Fan interest would indicate football is now as popular at Kentucky as basketball is. (Vicky Graff Photo)
You heard it. I heard it. The rest of the SEC heard it. UK basketball Coach John Calipari said in a 2- minute interview with sports media in the Bahamas on Thursday that Kentucky is a basketball school. He specifically singled out Alabama and Georgia as football schools while adamantly saying that Kentucky is a basketball school. No ifs, ands or buts about it.
Of course UK football coach Mark Stoops heard it also and immediately took to Twitter to defend his program and players from Calipari’s unbelievable and unexplainable assault on the UK football program.
The first thing I thought about after hearing Calipari’s statement was, “once again John Calipari’s ego had firmly planted his big size 10 (foot) right in his mouth.”
But then I thought, “Wait a minute, is he right and UK is a basketball school or has Kentucky really become a football school?”
That question was a little bit more difficult to answer. Historically over the last 100 years Kentucky has indeed been a basketball school. Basketball has dominated the UK sports world since Adolph Rupp became the head coach of the Wildcats in 1930. So much so that some rumors imply one of the best college football coaches of all time, Bear Bryant, was run out of Lexington by the basketball program’s success (and Rupp’s ego) and instead built an historic football program at Alabama.
So historically I would agree with Calipari but over the time that Calipari and Stoops have been coaching at UK it is a much closer race. Obviously Calipari started his career with a big lead (similar to Abby Steiner running a 200-meter race) but over time Stoops has changed the football culture, recruited at a high level and won over the fan base and is now neck and neck with Calipari as a coach, if not passing him.
Both programs also appear now to be neck and neck as to which is the flagship for the University.
Here’s what I mean. As Calipari has struggled over the last five years to put together a meaningful postseason run Mark Stoops has won four bowl games in a row, including two Citrus Bowls.
Calipari over those same last five years has reached some historic basketball milestones — all bad. Stoops has also reached some historic milestones in football — all good.
As UK fans watched the crown for all-time basketball wins being handed over to Kansas, they also endured an extremely rare losing basketball season in 2020-2021 with an eighth place finish in the SEC and then a year later suffered through a first round loss to No. 15-seed Saint Peter’s in the 2022 NCAA Tournament; both all-time lows for the program.
Kentucky basketball has also only won one SEC crown since 2015. They have finished 4th, 2nd, 1st, 8th and 3rd over that same five-year period.
Meanwhile Stoops has cranked up the football program to point that the Cats have had two 10-win seasons in the last four and have gone to six straight bowl games and won four straight — Citrus twice, Belk and Gator — against top notch competition like Penn State, Iowa, Virginia Tech and North Carolina State.
Kentucky football has finished 6th, 3rd, 8th, 8th and 4th in the SEC respectively over those past five years.
Looking strictly at numbers one would have to agree with Calipari that UK probably still is a basketball school but if one were to look a things like growing or declining fan attendance, momentum and trajectory of the programs and the level of fan unrest for both programs it would appear from anecdotal evidence that football has actually evened up with basketball at the University of Kentucky. It would also appear that this 2022 year could be a watershed year for both programs.
If Calipari cannot get his basketball Cats to make a deep run in March and Stoops can get his football felines to finish in the upper echelon of the SEC while winning 10 games or better and winning a significant bowl game again this season, it would seem that UK has truly become at least a combined basketball/football school with football currently having all the forward momentum.
Calipari still had no business making the ridiculous remarks that he made Thursday regarding UK football but knowing that he has an ego the size of Texas means he probably will not walk them back — and that’s the shame of it all. Just when it seemed like football was going great and basketball had a chance to show marked improvement with a senior dominated team in 2022-2023, Calipari had to make some off-the-cuff remarks in an effort to build support for his new basketball practice facility and drag down the football program in the process.
Fortunately most fans and local media realize that Kentucky can no longer legitimately be called a “basketball school” anymore than Pepsi can be called a soft drink company.
Now if someone could just get John Calipari to realize that.
4 Responses
I grew up a UK basketball fan first, and a football fan a distant second. That’s all changed, as I believe the basketball program has gone downhill under Calipari, and the football program has gotten much better under Stoops.
The big difference is that Calipari cares more about putting players into the NBA than he does in winning games at Kentucky, while Stoops knows the importance of winning and going to a bowl game.
Plenty of room for both..but I must say I now look forward to uk football season as much as basketball.
Historically it’s been basketball. BUT..I do want to thank coach Stoops for bringing football to its current state. I liked coach Brooks but this is different. Coach Stoops has worked his tail off and Vince Marrow. They deserve a ton of respect.
Isn’t it interesting that more and more people are saying the basketball program is in decline under Calipari’s "leadership" and his "players first/NBA" emphasis?
That is what I have seen and been talking about for several years.
This current team may be Calipari’s strongest assembly of players on a single team yet. It will be interesting to watch what happens to this group when the fall arrives and Calipari’s "leadership" takes hold with this group of Wildcats.
Shooting? Defensive Power? The dominance of Opponents from opening tip to final horn? A take no prisoner approach to the game?
This group has put these principles on full display this week in the Bahamas. There is no reason that they won’t do so during the upcoming season EXCEPT for the impact that the fraud will have.