There’s a reason a half dozen other coaches turned down the job. I can’t think of a single reason that Pope is a better choice than those who said no. If the other coaches thought stepping in front of that firing squad was a bad choice, I don’t think Pope is going to fix the problems at Kentucky when the others decided they couldn’t.

There isn’t going to be any grace granted to him
And he still needs a lot of grace. He isn’t a polished coach yet and he won’t be given time to grow into the position. It’s produce now or die.

He could have been a legend here. He’ll be a footnote there.