Kentucky is off to a 2-0 start, including an impressive road win at Florida, but at least one ESPN writer isn’t impressed.
Will Harris says “don’t buy the hype” for Kentucky this season.
Check out his comments, which basically slam UK football and Mark Stoops:
Mark Stoops won’t get to end his tenure as Kentucky coach voluntarily like Rich Brooks did, but two aspects of his time in Lexington will stand out as parallels to the Brooks era. Stoops will leave Kentucky better than he found it, and he won’t be able to fashion a relevant SEC contender.
Stoops has done wonders for the program on the recruiting, fundraising and facility-building fronts, but Kentucky has natural disadvantages that have cemented its historical place in the league pecking order. The program is still in the phase where it wildly celebrates rare wins over rebuilding league bullies. That’s nowhere near contending.
Don’t get carried away thinking that this 2018 Kentucky team is different because of one road win over an opponent who didn’t offer SEC-caliber resistance. Florida is a bad football team in its second game of a program overhaul under a brand new staff. Stoops has amply demonstrated that however much he’s raised the talent level — and therefore the bar for Kentucky’s A-game — he can’t get his team to play consistently enough week after week to be a factor in the SEC race. Stoops’ Wildcats will always be prone to weeks where poor weekday practices and gaffe-filled Saturdays prevail. The SEC East is weak, and some team may emerge from the division with a gaudy record yet be largely a fraud. If it looks like it might be the Cats, don’t buy the hype.
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