re: Why do people continue to sleep on Kentucky Football?

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UK has also beat Penn State (3rd in the Big 10 in 2018), VA Tech (division runner-up 2019).

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Penn State went 9-4 and Virginia Tech went 8-5 (in a putrid ACC).

Again, these are solid wins that Kentucky folks should be happy about. They are not wins that teams competing for SEC Titles brag about, however, and that seems to be where some Kentucky folks want Kentucky to be considered. And the point is that while you should be happy for your success under Stoops, it does not warrant being discussed as possible SEC Contenders.

You have to beat other legitimate contenders to be seriously mentioned in that same breath.

This isn't a slight against Kentucky as Tennessee has been bad as well. They finally followed the Miss State model of "success" under Mullen. Schedule 4 winnable non-conference games and try to win your "rival" game from the West and then beat the bad teams in your division when they are bad. Getting to 7-8 wins is a doable formula to build momentum and then jump up to win 9-10 games every now and then. I'd be interested to know the last time Kentucky and Miss State both win 9 games or more in year or when Ole Miss and Vandy both won 9 games or more in a year.

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This isn't a slight against Kentucky as Tennessee has been bad as well. They finally followed the Miss State model of "success" under Mullen. Schedule 4 winnable non-conference games and try to win your "rival" game from the West and then beat the bad teams in your division when they are bad. Getting to 7-8 wins is a doable formula to build momentum and then jump up to win 9-10 games every now and then. I'd be interested to know the last time Kentucky and Miss State both win 9 games or more in year or when Ole Miss and Vandy both won 9 games or more in a year.

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Yep - and it has worked. They've got good players now, better every year. That happened by giving them the breathing room to develop guys and win enough games to make bowls and keep folks happy.

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This is the thing. OP's own definition of success would get a coach fired at about half of the schools in the SEC.

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Exactly, and that's not a slight. Of all people Kentucky should understand that. Most of us go to 5 straight NCAA Tournaments and win 20 games and we are giving that coach a 5-year extension (for a while, at least, until we get tired of that and want more....which is where Stoops will be in 2-3 years if he doesn't take a step).

At Kentucky a guy who goes to the NCAAT 10 out of 10 seasons and wins a national title gets fired for "only" getting to the 2nd round his last 2 seasons (after going to the Elite 8 in 2 of the previous 3).

Future outlook.... better than Aggy

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I mean they were absolutely one of the best in the league in 2018, and if we have a season, the 2020 cats will be better than that team. 2019 (8 wins) was a downward aberration because our top 3 or 4 qbs were hurt.

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2018 Kentucky got blown out at home by Georgia and blown out in Knoxville by a 7 loss Tennessee team, while also losing to a 4 loss Texas A&M team.

Very solid team, but clearly not in the same class as Georgia or Alabama in 2018.

UK football is heading in the right direction no doubt. They should be in a pretty good recruiting environment with ties to the SEC and proximity to the Midwest....I wouldn't be surprised if they won the SEC east someday....

The problem is history....UGA has won 80% of its games against UK in football, UT has won 70% and UF has won 74%.

Conversely, as universally accepted as UKs dominance in basketball is they win 83% of the time against UGA, 72% of the time against Florida and 68% of the time against UT….dominant, no doubt, but about on par with how they are being dominated by the top 3 SEC east programs in football.....UGA basketball is horrendous, on average so the dominance is about the same.....and Florida and UT, better traditionally in Basketball than UGA, win more in football against UK than UK does against them in Basketball....

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Kentucky certainly has more potential than Arkansad or either Mississippi school

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Not bad, I think you could get a bunch if you made a thread about it

Little known fact- between 1952-2002, LSU and Kentucky played every year. And it was, year after year, a pretty solid game . By comparison, in those same years, LSU played Auburn only 19 times.

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once in a decade make it to the SEC championship

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I would like to see y'all in it at least once. Even USCe and Arkansas have been at least once.