WILL STEIN COOKING

preston-lemasterpiece

All-Conference
Apr 15, 2025
1,179
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There’s a difference between the discussion about whether he SHOULD get a 3rd year and whether or not you entirely stop being involved at all if we lose. I’m not the judge of other fans — but to me that’s the very definition of being a bandwagon fan. By the way, I go back and forth all the time about Pope and a third year … do you know why? I’m actually trying to be honest about it. Most people have their set view and don’t let facts get in the way. You’re one of the ones I would say is very set in the pessimistic view and that’s not wrong. Others like UKCowboys are set in the optimistic view. There’s a huge pool of people somewhere in the middle where people are thinking this out everyday.

And by the way, Pope will almost certainly get a third year no matter what any posters want. Don’t believe me? Listen to Matt Jones everyday on the radio… he’s telling people this himself and he’s very, very close to the top boosters of the program. You’re setting yourself up for failure on this hellbent plot to remove Pope —- it’s not happening man. Why not try to enjoy what you can of the next 14 months?
no i'm not planning on boycotting or anything. just sucks going into another season where i don't expect a lot to be optimistic about
 
Jul 30, 2024
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no i'm not planning on boycotting or anything. just sucks going into another season where i don't expect a lot to be optimistic about
I have been feeling the same way…

But I have come to terms with something about myself….

A lot of it really is a choice. That was actually the point of the two songs that I posted yesterday. It was a very subtle message. Both of the extreme songs are me —- they aren’t rational. The feelings are based on facts, both of them — but both are distortions.

When things are going bad, I lose all hope in Mark Pope and I ignore everything in favor of him and I want anyone else in all creation.

When things are going good, I become extremely hopeful and get ahead of myself, ignoring everything that isn’t going well and he becomes the best thing in the world.

^ Neither of those are true. They are fan emotions. But we can choose to make the best out of the 14+ months we have with Pope or be miserable. I WANT to TRY not to be miserable — of course that is difficult.
 

MichaelGray

All-Conference
Jan 13, 2026
722
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Random question off topic, how do I get my avatar picture to not be sideways? I've tried everything with no luck.
 

FLBBNFAN

All-Conference
Mar 25, 2025
698
1,343
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You know the offense will look good but what about the defense? Those are the only problems with offensive minded coaches to me ..
Not to long ago everyone was worried on here because most of his initial commits were all defensive guys lol. He's hit the portal hard for the defense including a stud linebacker.
 
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FLBBNFAN

All-Conference
Mar 25, 2025
698
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But, you know, IU football did not do this by buying up high rated talent. And they reportedly don’t have that high of a football NIL budget.

Instead, nearly all their best players were really low rated prospects coming out of high school (many of whom started out at little mid majors because no big conference schools wanted them). In fact, if you go just by recruit rankings, UK should have far better football talent than IU.

I’m not sure what secret code Cignetti cracked, but it’s fascinating because it seems to prove that ANYBODY …even UK … can do the same thing with the right coach and level of commitment.
During the last game I think I heard the announcers say they really only play 13 guys consistently on defense? If so that is crazy and let's hire their strength and conditioning coach.
 
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FLBBNFAN

All-Conference
Mar 25, 2025
698
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I have no idea why Pope has not signed any high school recruit or if NIL is the issue, but it seems pretty strange that the football is doing a pretty good job of gathering good recruits from the portal. Could it be that football has a general manager handling this or is football and basketball NIL dealings different?
Bingo. Stein has the football program structured like a pro team and it really stands out with his results so far versus Pope's.In addition his track record as OC at Oregon and playoffs gives him plenty of street cred with the players .
 
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Anon477434

Freshman
Jan 3, 2026
148
90
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I have drawn the same conclusions. Has a personal axe to grind with KSR and Stans hard for JMI. Seems to hate UK fans.

My guess is either Marc Maggard’s ignorant *** or an actual JMI employee who fights his company’s battles online outside of work hours.
No matter how many times you frauds lie, no matter how many times you deflect, athletes still don’t have to sign away their NIL rights, athletes can absolutely do independent 3 party deals, and athletes don’t have to get JMI approval for their independent deals.

Marc Maggard/JMI Employee
 

OleTiredBum

Senior
Sep 28, 2025
516
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so is it a free for all for the time being? or does on3 liberal yahoo still have a few leftovers?
 

MegaBlue05

Heisman
Mar 8, 2014
10,759
21,097
66
Always lies. No one respects a pathetic liar.

BTW, despite the lies trash like you pushed for months, athletes at UK don’t have to sign their NIL rights away, athletes can absolutely sign 3rd party deals, and they don’t need JMI approval. You lied about that and Inwont sugarcoat it to make a liar feel better about himself.

I hope JMI is paying you well for riding their D this hard.

You, sir or ma’am, are strange.
 

MegaBlue05

Heisman
Mar 8, 2014
10,759
21,097
66
No matter how many times you frauds lie, no matter how many times you deflect, athletes still don’t have to sign away their NIL rights, athletes can absolutely do independent 3 party deals, and athletes don’t have to get JMI approval for their independent deals.

Marc Maggard/JMI Employee

I can tell you don’t have much of a life or many friends. You’re simping for a corporation on a message boards and think calling people dumb is going to prove your point.

I’d recommend taking the stick out of your *** and touching some grass. Maybe smoke a little to calm down.
 

Anon477434

Freshman
Jan 3, 2026
148
90
28
I hope JMI is paying you well for riding their D this hard.

You, sir or ma’am, are strange.
I know Matt Jones isnt paying you anything uneducated loser. He knows how stupid trash like you are and he can sell you any lie. Now he’s making you pay for it too.

Here is another enemy of UK. Mediocre uneducated trash who doesn’t do a thing for UK but pushes Matt Jones lies because he’s a pathetic brainwashed loser.

BTW lying POS, no matter how many time trash like you lie, athletes don’t have to sign away their rights to play for UK. Despite your pathetic lies, players absolutely can sign 3rd party deals. Despite trash like you lying and saying JMI has to approve independent deals.

Facts make trash like you so mad. That’s why none of you want to talk about the issue. It’s always message board you work for JMI/UK athletics, are Mitch Barnhart because you’re too stupid to back up your lies.
 

Anon477434

Freshman
Jan 3, 2026
148
90
28
I can tell you don’t have much of a life or many friends. You’re simping for a corporation on a message boards and think calling people dumb is going to prove your point.

I’d recommend taking the stick out of your *** and touching some grass. Maybe smoke a little to calm down.
I can tell you’re uneducated trash who is too stupid to think for yourself. I’d recommend stop being a lowlife lying piece of trash. Unfortunately that’s just who you are. You can’t help it.

Will Stein and his recruiting class says hi you pathetic lying POS.

I know I know it’s different for basketball. Of course you’re too stupid to say how and have it make sense but trust me bro.
 

BlueBloodKyFan73

All-Conference
Oct 29, 2010
3,822
4,732
113
Not to long ago everyone was worried on here because most of his initial commits were all defensive guys lol. He's hit the portal hard for the defense including a stud linebacker.
Still ZERO STUD or ELITE WR that is concerning for me with an unproven WB
 

CatPatrick13

All-Conference
Sep 17, 2015
3,200
4,366
113
I can tell you’re uneducated trash who is too stupid to think for yourself. I’d recommend stop being a lowlife lying piece of trash. Unfortunately that’s just who you are. You can’t help it.

Will Stein and his recruiting class says hi you pathetic lying POS.

I know I know it’s different for basketball. Of course you’re too stupid to say how and have it make sense but trust me bro.
Just out of curiosity, do you have anything to back up your tough language? If so I would like to see it.
 

Anon477434

Freshman
Jan 3, 2026
148
90
28
Just out of curiosity, do you have anything to back up your tough language? If so I would like to see it.
I won a thumb wrestling tournament in the 5th grade. Do you have anything to back up your tough talk? Do any of your message board boyfriends?
 

CatPatrick13

All-Conference
Sep 17, 2015
3,200
4,366
113
I did the Math. Obviously, your understanding of economics is limited. In America you get paid based on what someone is willing to pay you. That sets the Market Value. Ask, LSU what the market value is for Sam Leavitt. One week, it was a couple million, then the next week, it was 4 to 5 million. Football is a business and if someone wants to talk to Stoops about a job, he should listen. That is called common sense. Something obviously you struggle with.
Yeah it was a real market. People knocking each other down to hire Stoops. Was Texas a+m’s offer market value as well? lol buddy you spew a lot of nonsense.
 

Anon477434

Freshman
Jan 3, 2026
148
90
28
I used actual sources and can post again. You have nothing but ad homs and never facts.
Actual sources aka an article you read with no facts or evidence, just speculation. Again. you’re a complete joke. That’s all it took for you to negative recruit UK.

Nic Anderson laughed in the face of you and your sources. I know it hurts enemies of UK like you when Will Stein has all this success.
 
Jul 6, 2025
185
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Could we be in the national championship game in 2 years? If Indiana can do it, anyone can.
We would need an agressive, progressive, new athletics director. So the answer to your question is no as long as the assclown we have is in charge and hand picking his lackey as successor.
 

*Fox2Monk*

Heisman
Jun 10, 2009
44,826
80,758
113
It's nice that Stein comes from a football powerhouse. Kids take notice of that. Combine that with UK seemingly taking football more seriously with our recent pickups and we could be competing for a spot in the CFP (sooner rather than later).
I have hope that could be the case, but we need to see games first. We have a 100 years of evidence it won’t change fast. New era and IU did it, but it took a lot of things to go perfectly to do it.
 
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*Fox2Monk*

Heisman
Jun 10, 2009
44,826
80,758
113
would be nice, but don't think so
IU has Mark Cuban as a donor as well as the one that donated to have their name on the basketball court.
UK has no one like that
This is the first year Cuban has ever donated to the program for Football at least. I just read an article about how he gave money to the AD to use how he saw fit because he liked with the FB was doing finally.
 

*Fox2Monk*

Heisman
Jun 10, 2009
44,826
80,758
113
Here we go again. Take shots at a coach that gave over 10 years of his life to the program and provided some of the greatest years of the program for a coach that has never won a college football game as a head Coach. I am excited for Stein, but respect what Stoops did too.
Stoops definitely improved the FB program, I just wish we would have let him move on after the TA&M and our momentum after Levis. He hit his peak and it was time for both of us to have some change.
 
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*Fox2Monk*

Heisman
Jun 10, 2009
44,826
80,758
113
But, you know, IU football did not do this by buying up high rated talent. And they reportedly don’t have that high of a football NIL budget.

Instead, nearly all their best players were really low rated prospects coming out of high school (many of whom started out at little mid majors because no big conference schools wanted them). In fact, if you go just by recruit rankings, UK should have far better football talent than IU.

I’m not sure what secret code Cignetti cracked, but it’s fascinating because it seems to prove that ANYBODY …even UK … can do the same thing with the right coach and level of commitment.
He found the right guys who fit his style. Got a couple studs at important positions and is obviously a tremendous motivator and coach.
 

*Fox2Monk*

Heisman
Jun 10, 2009
44,826
80,758
113
Curt Cignetti. That’s why. Best coach in college football and it ain’t close.
Makes you wonder what other coaches are lying around at mid majors or smaller schools who can never get a call up to the big leagues but that are tremendous coaches.
 

*Fox2Monk*

Heisman
Jun 10, 2009
44,826
80,758
113
Stein is bringing in some high level talent on both sides of the ball and he's not done yet. He wants to win now, but it will still be a tough season next year, but I like our chances at some upsets better now than in years past. I also don't see us with as many clunker games against teams we should beat. The best thing seems to be that he's bringing in a lot of guys with multiple years left. and our 2027 schedule lightens up quite a bit. That's really the year we should be looking towards making some noise, and if we can have some retention, that will be a big help to that. Why is this posted on the Basketball board.
I just hope we do better than expected and lay a foundation for success in the future. I want fun football again while being strong in areas that win big time games him building up our lines the right way has me excited.
 

*Fox2Monk*

Heisman
Jun 10, 2009
44,826
80,758
113
Again, LMAO at ANYONE that truly believes that we spent 22 million on this roster. I’ve never bought that story and never will. Absolute BS!
I think we honestly spent around 12-15M max. If we really spent 22M then Pope is even worse at recruiting than we thought and that is an ugly thought. If guys like Noah make a million dollars a year that’s terrible. May as well light money on fire. I’d rather pay Stokes 10 million than let 3-4 bench guys who never play make 4 million dollars.
 

megablue

Heisman
Oct 2, 2012
15,544
15,616
113
Signing period is now over. I'm not deep enough into it to make any kind of educated judgment. How do folks think Stein & staff did ??
Thanks ... I'll hang up and listen.
 
Jul 6, 2025
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As I posted many times, my biggest complaint with Bush was his complete lack of critical play concepts. His 3/4&1/goal package was just normal play calls. It cost us so many times, most notably vs Texas.

Bush was subpar in many ways, but imo that was the most glaring.

Here Stein is touching on the idea, which some people refer to as 2 pt play calls. I also think its huge for offense to run counters off their tendencies. This touches on that concept too and its another area where Bush was just awful.
 

Cowtown Cat

Heisman
Aug 23, 2015
23,984
54,389
100
Well no one has denied it. No one even rolls their eyes at it. So there’s that.

can you prove we didn’t spend 22?
No I can’t. However, it’s supposedly the highest paid roster in the country. I find that really hard to believe. Do people really think duke’s roster isn’t more than that?! How could it not be?

The whole 22 million roster thing just came out of nowhere and seems like a talking point to me, more so than anything else. Something the media took off with and created a narrative. Idk I just don’t buy it.
 

Damage_inc

Senior
Oct 4, 2019
424
758
91
No I can’t. However, it’s supposedly the highest paid roster in the country. I find that really hard to believe. Do people really think duke’s roster isn’t more than that?! How could it not be?

The whole 22 million roster thing just came out of nowhere and seems like a talking point to me, more so than anything else. Something the media took off with and created a narrative. Idk I just don’t buy it.
Spending more than anyone else for basketball is the most Kentucky thing I’ve ever heard of. I totally believe it.
 
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*Fox2Monk*

Heisman
Jun 10, 2009
44,826
80,758
113
Well no one has denied it. No one even rolls their eyes at it. So there’s that.

can you prove we didn’t spend 22?
We can’t prove we did or did not. Widely reported that was the number but if you take the reported numbers for the top players it doesn’t add up or make sense unless we wildly overpaid for everyone on the bench.
 
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