Kentucky Wildcats Football:Believe
If you are a Kentucky fan (and let’s hope you if you are reading this site) then you probably are a part of social media
and probably follow Wildcat related accounts on those various networks. So if you do, then you’ve seen them. The Negative Nancy’s. The Naysayers. The Roundball Only’s. The people who feel the need to say something negative anytime Kentucky football is promoted or even mentioned by UK Athletics. We’ve all seen a post by UKAA’s Facebook account about purchasing football tickets. If you are a football fan (if not , just stop reading now) and you want to get your blood pumping, read the comments section sometime. There will invariably be some jackwagon who felt the need to make a snide remark or flat out complain within the first ten posts.
The question that always occurs to me is why? Some are rival fans. I don’t buy into the whole little brother thing like many do, but with this it’s real. Louisville fans always manage to show up in these threads. Do they follow Kentucky Athletics? Because I don’t even know what’s going on with Louisville at any given time. I just don’t get it. Some of them are Kentucky fans that seemed to be miffed that the whole “basketball school” thing is being challenged. These folks are the ones that will complain about ticket prices for a losing team (cheapest in the SEC) or stadium upgrades when Rupp isn’t getting any (UK owns CWS, not Rupp). I get that Kentucky has a greater than usual interest in basketball. It’s a quirky thing in a nation that loves football. It appeals to a state where towns elect dogs as mayor and wind chimes are of Bud Light cans. Some others are just complainers, frankly it doesn’t matter what they are posting on, they need to complain. Most of these folks are completely uninformed of the subject matter. An example is complaining about how much the stadium improvements will cost taxpayers when the price is zero dollars and zero cents. These folks can’t be reasoned with and can’t be corrected. It’s best to just ignore their unpleasant existence.
But the best part, the part that has changed recently, is the number of Kentucky fans who fight back. Never in my time following or covering Wildcat football have I seen so many fans truly believe. Even during the Brooks era, you could sense that folks were just waiting for the program to fall back. And it did. You don’t get that sense now, people have truly bought in. Look, I don’t know if Mark Stoops is going to build a winner at Kentucky. I can’t promise that he is going to wake the “sleeping giant” but I can tell you that I believe in Mark Stoops. If it can be done, then I believe he will be the man to do it. And I’m not the only one. People are buying in.
The best way for me to explain it is the shirts. It’s Kentucky, go anywhere in the Commonwealth and you will see people sporting their best Wildcat gear. But it looks different now. Now the fans are wearing jerseys and shirts that say Kentucky football on them. They are making the distinction that they are football fans. Some may not like it, but the truth is that the rest of us don’t care what they like. It’s really is a new era.