Mark Stoops (Vicky Graff Photo)
If you have sensed that Kentucky coach Mark Stoops not only is frustrated with his team’s inconsistent play — as he should be — but also with adjusting to the NIL athletics world, you are right.
Stoops irritated a lot of Kentucky fans with his infamous “pony up” comment after the 2023 loss to Georgia. He’s made it clear he doesn’t like to have to spend so much time trying to raise money for the football program.
He was asked at his weekly press conference if it was now “unrealistic” for college players to be able to “get up” for every game and perform the same with both NIL and the transfer portal impacting college athletics.
His answer was no surprise.
“I think it’s harder in this era, I do. I think there’s a lot of roster turnover, and we work really hard still,” Stoops said. “We used to work really hard on building that culture for years and years and years.
“And now we have to build that culture really fast. And I think it is different, I definitely think it’s different.”
Now Stoops and his staff have to get UK ready to bounce back from another loss to Vanderbilt in Lexington and UK’s 10th loss in its last 12 SEC home games when it plays at Florida Saturday night.
“There’s a lot of things that we’ll get into. There will be quite a bit that I don’t need to share with you right now but I put a lot of time and thought into it and consulted with a lot of people,” Stoops said.
The UK coach was actually a bit late for his Monday press conference because he was meeting with seniors.
“I was just sitting in my office visiting with somebody right there. Yeah, we’ll keep things moving,” Stoops said.
20 Responses
Maybe kentucky needs new blood as a coach.
Ok coach .. the team is still undisciplined taking dumb penalties.
It’s a mess. The upside for us is second and third stringers from the blue bloods utilize the portal.
Hasn’t helped much this season.
Hey coach Stoops, what was the problem all the years before NIL? Could it be the HC is not getting the job done?
NIL is a new excuse.
Of course, UK is not the only
Program with NIL “problems”
This reminds me of the fraud using early start times as a reason UK BB players did not play well. Why is the start time a problem for UK players but not opponents??
Stoops needs to shut up and work on doing his job a lot better. Every coach in the country is facing the same problems, but Stoops seems to be the only one using it as an excuse for his teams being undisciplined, unprepared, and dreadful clock management.
I like Stoops, but I think he is getting burned out.
LB – I remember Cal ranting about “late” start times – guess he covered all the bases !
And then he skipped a post game show and went to the NBA All-Star weekend.
His pets got priority for the few months they were in Lexington (even if not playing at UK due to mystery injury) & when gone
I will ask again – if not Stoops then Who? The AD is not going to get into another $8 Million situation with a pig-in-a-poke. So, it has to be a big time guy. Then who? Who’s a big time guy that is going to come to the graveyard for football coaches without giving him a mortgage on the university?
It’s a different day with NIL. The guy will have to have name recognition as well as a war chest full of money for the transfer portal. The days of long term player development is over until congress gets involved and maybe introduces some sanity into what college football has become.
So if Stoops wanders off somewhere else, do we pay a buyout?
Do we have a former player that is a college coach somewhere now?
If he wanders off in the night, UK is off the hook sans John Calipari
Hire Jon Summerall or Derrick Ansley
The answer RJohn is there are no big time coaches that will come here. Kentucky couldn’t get a big time basketball coach to come. They were throwing more money around than Cal was making. The best coaches in any sport are not coming to Ky to be called names and listen to the crybabies that ruin this state.
I think not getting a big time coach for basketball is a blessing, Pope has done wonders since been hire not sure any other coach could have pulled off what he’s done so far.
Agree 100% Cats79 👍
He has not won a game yet!
RJohn, he will in time this team has more upside than people think.
Cats79 – Oh I agree but lets not get the cart before the horse. Before we nominate Pope for the Pope’s job, let’s see what he actually does.
We don’t need to get a big time coach; we need to get a better coach. Having an undisciplined team is a function of poor recruiting as much as it is bad coaching. NIL and the transfer portal are out of control. The NCAA needs to do something meaningful and take the lead in these reforms. It’s ok to give these kids a one-time, uniform $10,000 to $25,000 stipend in addition to their 4 or 5 year scholarship, but put the student back in student athlete. Anything more creates an atmosphere of entitlement, results in buying players, and totally negates the education component. It could also lead to undisciplined, uncoachable attitudes. As for the portal, the first transfer can come with no wait period to play; the second transfer requires a sit out year, and a third and final transfer would require a sit out year and not be eligible for NIL.