are just further proof that the fans have completely bought into what Stoops is selling.
-A Thursday night prime time game against Mississippi State. Okay, so maybe this was less Stoops and more ESPN, but the scheduling change still shows that Stoops has made a splash nationwide in a very short time.
-Making it a normal to be feel excited about football in February. I know, I know- it was weird at first. Slowly but surely, however, Kentucky fans have become accustomed to spending dreary February days in their cubicles daydreaming not about the squeak of sneakers on hardwood floor, but the boom of the “FIRST DOWWWWNNN, KENTUCKY!” and the smell of burgers grilling in the parking lot at Commonwealth. For as long as I can remember, football has been secondary to basketball in Lexington, and with everything Stoops and his staff have accomplished so far, it seems like the times they are a-changin’. All of the bullet points above are just an elaborate way of saying that Stoops has risen the excitement level surrounding the program to unprecedented heights- and if current trends hold, he’s not done yet.
As a side note, BBN, it’s perfectly okay to be as enthusiastic (or more so as the case may be) about football as you are about basketball. Whoever told you it’s impossible to have two best friends is a liar.
If that’s what Stoops can do in a mere one hundred days, I’m almost scared to see what will happen in the next one hundred once the team actually starts practicing. The Stoops Effect is real, and it’s hit Lexington like a hurricane. Enjoy the ride.
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Bill Keightley Report : Never to be forgotten.
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March 7th, 2013 at 12:37 pm
If there was an open bar at the press conference, Matt, Drew and I’s dancing would’ve been much more entertaining.
March 7th, 2013 at 12:38 pm
What about the Super Bowl commerical?
March 7th, 2013 at 12:52 pm
Good point #2. What Stoops has done since arriving in LEXtown is nothing short of a bluegrass miracle. The Stoops train is taking off and if you’re not on board you’re gonna get ran over. We need to get “The Wealth” rockin!!! No more sitting on our hands and socializing the whole game
March 7th, 2013 at 12:54 pm
uks 2013 recruit rankings
scout – 39th class
247sports – 36th class
rivals – 29th class
March 7th, 2013 at 12:56 pm
Stoops has given me one ^^
March 7th, 2013 at 1:20 pm
You do realize that having a Thursday night “prime-time game” isn’t any sort of accomplishment. For years UK fans make fun of UofL playing on ESPN weird nights of the week and now claim that its an honor when UK does it.
March 7th, 2013 at 1:42 pm
6/ Yeah, some idiotic fans did make fun of the Thursday night games. I never understood that. Those games gave UL a lot of exposure. Common sense is that the Thursday night game is going to be on TV at every sports bar and fan’s TV in the country. Throw in an exciting offense and good defense and you have an excellent recruiting tool. I love Thursday night games.
March 7th, 2013 at 1:44 pm
This was always doable, it’s just now we finally have a coach with the mindset, guts, determination, and all important intelligence to flip the program upside down & start doing everything different. The only problem, old BBN & even younger BBN resist change like UK admin resisted doing something to fix football; the two went hand in hand. Then again, it’s sometimes hard to give credit for doing something that we should have always been doing.
#6 We we’re making fun of UL when Thursday night football on ESPN was a joke when they aired only no name teams. Thursday night football on ESPN changed when ESPN finally convinced big name schools to start playing on Thursday nights. Now with the NFL doing the same thing, ESPN ratings getting hit, they need to come up with something new.
March 7th, 2013 at 1:58 pm
Is that Thursday night game with MSU on Halloween?
March 7th, 2013 at 2:32 pm
#9 smell that? Smells like a blackout…
March 7th, 2013 at 2:54 pm
Season ticket holder since 77 –most excited I’ve been about KY football in 5 years. Go CATS — STOOPS !!!!!
March 7th, 2013 at 2:54 pm
9. The Thursday night game is Oct 24th in Starkville, week before Halloween
March 7th, 2013 at 3:00 pm
10 – Every Thursday night in Starkville, MS is a blackout. Smells included.
March 7th, 2013 at 5:51 pm
Hey Kristen…Guess your boss is a liar because he constantly said that KENTUCKY fans could care less about being a football school also…Ain’t that right Mr. Jones…..
March 7th, 2013 at 8:27 pm
Not trying to take anything away from Stoops but Kentucky fans were loosing their minds watching Joker ball. Finally we shouldn’t see a bubble screen on 3rd and 13 EVERYTIME we are 3rd and more than 6. And hopefully won’t be there all that often. That goes for the Brooks era as well, jus had the athletes to overcome the play calls