Which of These Is Not Like the Others?

9/1/2016:  W. Kentucky 46 - 14 Rice
9/1/2016:  Louisville 70 - 14 Charlotte
9/3/2016:  Kentucky 35 - 44 So. Mississippi

Here's the deal.  Kentucky hired Mark Stoops to be the head football coach at the end of the 2012 season, so this is his fourth year with the team.  Going into each of the last three seasons, Lexington was full of happy talk about all of the progress Cats fans were about to see.  After three full seasons and a season opener this year, Stoops is now 4-20 in the SEC and 12-25 overall.

At the same time Kentucky hired Mark Stoops, Bobby Petrino was available.  UK didn't want him, so he went to Western Kentucky.  One year later he was hired by Louisville.  Over the last three full seasons, and a season opener, Petrino is 14-9 in conference play and 26-13 overall.

By choosing to hire Stoops over Petrino, the UK athletic department guaranteed not only that Kentucky would continue its losing ways -- but that UK fans would get to watch Petrino continue his long history of humiliating the Big Blue.  Here's how Petrino has done against Stoops:

08/31/2013:  W. Kentucky 35 - 26 Kentucky (Nashville)
11/29/2014:  Louisville 44 - 40 Kentucky
11/28/2015:  Kentucky 24 - 38 Louisville

That's not progress.

All of this was easy to predict -- and was, in fact, predicted.  But the UK Athletic Department just doesn't care.  They didn't care when they got crushed by Tennessee for decades.  They didn't care when schools like West Virginia and South Carolina left their football program in the dust.  They didn't care when Louisville built a better football program than they have.  And they don't care that Western now has a better football program than they do.  They just don't care.  They never have, and they never will -- unless the fans stop coming to the games.

And that's what I suggest.  Don't go to Commonwealth Stadium until UK hires a good coach.  Let it sit empty, as a monument to almost 100 years of futility.  Let them have their luxury tailgating without you.  Let them raise their funds from others.  If almost no one goes -- if they have multiple games with less than 10,000 people in the stands -- well, maybe the SEC will put pressure on them to change.  In the meantime, save your money and use it to support the programs that actually try to win.