fantastic coaching effort with your WR turned QB, setting the cfb world on firre? not impressed
This one cracks me up when I see UK fans talking about how amazing it was that UK was able to win 7 games with a WR at QB, and how awesome a coach Stoops is for
being forced to use a WR at QB and still salvaging a season.
Just LOL, and I call BS.
First, UK had some freshmen and sophomore QBs in the wings when Wilson, then Smith were injured, but unlike UT going with a freshman QB when JG struggled early rather than turning to JJ, a former HS QB, Stoops instead chose to go with his best WR, Bowden, a former HS QB. He could have turned to one of the young, but inexperienced, QBs on his roster.
Why? He obviously believed Bowden was the best option, but I suspect he also knew Bowden was best suited to run the ground control game that best fits his conservative philosophy. A strong running game with a solid defense. This is Stoops 7th year at UK, and anyone paying attention knows that this guy has an extremely conservative offensive philosophy that relies on controlling TOP.
Also, have Gran introduce some veer and triple option concepts into the offensive package, and UK is running stuff that no other SEC offenses are running, at least in the East, so defenses aren't used to seeing them throughout the season and preparing for those schemes. And it worked against most East teams, as well as the OOC teams UK faced.
Ok, so the counter is, but but but, no, it limited UK's passing game. OK, so looking back at UK's offenses the previous 6 years under Stoops, regardless of who the OC was, when has a Stoops-led UK offense ever had any sort of serious passing game? Never. Even when UK had pure pocket passing QBs like Towles. And it wasn't the OCs; the first 2 OCs left and went elsewhere and immediately had explosive offenses. So the common conservative offensive theme at UK is Stoops.
I also saw a UK fan say after the UT-UK game that if Wilson had started at QB then UK would have destroyed UT. Yeah, just like Wilson destroyed UT last season, right? The bottom line is, Wilson is really not much, if any, more of a consistent thrower than Bowden. I suppose one could argue that it would better to have Bowden at WR so Wilson could throw to him, but the counter argument would be that lining up Bowden behind center means that he has the ball in his hand
every offensive play. And make no mistake; Bowden, one of the best athletes in the SEc, is easily the best athlete on UK's team.
Stoops went with Bowden because he knew the offense he could utilize with Bowden at QB best suited what he has always wanted from his offense; a time-controlling ground game that had to risk putting the ball in the air as little as possible.
Don't get me wrong. I am not criticizing Stoops; I think he made the smart choice going with Bowden at QB because he smartly recognized that Bowden gave UK the best chance of winning while staying within the offensive philosophy he prefers. What I laugh at is the notion of UK fans that if Wilson had remained healthy that UK would have been some sort of juggernaut in the East. I'm sorry, but that is laughable.