Vince Marrow says UK "One of top 5 facilities in country"

[Terry Blue]

No favorable comments? This is a pretty big deal.

[Darrell KSR]

I posted it on twitter, and got someone immediately questioning the truthfulness of it.

I think there's way too much salesmanship in that and don't find it credible. I was trying not to be negative, though.

[MickintheHam]

Sure some of you remember I was hearing this from a couple of contacts that know folks within the staff. Some of you scoffed at the idea and obviously Vince is a recruiter and a salesman. But you can read his quotes on Larry's blog on the subject. He's comparing our stadium to Raymond James and LSU

"Top 5 facilities in the country" read that statement again Terry. Hell, Raymond James isn't in the Top 5 in the NFL much less Top 5 "facilities" in the country. No one needs to scoff at that statement. The absurdity of it says it all.

[CitizenBBN]

No favorable comments? This is a pretty big deal.

don't drink the Kool aid?

I have no doubt they are very nice, esp. if the mock ups i've seen are accurate, but accepting sight unseen that they are top 5 b/c the head of recruiting says so is a stretch.

They may be top 5, they may be top 25 and that's still great, but not sure how you see this as news. We know it's coming, we surely hope for the money they'll be really nice, but the proof will be in what the recruits say and they haven't seen it yet.

[Terry Blue]

It always amazes me that the UK football fan would not at least try to look at things in a glass half full manner. From what I understand it's our technology that sets us apart from the crowd. For instance Eric Korem's program is second to none, we're cutting edge, NFL teams are coming here to study what he is doing. I think that Raymond James and LSU comparison just means that elements of our stadium are similar to theirs. Obviously LSU seats 90,000 so that's not the comparison. It's obvious the recruits are buying in to what we're selling and they're seeing what we have and what we will have. For a program with our lack of recent success to be pushing for a top ten class at this early stage in the 2016 recruiting class is really amazing. I think we're #13 in rivals and #12 in 247sports. Justin Rowland and Josh Edwards are making statements like "Best recruiting class in the modern era" and "More leaders than were on our 2006 and 2007 teams". Look for our next possible committ to be 4 star Juco OL Tate Levitt who will visit on July 17, who has offers from great programs

[Terry Blue]

From what I understand we will take 3-4 more players in the 16 class. Linebacker Brock Miller is another to keep an eye on. Go to www.rivals.com and type in Leavitt and Miller to see the offers they have on the table, pretty impressive stuff

[Bakert]

It always amazes me that the UK football fan would not at least try to look at things in a glass half full manner. From what I understand it's our technology that sets us apart from the crowd. For instance Eric Korem's program is second to none, we're cutting edge, NFL teams are coming here to study what he is doing. I think that Raymond James and LSU comparison just means that elements of our stadium are similar to theirs. Obviously LSU seats 90,000 so that's not the comparison. It's obvious the recruits are buying in to what we're selling and they're seeing what we have and what we will have. For a program with our lack of recent success to be pushing for a top ten class at this early stage in the 2016 recruiting class is really amazing. I think we're #13 in rivals and #12 in 247sports. Justin Rowland and Josh Edwards are making statements like "Best recruiting class in the modern era" and "More leaders than were on our 2006 and 2007 teams". Look for our next possible committ to be 4 star Juco OL Tate Levitt who will visit on July 17, who has offers from great programs

I disagree. I believe many fans are very optimistic about what is going on with the football program. There are some that are never going to be fully on board until Mitch is gone even if we win an SEC title, but they are hopefully becoming fewer and further between. But otherwise I believe most people are pleased with the direction the facilities have been moving as well as what we have and should see on the field. But to state our facilities are top 5 in the country does no one any good. It creates unrealistic expectations for both fans and recruits. I would have a hard time arguing our facilities are top 5 in the conference, and may be only about fourth or fifth in the division.

I highlighted the part above that I did to point out that while anyone who has been to Baton Rouge comments on the atmosphere, I've never heard anyone call Death Valley one of the great edifices in college football. But even at that, to compare CW to that makes no sense. I thought it particularly interesting that he chose to compare the *north* side of CW to Death Valley. One of my problems with CW is that the north and south sides are very flat and have nothing interesting about them. The south side will look much better and I really wish they would start shooting games from the north to the south as it will look much better on television. Regardless, that comparison alone was enough for me to discount Marrow's comments. But it's getting better and I don't think I've heard anyone disagree with that.

As for us pushing for a top 10 class this early, I believe if you go back a year or two you will see the same thing. The reason is that most of the top recruits tend to wait until farther into the process, similar to what happens in basketball. Not trying to be half-empty, but simply objective. You can't be top 10 if you aren't top 10 at some point and the fact we are close now is great news and only helps maintain the buzz, but let's see where we end up in February. We are currently #5 in the conference (Rivals) which is great. Whether we can stay there is the question.

[Terry Blue]

I can understand the skepticism on the top 5 comment and that would be hard to assess but I don't think we should dismiss Vince's comments when the stadium is not completed and the training facility has just begun. How can you say we're not top 5 like anyway when you haven't seen them? We would lose a lot of credibility and I don't think Coach Stoops would want his staff putting out this information if we weren't at least in the ballpark with this statement. Again, the technology in the new training facility is supposed to be ahead of most if not everyone. Think I said we were pushing top 10 status NOW on the recruiting class. We will probably finish top 25-30 when all is said and done, which is still unbelieveable given our recent and historical success

[ETWNAPPEL]

I am one of the biggest unrealistic optimistic UK footbal fans ever. But even I don't cross the line to absurd. We're moving in the right direction. I think Stoop will prove to be a very good coach. I like our new OC better than our old one. I think Towles is the real deal.

Our facilities in the top 5? No way. Not even sure top 25.

[Darrell KSR]

I am one of the biggest unrealistic optimistic UK footbal fans ever. But even I don't cross the line to absurd. We're moving in the right direction. I think Stoop will prove to be a very good coach. I like our new OC better than our old one. I think Towles is the real deal.

Our facilities in the top 5? No way. Not even sure top 25.

Ditto. It hurts credibility to be a Pollyanna about everything. I love what we're doing with recruiting. Why should I damage my credibility by confusing that issue with a claim I believe to be unsupportable objectively?

I don't blame Vince Marrow. He's a salesman. In the law, they call that "puffery."

[anderwt]

The great thing is, there are no more excuses when it comes to UK football. We clearly were not up to par with facilities and now we are being told by our very well paid recruiting coordinator that we are top 5....Now go win some games and lets brag about that some

[CitizenBBN]

Terry, we are looking at the glass as half full. What we won't do is look at it like it was overflowing with champagne and made from gold and diamonds.

It's a strong step forward, and I think the facilities will be very good. Will they be Top 5? No one is saying they aren't, we're saying time will tell. Let's see it done and see what recruits say and we'll know.

But no, I won't go raving about it when it comes from the guy paid to play up all things UK as the best. And no, I don't think there's some penalty exacted on college football recruiting coordinators when they use hyperbole and oversell things. I think they all oversell things all the time, it's their version of "coachspeak".

Nothing wrong with it, that's their job, but just like political candidates, they will stretch things right to the breaking point and then defend them with a straight face. All part of the gig.

[MickintheHam]

I have been to 10 of the fourteen stadiums in the conference in the past 10 years. UK is fighting for middle of the pack status. I am glad UK is working hard to improve CWS. But even after this effort, there are significant improvements to be made to make it state of the art. These efforts will take care of the recruits and the top 2500 contributors in grand fashion. But, our athletics staff needs to get busy and sell the place out, something that should be much easier with 7,000 fewer seats.

[kingcat]

If they'd change CW's name to "Deathly Hallows field" and the offices "Hogwarts Hall" we'd finally have it all.


..photo courtesy of Darrell Bird 247 Sports.

[UKFlounder]

I didn't read the article, but was he "talking to recruits" with this comment sort of like Cal does? They may be more likely to listen to that kind of talk.

[Terry Blue]

Use your heads guys, Stoops and Mitch wouldn't allow their recruiting coordinator to tweet such stuff out if it is hogwash. Maybe we're more top 20-25 than top 5, I don't know, again the football training facility is not even built yet for goodness sakes. Vince is saying top 5 after it is built. The powers that be must think we can pass for top 5 or we would have zero credibility with recruits and their parents if they came in and found them lacking. We had good facilities before, maybe not SEC good, but good overall Nationally. I've read too many quotes from recruits saying they were surprised how good our facilities are after they visited. The major reasons most said they picked UK was the SEC, Family atmosphere that the staff has created, and facilities. And this was before we had done any renovations or built the new training facility, of course. Again, take a look at Tate Leavitt's offer sheet. From what I've read he's basically coming in here on July 17 to affirm what the staff and Drake Jackson have told him. If he sees facilities that don't measure up to what he's been told that would be a reason for him to not choose UK. He may not choose us for other reasons don't know, but that would certainly be a valid reason if he was flat out lied to.

[ShoesSwayedBlue]

For the people who matter most in a football program, the players, coaching staff and strength and conditioning staff, he's probably pretty darn close. The training complex is as good as Bamas and better than UTs or anyone elses in the SEC from what I can find on the net. Now once TAMU gets done with the half a billion they're putting into their program, who knows? But for now, UK is going to have right at 200,000 square feet of indoor space for football training and operations, including almost 100,000 just for the new facility.

The players can literally spend every waking minute they're not in class or chasing girls there.

[kingcat]

As for me, I hope the UK facilities make Oregon fans green with envy.

Still, The Potter theme was pure elementary school stuff and something no other respectable program would even allow. That is the attitude that keeps this program down imho.
One that stops short of top notch salesmanship, and sticks a Ming dynasty vase behind the corn on a cob at a fruit stand.

[Terry Blue]

If all we have to worry about is the Harry Potter thing, then we're in great shape. That's nit picking at its finest

[anderwt]

If you like being made fun of by other sec schools, then you are okay with the 3rd grade Harry Potter cover