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dethbylt
09-16-2012, 07:32 PM
First things first: the source of my information is a print copy of ESPN The Magazine and I have been unable to find an online copy for linking. I will keep looking. It is the "Franchise" issue.

The article ranked all college football teams over the expected lifetime of the average fan using multiple criteria: football income, recruiting, championship potential, facilities, and player development to name a few.

UK was squarely in the 60's in the recruiting and facilities but the thing that struck me was that player development and performance was in the 90's. It seems that the development of players below their potential is the difference from the Brooks to CJP tenures. I realize that this span includes both the CRB and CJP tenures among others. I would wager that a breakdown of both tenures would show CRB developing players above their talent level and CJP doing the opposite.

If the coaches don't push the players to play above their level, the players won't feel challenged or motivated. They become timid. I always remembered CRB having hard hitting fired up teams even when they were outmatched. I just don't see that any more. Am I missing something? Even with poor recruiting (UK is consistently in the middle of the pack nationwide or higher), you can't win if the players don't play above their level.

Bottom line, I think UK players aren't being pushed to outperform expectations and it leads to a timid team.

dethbylt
09-16-2012, 07:35 PM
FWIW, I believe that the talent and scheme the UK has is enough for a winning season. The effort and fire isn't.

Catfan73
09-16-2012, 09:40 PM
I think the program has gotten consistently worse and worse under CJP. A lot of it appears to be the player development problems you're talking about, but part of it also appears to be very poor personnel decisions by Joker, both with players and with his assistant coaches. He's played favorites--and I don't care who disagrees--you could ask 100 people in the blue lot if this is true and 95 would agree. He's fired coaches he should have kept and hired guys that either didn't know what they were doing (Tee Martin) or have never really won anywhere (Rick Minter).

Whether one believes he can turn it around or not (I don't), there is no escaping the fact that he and Mitch Barnhart have lost the fanbase. Joker may also have lost the team with his capriciousness. I just hope he doesn't pull a Bill Curry and start pulling the redshirts off of guys in desperation and/or spite.

Darrell KSR
09-18-2012, 06:47 PM
I would enjoy seeing that article. That's very telling.

fastkat
09-18-2012, 07:55 PM
Joker may also have lost the team with his capriciousness.

I don't think Joker has lost the team...yet. If he had they wouldn't have come back from being down 17 to put it in overtime. They would have lost by a lot more if he had lost the team.

dethbylt
09-18-2012, 08:23 PM
I found a PDF of the best of the rest showing the scoring criteria and UKs spot in the 60's.

http://a.espncdn.com/magazine/insider/E-091712-OKLAHO2A.pdf