Wednesday, May 26, 2010

The UK vs UL Football Rivalry Begins Now!


The first of a million to come UK vs UL, C Strong vs J Phillips articles is out. A bleacherreport article compares the history of the programs, coaching, recruiting, bowls, etc. Both programs look to be on the way up!

3 comments:

  1. I made the following comments on their report, which is how I feel about the situation. I don't have a lot to add to it, but I do wish some of our fans on here would read the article and vote for Joker at the top right of the article.

    You can read my comments either here or there:

    I think UK has a lot of advantages in the long run. UL caught lightning in a bottle with Petrino and some excellent local talent and benefited from some very good transfers.

    Although it turned into a very close game last year because of three straight turnovers by UK (and UK's win was helped by a UL fumble) it was pretty obvious from the season records that UK had more talent. What has changed? UL had a very good recruiting class, but UK's was about the same, no big gain. The big difference is in the redshirts, and there UK has a huge advantage, to me.

    So UK "should" win this year, and they "should" have a good season. If they do some of those UL commits could switch to UK. UK is doing great with their new coaches recruiting for 2011.

    Bottom line UK is ahead now. UL will improve a great deal under Strong. But with the moves Joker has been making UK will improve a great deal also, it is already showing up. With their head start I don't think UL will catch them. I don't think you give Joker nearly enough credit here.

    The kicker to me is that if Strong is able to defeat UK in the next year or two and get to a decent bowl game he will probably be coaching in the SEC before he gets to a BCS bowl.

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  2. ^ You make two EXCELLENT points. First, UofL's rise was a perfect storm -- Petrino was good, the local talent was outstanding and UK was on probation.

    Secondly, UofL is in an awkward position -- the only way they keep Charlie Strong is if he is unsuccessful. If he wins, he is gone in 3-4 years, max. If he loses, he may still be gone in 3-4 years. The term "Catch 22" is often tossed about inappropriately. But in this case, it fits like a glove. The only way Strong stays at UofL is if he loses, but if he loses, they fire him.

    Personally, I think Strong will win enough to get a better offer, but not enough to get to a BCS Bowl.

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  3. Oops. I am a stickler for accuracy on the rules, very few fans realize how involved they are. Since Guy never had possession of the ball on the punt it was a muff, not a fumble, but on a punt that allows team possession to change.

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