Vicky Graff Photo
At Kentucky’s Kickoff Luncheon at Kroger Field on Monday, UK coach Mark Stoops made it clear to fans/boosters that he is committed to taking Kentucky football to an even higher level than the eight straight bowl games the Cats have been to.
Stoops told fans he knew they wanted UK at a higher level as much as he did.
“I’m not interested in sitting here and just existing. And I’m not interested in exiting. We’re interested in finding ways and exploring ways to be the best we possibly can at Kentucky,” the Kentucky coach said.
Stoops flirted with leaving for Texas A&M in the offseason and also complained at SEC Media Days that he was having to spend too much time raising money for NIL and not enough time coaching compared to other SEC coaches.
During the Kickoff Luncheon, Stoops walked those NIL comments back a bit.
“It would not be possible if we did not have the continuity that we’ve had within our staff and certainly in our administration. Dr. (Eli) Capilouto, Mitch Barnhart, myself, Marc Hill, Rock Oliver, Sandy Bell. All of these people have been with me since day one,” Stoops said about the support he has at UK.
“Have really provided tremendous leadership. You may hear a few things about me. Sometimes in the summer, get a little frustrated. Got some things on my plate.”
Translation: Maybe I said some things I should not have said at SEC Media Days. Or that’s the way I take it.
Once the recent court-mandated revenue sharing starts in 2025, Kentucky will likely need even more donations for its athletics program.
“Sometimes in football, it’s my job to take care of the football program and you get stuck in my own little cave over there. But you look at the challenges that we have in college athletics and it makes me feel very small because it’s monumental,” Stoops said.
“What Dr. Capilouto, what Mitch, and our administration have to deal with in the next 12 months is unprecedented and we’ve already been dealing with a lot. We’ve adapted and done the very best we can and will continue to find creative ways to continue to be as competitive as we’ve been and take it to another level.”
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Last season was marked by poor O line play and a very inconsistent performance from Devin Leary. Maybe that is why Liam slow walked the offense. We only had 714 snaps last season, which ranked dead last college football. This year, we have a very strong defense, an offensive line that, at least on paper, has improved, a receiver group that could be good but could also be mediocre, and a quarterback in Van der Griff who is supposed to be the real deal…for real this time. The SEC is stronger with the addition of Texas and Oklahoma. It will only get stronger in the future with the possible additions of North Carolina and Virginia. Clemson and Florida State are looking for a new league as well.
Stoops has elevated the football program here immensely, yet we still are a middle of the pack team in the SEC. Stoops is one of the top 5 paid coaches in the country, but we are nowhere close to having a top 5 team. How much longer will Kentucky pay Stoops that $9 million+ salary for these results? I don’t envy the job Stoops has to try to get Kentucky into the top echelon of the SEC which would also be tops in the nation. He has made a number of coaching changes on the offense in the past few years, but this will be the year he needs to change his philosophy of playing not to lose. He needs to open the game up and play to win. Give the offense the opportunity to either succeed or fail. I think this season could end up anywhere from 8-4 to 4-8. An 8-4 season would put us in a decent bowl game and a 9-4 record would be something to brag about. A 4-8 season would be disastrous. I think Stoops felt like he had inferior talent compared to the top SEC teams and had to play not to lose in years past. This year, I hope he goes all in and lets the wins and losses fall where they will.
As you usually do, Barry, you nailed it on every count.
The playing “not to lose” football started with the very first game of the Stoops era which was a typical Stoops game with a pseudo-QB (who could not pass beyond 5 yards downfield) and a loss to WKU. I think Liam left again because Stoops did not untie the leash he has held so tightly around the neck of every OC. My guess is that Stoops promised not to choke the OC, as usual, and Liam was not happy.
This season Stoops needs to either get impressive results or resign since he is not producing results which correlate with his high salary. Has he brought UK to the “average peak” of 7 wins or is he going to wake up and also wake up the players before every game.
How can anyone not notice the many games UK has started in the Stoops tenure with players in a stupor or daze allowing opponents to get a jump-start before UK wakes up!
Vanderbilt is the hardest job in the SEC we should drop them and get florida state or Clemson so we can shut their fan bases up. I lived in Tallahassee for 2 years and they said they would dominate the SEC. They are "better" than Florida. The only team that would compete with them in the east is "Georgia". That’s all I ever heard. Kentucky is supposed to be the second hardest job in the SEC because the high school football "isn’t as good as the other SEC states" plus Kentucky is a "basketball" school that’s all I ever heard. So for us to even be a middle of the pack SEC team then I’ll take it. It’s better than being a bottom of the barrel SEC team. Stoops turned Kentucky to a threat on the recruiting trail and even in the games he loses the game could have went either way. He’s only been blown out a couple of games. If Kentucky was in the ACC or the Big Ten we would have the #3 or #4 recruiting class in the conference. It’s not like we’re doing bad we are just recruiting against states we’re football is king. Mark Stoops has done a phenomenal job with what he has and he’s got the perfect staff. Look at Marrow he’s the #7 recruiter in all college football. If Stoops left our retired Marrow would be the hottest assistant on the market. We are very very very lucky he hasn’t taken a head coaching job. That’s called loyalty to Stoops. Stoops is a very loyal person. He’s guided us to a school record 8 straight bowls. I think Kentucky in "all it’s historic football history who deserves a great coach" have only been to 20 bowls almost half of them have came in the 11 years that Stoops has coached here. Kentucky is a hard job and Stoops and Marrow are the perfect team for the job. No other coach is going to get all them 4* recruits out of Ohio and Michigan. Most Kentucky coaches recruit Georgia Florida Alabama and Tennessee more than anywhere else and we would get mid level recruits from them states. We couldn’t even secure the top recruits in our state. Stops always gets 3-4 of the top 5 in the state of Kentucky. He digs into Michigan and Ohio which is foreign territory to most SEC coaches so he doesn’t have a to compete with and used that as a selling point because everyone knows the SEC is the best football conference. He also steals players away from Ohio State Michigan (Deone Walker, Waller, Hairston)and Michigan State. He does a great job recruiting Tennessee (Barion Brown). He completely dominates Kentucky (Dane Key, Ty Bryant, Ox, Hayes Johnson, Aba Selm, Malachi Wood, and I could go on and on. Look at the 2024 and 2025 recruiting classes. Louisville used to dominate the state of Kentucky. They always got the top players from the state and Stoops changed that. We’ve won a citrus bowl the best bowl win we’ve had since 1977. That was almost 50 years ago. How many 10 win seasons has Kentucky had in its history.? Stoops has 2 of them and he will have 3 after this year.
Weve had 4 seasons in Kentuckys 100+ year history of football. Stoops has taken us to 2 in his 11 years of coaching Kentucky. This will be his 12th year and his 3rd 10+ win seasons. He has done an incredible job. We are competitive with any team in the SEC. We even played Georgia closer than anybody the year they won the championship. I guarantee he wins 10 games this year even if it’s 9-3 and a bowl win. We will win at least 10 games for the 5th time in school history and the 3rd time in 12 years as Stoops as coach. He’s already matched kentuckys history in 11 years. Fans wants more and more and more. This past 10 years have been the best 10 year stretch in Kentucky footballs history and your still complaining lol.