Its not that he left. Kentucky is his dream job, he was clear previously about wanting it, and its paying a tremendous amount
Its not how he left. I dont care about the "thank you previous school" memos and whatnot. They mean nothing regardless.

Its When he left. Year one into Big12. If he had ~2 more seasons with finishes in the 8-10 range in the conference, and THEN left for Kentucky, I dont think I'd bat an eye. Its the fact that everything was building up for the Big12, we had some great momentum starting off in the conference, and now all of the momentum is ripped out. Starting from square one potentially, and when Football is iffy and coming off of a relatively bad year, I think most on here are just worried we're gonna have a year or two when neither major program is in good shape and that scares a lot of people. With Pope having a great year 1, having a few more years of good basketball would help offset the uncertainty in football.

If Football had an amazing year, and BBall has this year, and Pope leaves, I dont think as many people would be up in arms and hurt, because football would still be good.

I don't wish anything poor for Pope. I hope he does very well. I hope his influence on his team may bring some fans to warm up to the Mormon coach, and maybe even members of the church in general. I hope the best.

I just wish we had a better foothold in the conference before all of this happened.