Stoops assures everyone quarterback Terry Wilson has vastly improved during the offseason, but national perception is taking the wait-and-see approach with Kentucky's second-year starter. He handcuffed the Wildcats at times last season and largely struggled through the air.

Stoops is the only SEC coach over the past five seasons whose record has not declined in any year. Since success is cyclical, the law of averages say that must change after 10 wins, right? Seven or eight victories feels like a safe prediction for a team playing with a chip on its shoulder, but they won't reach double digits again.

Kentucky's staff is using the lack of respect narrative nationally in the preseason as motivational fuel inside the locker room this season. And they're being vocal about it, too.

“I’m knocking down doors to national media because these guys are really pissing me off,” Kentucky assistant Vince Marrow said this summer. “It’s pissing me off. I was listening to Tom Leach and, those guys — I should stop listening to radio. I guess they said Terry (Wilson) was the last rated QB in the preseason?

"We should start a poll, and I’m going to talk to the BBN, just like coaches get fired for wins and losses, when all these reporters come out and say, hey, this team is going 4-8 and this team ain’t gonna do that. If they’re wrong, they should get fired.”