Vaught’s note: Long-time Kentucky football fan David Rankin of Danville, a former high school football player and 1974 UK graduate, is a regular at vaughtsviews.com and almost always comments on every football-related post. However, today he takes time to vent over what he sees as a huge blunder by Kentucky in the way it portrays the football program.
By DAVID RANKIN
A little over a month ago, Larry posted a couple of articles with comments by former UK football players expressing their frustrations with the lack of marketing & promotion of our program. These former players support the program & want it to succeed. However they were frustrated with our current marketing efforts.
I experienced that frustration as well – I decided to take a look at our 2012 roster on the UK. Athletics website because I wanted to see how the other positions besides QB are shaping up. With less than two months before our season starts, I could not find anything about the 2012 Freshmen because the 2011 roster is still up. Even Vandy & Ole Miss have their 2012 roster posted.
It really gets me when we can’t do these simple tasks that don’t cost. I did find the info that I wanted on Scout.com. This may seem minor to many people but to a die-hard fan, I expect better. What if the Blaylock twins tell another recruit that they are going to UK. Then this new recruit logs on to the U.K. site and can not even find the Blaylock twins name! What message does this send?
Recently I was starting to get excited about football again.
I read about some good people being hired- Mike Cassity, Tommy Cook.
I read Ashley’s articles on the 2012 Recruits. (Some good kids!)
I see the 2013 class finally taking shape.
I read about the improvement of Max Smith & the potential of Patrick Towles.
I read about the mission trip to Ethopia
Several former players are having success in the NFL
Old Die-Hards like myself are on Board. What about some simple P.R. from U.K. Athletics.?
26 Responses to Guest post: Long-time Kentucky football fan frustrated with marketing effort for team
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It’s awesome that you are a diehard fan David. However, I think not posting the roster is a minor issue. Kids use twitter and facebook nowadays so not having the roster posted is no big deal, and from my past year reviews, this is something that UK does year after year.
Excluding sites like Larry, Aaron and Tom Leach which post great and fair articles on UK football, there are other sites that call themselves UK websites, but bash UK football over and over, and still are doing it today, one month before the big season opening game. This is the problem! Put yourself in the shoes of a recruit and read the garbage articles they write.
The UK freshman are currently practicing their tails off in strength and conditioning, but nobody would know it based on all of the other sites. Any UK fan knows that last year was a rough year and every UK fan knows we need to do better this year. We don’t need other blog sites bashing our team and coaches anymore. True Blue Fans get it! Lets work on this season.
Our freshman are on campus. The true problem is other sites to lazy to get out of their computer chairs and visit UK in order to write positive stories about the program, so they cut and paste articles that are from Tennessee and Alabama newspapers. Imagine what these sports reporters say about UK.
Read some recent articles on these sites, and put yourself as a recruit this year in the class of 2013. Some of our media is our worst enemy on recruiting. It isn’t UKs website.
I imagine UK will have closed practices again this year. I would too!
I agree – Not updating the roster is a minor issue. What if there are 20 other “Minor Issues”? How many minor issues does it take to make a major one?
I also agree that it does no good to “Bash the program” & that was certainly not my intent. You will notice that I listed six positive items (And I could list more!)
All help to make me look forward to THIS season (AGAIN for about the 50th year) (I think about when Gerry played)
I agree with your statements – ” True Blue Fans get it! Lets work on THIS season”
Big Blue in the Commonwealth is right. These are minor issues, presented out of context to support a theme of unbalanced criticism that is becoming evermore evident in the orchestrated selection of guest posters on this blog. Everyone who follows these things, and certainly the senior level fans, know that information about UK’s 2012 team will flood the internet beginning around the final week of July. In the meantime, the reader can easily access this kind of information at Aaron Cordero’s website Bleed Blue Kentucky.
Larry, you are better than this.
Looks like the 2012 roster has been updated on the U.K. Athletics site.
Bleed Blue Kentucky still has the 2011 Roster.
Preach brother Preach. I was raised by a Drill Sgt. And he always said the “the devil is in the detail.” I use the same approach when trying a new chinese restuarant. Before ordering a entree i order Hot and sour soup and an eggroll. If those simple basics do meet my standard I ask for a check and leave. If they can’t get the basics right I don’t expect much and save my money.
With that said I truely understand the point of this post. They can’t be doing a good job marketing the program if they aren’t doing the simplest free things like updating a website. Heck I am sure there are lots of IT studens that are fans that could and would do that for free.
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK. GO BLUE OR STAY HOME
Thanks – Good quote – Should have used it in the article.
I don’t have many expectations for this season. Just hoping for clarity on the coaching situation.
My advice is to turn the pregame atmosphere into a carnival. Bring in fun activities for children, rides, food, and anything to market to our families. We are losing fans annually with poor performance. At least make the games fun to attend.
I know that I am different – But I ALWAYS have FUN at a U.K. Football Game.
– I may be disappointed with the result sometimes but I always enjoy U. K.football.
I am not sure about your carnival idea – I am more of a traditionalist.
But you have made a suggestion – Because you are interested.
We need some system to receive & evaluate these ideas.
Love all the responses to this post. Shows how passionate UK football fans are
I don’t know the answer to what would help or what should be done to market football. I don’t see anything UK has done that has impressed me with any sport as far as marketing goes. I have heard that Kentucky has the same marketing department for all sports, but don’t know if that is true. Mens basketball has its own self promoter in Calipari. So, I would guess the University would have to hire a new coach that is a self promoter like Cal for football, because the only thing the marketing people have come up with is to put up the occasional billboard.
By the way, what do the other SEC schools do to “market” their teams?
I don’t have the answers to the marketing question & as you know, my point was not to answer that question but to vent a little frustration to a “Minor detail”.
But since you ask the question I have a few ideas:
-A & M has a “Countdown Clock” till their next game
-Texas has a “Meet the Freshmen article” on each player
(Similar to recent ones by Larry & Ashley here)
-Texas has a Asst. Coach listed as -”Director of High School Relations & Player Development”
-Va. Tech has research on helmet safety – This is huge to all of us – Can you imagine a players mothers reaction?
- I could go on & on until Gary would not allow my lenghty post.
I get an idea from almost every site. Not all of them will work but we need to think out of the box. I would start with some of the former players like Gerry, Dave Hopwell, Dicky Lyons, Jr. & Sr. & get their opinions.
By the way, the U. K. Site is much better than many others! And we do a lot of good things ( Ethopia trip – Womens clinic – Etc. Etc.)
I totally agree. I went on there a week ago looking for information about a young man from our area and was quite disturbed to find the 2012 Football roster not on the web site. This is a very simple thing to promote our Football Program, I’d be interested to hear from our Athletics department as to why this wasn’t done.
Someone please explain how not having a roster posted a month before the start of the season defines the UK football program as having a crummy marketing program.
Maybe there is a reason for doing it. Just because Vandy and Ole Miss do something, who really cares. Whatever UK has on 7/8/12 isn’t our final roster that we will have on 9/2/12. I personally get it for not posting a roster.
If the media wants to know about UK football they call the Nutter Center. My goodness, a simple telephone call to Coach Phillips asking him the reason would have been appropriate.
I think most schools have the rosters posted. UK has released a roster, just has not posted it. And this is not a Joker Phillips issue. He’s not the one taking care of the website. He has enough on-field matters to keep him busy
I did not say that that this issue defined the “U.K. football program as having a crummy marketing program”. I used the two previous articles to lead into my simple point. Maybe I should not have done this publicly.
You asked Who really cares about Vandy & Ole Miss? – Well, I do!
I have visited every website in the SEC & a few others.
By the way, the U.K. site is much better than many.
If this weather continues, I will probably be inside & visit a few more.
We live in a world where things happen quickly and information is key. If UK expects to compete in the SEC it must, at a minimum, match what other schools are doing with information and technology. Posting a current roster doesn’t seem like a big deal but what other details are being omitted?
Do you think it would be a big deal at Alabama, Florida, Georgia, or LSU? This is the arena we choose to play in. We must keep up with our competitors in the information that is available. UK can do better.
Why do “they” not understand what he is saying???? How much do we have to scream before they listen ??? Oh , I know , the other half of us will have to not reorder our tickets next year. UK is “on probabation”with me on season ticket reorders. Three of my friends cancelled this year . I may be next year. Were is the adminstrations interest??? $200 million from football and $70 million from basketball and do they take care of the hand that feeds them???
The problem is UK have the B team that does marketing for football,UK never does anything with football, they never do the little things, they forget to do the little things all the time, which shows why they lose , u can’t do the little
UK never does the little things when it comes to football, and that why they lose and have subpar support staff and marketing, I am just glad they replaced the egg on the twitter account that was there forever., bushleague stuff
Speaking of the little things–I stated several months ago about my feelings toward gameday. Tennessee has the hound dog–georgia has the bulldog–southcarolina has the stupid rooster crowing over P.A–Auburn has the eagle flying around the stadium–Alabama has the elephant roaring over the P.A–Mississippi State has the cowbells–Arkansas calls the hogs–Texas A&M has the 12th man–LSU has the Tiger ==AND WE CAN”T EVEN GET A WILDCAT GROWLING ON THE THE BIG SCREENS-MUCH LESS A LIVE ONE IN A CAGE ON YHE SIDELINE–the most excitment was the air-raid sirens other then that it’s been very oh well whats the use–nobody seems to care.
Because I live in a house divided, I see first-hand what another SEC school does to promote its football team/season. On the football team’s page of their athletic department website, there is a countdown by jersey number each day. In other words 54 days left until the season opener, then a list of who wore that jersey with some information about each player who wore that number. That is something very simple that can be done with a little in-house research and it changes every day so it would bring folks back to read it every morning. The internet is a wonderful tools and it should be used to market all of our teams. There is also a “Daily Briefing” as to things going on with various positions, coaches, new players, injuries, etc. I am sure that there are talented marketing folks that could come up with equally as good ideas for the football Cats. I guess my question is why is it not a priority for our athletic department?
The countdown by jersey number is a Great Idea, – Thanks!
Totally agree, David! Marketing is a substantial failure for football at UK. No passion! Nobody seems to care. Again, I’ll challenge everyone to look at the Dept Directories for every school in the SEC. Compare how many staff members are assigned to football with UK. UK has one. That says it all. You get out what you put in.
David, I had the same problem with trying to find the roster – usually when I want info on recruits, or even some of the older players, I go to Aaron’s BBK site. I’ve been consistently disappointed with the UK Athletics website. From my personal view, they spend too much time with the basic news (which I realize is completely necessary) and not enough on in-depth stories. There are the occasional ones, but like you mentioned, other schools have a lot of cool features/interesting stories to keep the attention of the fans during the offseason. Fans can get basic news anywhere; reading more in-depth material (that UK Athletics definitely has the resources to do) is what will get fans truly excited.
Marketing is all well and good, but bottom line is, the players on the field need to catch some damn passes – break some tackles – get off the field on 3rd down every now & then ——— and WIN a few games that we’re “not supposed to”!
I love every kid out there and I know that each is giving his heart and soul for the Blue…however, until the product on the field begins to excel on a consistent basis, we can market until the cows, or roosters, or whomever come home and it will not change a thing.
Let’s get back to the basic philosophy of athletic competition and win some football games, baby!!!
IT’S FOOTBALL TIME IN THE BLUEGRASS……………………..