Vicky Graff Photo
Kentucky’s inept performance against South Carolina certainly brought a lot of brutal, but fair, criticism of Kentucky football and coach Mark Stoops going into tonight’s game with Georgia.
“Shocking stat of the day: Since the 2021 dismantling of LSU, Kentucky has lost 8 of its last 10 SEC home games,” ESPN/SEC Network personality Tom Hart posted on X.
Kentucky football stats guru Corey Price noted that the 2-8 mark was the worst record in a stretch of 10 SEC home games since Nov. 3, 2012, to Sept. 19, 2015.
Connie Allen of Harrodsburg is a true die-hard Kentucky football fan who seldom misses a game and normally is in the tailgate lot early with her husband.
“I can’t fathom what is so broken. I like Stoops, and I know it was really the OC (offensive coordinator), but, just like a commander in the military, the ultimate responsibility is the coach/commander. UK football died today,” Allen, a former military member, messaged me after the blowout loss.
Tyler Wright, sent me this message: “Not a Kentucky fan but after everything that went on in the offseason, coupled with the results of the last two years, this seems like the type of loss that can lose you the fanbase for good.”
Based on social media, fans are more than just a little upset.
“I did watch UK-South Carolina football game today via ABC-TV. It pains me to watch how this program continues to move in such a ‘ho-hum’ pace. If it weren’t for 6-6 & 7-5 teams qualifying for mediocre bowls, there’d be little to celebrate. I have no further comment beyond that,” Oscar Combs, former Cats’ Pause publisher and long-time UK sports analyst, posted on social media after the game.
FoxSports Radio host Aaron Torres didn’t hold back on his assessment of UK football: “Maybe Mark Stoops should spend less time complaining about NIL and more time getting his team ready to play. Least prepared team I’ve seen anywhere in college football this season.”
Former Kentucky coach Rich Brooks, who did beat Georgia twice, called it an “all systems failure” by the Cats.
CatsIllustrated publisher Justin Rowland of Rivals.com noted it was a “bad day” for Kentucky football and posted on social media that it is “hard to see how you have much hope for the offense” after the play against South Carolina.
Stoops didn’t have a lot of answers after his third straight loss to South Carolina.
“We’ve been beaten, you know, pretty badly by some really good football teams. But I felt like our team always fought back,” Stoops said. “We talk about it all the time. You get punched, you get hit, you swing back. Very disappointed. Not happy with us. Our coaching, our response, the way we played.
“Today it didn’t look like we were a really well coached team and a team that didn’t really want to respond. That’s 100 percent on me and on us. No excuses. They beat us in every facet and we didn’t respond. We didn’t play very good and we didn’t coach very good. We have a lot of work to do. It’s up to our team, how we respond and how we bounce back.”
6 Responses
Over the last week, the pages of Vaughts Views have been dominated by items with the following headlines about the state of coaching for UK football:
• Mark Stoops got a lot of Deserved Criticism After South Carolina Loss
• Former UK Player Wants To See More Fire From Mark Stoops
• It is Already Gut Check Time for the Wildcats?
• Brad White didn’t see a System Failure by UK Defense
• Mark Stoops has UNBELIEVABLE Confidence in Eric Wolford
• Is Eric Wolford Paying Attention to the Right Details with UK’s Offensive Line?
• Stoops Says he was Wrong, Team Did Play Hard in South Carolina Loss
• Soul Searching Time for UK Football and Mark Stoops After South Carolina Flop
It seems clear to me that the quality of coaching is a major factor in success with major programs in competitive sports. Yes, the common platitude that it is not the X’s and O’s, it’s the Jimmy’s and Joe’s does direct attention to the players, and undeniably, the players are also significant factors toward success, but the coaches (and the program itself) recruit the players, and the coaches teach and train the players. Therefore, the players’ factor is heavily influenced by the coaching factor.
These headlines all point to the coaching deficiencies.
There are several factors that reinforce the coaching deficiencies in my mind.
1) The persistent lack of intensity, urgency, and quality of play against “lesser” opponents, and during the first few weeks of every season under Stoops
2) The seasonal resistance of the coaches to develop the QB2 with game time and game experience, especially given the reality that UK football has seldom gone through a season without having to depend on QB2 due to unexpected injuries (should be anticipated, but not) to QB1.
3) The revolving door of offensive coordinators, which seems due to the persistent throttling back of various offensive coordinators by Stoops who clearly has no clue about how an efficient offense must function.
4) The rehiring of Wolford is inexcusable
5) The decision to leave last year to Texas A&M, foiled by the A&M money guys, says Stoops no longer wants to have this job.
It is clear to all of us that there is something bad wrong within this program.
Stoops is in charge, and it is on him.
It is time for him to go.
The real problem lies with our Athletic Director. Barnhart REFUSES to make a major coaching change in any sport, even though it is painfully obvious to EVERYONE ELSE that a change needs to be made. Until we get a change in the AD position, BBN will continue to suffer needless agony while the rest of the country hee haws their ass off. Stoops has not won an SEC East title when their were divisions, has not won an SEC title, and has never even been in the conversation for a national title. We finished last year with a 6-7 record. We are well on our way to doing worse than that this season. You don’t pay a coach $9 million a year for that kind of performance. Barnhart will cry give him a chance. He has been here 12 years and did elevate the program from bottom of the league status to middle of the pack, but now we are sliding back toward the bottom. BBN deserves better for that kind of investment. President Caliputo needs to make the change at the AD level first. If he gets a GOOD AD, good coaches will follow.
P.S. Barnhart will cry that he hired Mark Pope. 1. That came only after Calipari destroyed the basketball program. 2. Barnhart didn’t fire Calipari; BBN had to run him out of town. 3. He hired Pope as a last resort when everyone else told him to stuff it. 4. He should have gone to Mark Pope as his first choice. Barney has been here too long. It’s time to put him out to pasture to enjoy a few years before going to the glue factory.
After 2 games into the season, UK has to be the biggest underachiever. Stoops has lost the BBN and we will lose to Vandy this year.
Why do all the commentators say he’s going to retire at seasons end.? Do they see what we’ve seen for the last couple of years that stops doesn’t give a shit but going 6-6 and making the music city bowl.? He doesn’t seem as competitive as he once was maybe Texas a&m turning him down crushed his ego. He wouldn’t last 2 years at Texas a&m if they had back to back 7-6 seasons there coach would probably be fired.
Yes he deserves it , but again UK football program will always be either in the middle or bottom of the SEC regardless who’s the coach is. We made some strides with Stoops tenure . The thing is we have gone backwards since the 10 win season
I am not a UK fan, but I saw an overall lack of effort by both the players and coaches. Twice early in the second half UK’s defense successfully blitzed twice and did not blitz again. Why not keep tossing blitzs in until South Carolina stops it?