BleedGopher
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per Yahoo:
Mark Stoops had never been to the University of Kentucky when he accepted the job as its head football coach in late 2012. Never been to Lexington. Never been to campus.
He didn’t care. If nothing else, he knew one indisputable fact.
“Kids want to play in the SEC,” Stoops told Yahoo Sports back in 2013 on National Signing Day, his first with the Wildcats.
And that included, Stoops was certain, the kids in the talent-rich state of Ohio, where Stoops grew up as part of a legendary football family.
Ron Stoops Sr. was a longtime defensive coordinator at Cardinal Mooney High School in Youngstown. His four sons went into the family business, including Bob (former head coach at Oklahoma), Mike (former head coach at Arizona) and Ron Jr. (currently an assistant at Youngstown State and a longtime area high school coach).
Mark Stoops’ plan (or part of it) was somewhat simple: Sell the chance to play in the SEC to Ohio recruits that otherwise would sign with Big Ten clubs.
“We are going to focus on Ohio, there is no question,” Stoops said in 2013.
Now the country is focusing on Kentucky.
The Wildcats are 7-1 and ranked ninth in the initial College Football Playoff rankings. They host No. 6 Georgia in a game that should determine the SEC East. It is the biggest game in years in Lexington, where the football revival has been stunning. The ‘Cats haven’t won the SEC outright since 1950 … when Bear Bryant was their coach.
As to Stoops’ plan, Kentucky’s roster features 27 players from Ohio.
That includes stars such as running back Benny Snell Jr. (Westerville), linebackers Jordan Jones (Youngstown) and Chris Oats (Cincinnati), tight end C.J. Conrad (LaGrange), wide receivers Lynn Bowden Jr. (Youngstown) and Dorian Baker (Cleveland Heights), safeties Darius West (Lima) and Mike Edwards (Cincinnati) and offensive lineman George Asafo-Adjei (West Chester).
“When you think about the players on that roster from that state,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart marveled this week, “it’s amazing.”
https://sports.yahoo.com/kentucky-raided-big-ten-territory-rise-national-prominence-221400164.html
Go Gophers!!
Mark Stoops had never been to the University of Kentucky when he accepted the job as its head football coach in late 2012. Never been to Lexington. Never been to campus.
He didn’t care. If nothing else, he knew one indisputable fact.
“Kids want to play in the SEC,” Stoops told Yahoo Sports back in 2013 on National Signing Day, his first with the Wildcats.
And that included, Stoops was certain, the kids in the talent-rich state of Ohio, where Stoops grew up as part of a legendary football family.
Ron Stoops Sr. was a longtime defensive coordinator at Cardinal Mooney High School in Youngstown. His four sons went into the family business, including Bob (former head coach at Oklahoma), Mike (former head coach at Arizona) and Ron Jr. (currently an assistant at Youngstown State and a longtime area high school coach).
Mark Stoops’ plan (or part of it) was somewhat simple: Sell the chance to play in the SEC to Ohio recruits that otherwise would sign with Big Ten clubs.
“We are going to focus on Ohio, there is no question,” Stoops said in 2013.
Now the country is focusing on Kentucky.
The Wildcats are 7-1 and ranked ninth in the initial College Football Playoff rankings. They host No. 6 Georgia in a game that should determine the SEC East. It is the biggest game in years in Lexington, where the football revival has been stunning. The ‘Cats haven’t won the SEC outright since 1950 … when Bear Bryant was their coach.
As to Stoops’ plan, Kentucky’s roster features 27 players from Ohio.
That includes stars such as running back Benny Snell Jr. (Westerville), linebackers Jordan Jones (Youngstown) and Chris Oats (Cincinnati), tight end C.J. Conrad (LaGrange), wide receivers Lynn Bowden Jr. (Youngstown) and Dorian Baker (Cleveland Heights), safeties Darius West (Lima) and Mike Edwards (Cincinnati) and offensive lineman George Asafo-Adjei (West Chester).
“When you think about the players on that roster from that state,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart marveled this week, “it’s amazing.”
https://sports.yahoo.com/kentucky-raided-big-ten-territory-rise-national-prominence-221400164.html
Go Gophers!!