Coach Mark Stoops knows he has major work to do but said he hopes to keep continuity in his coaching staff despite the 4-8 finish. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Now what?
Kentucky football has hit rock bottom. There’s no other way to put it after the 41-14 loss Saturday to Louisville that was a total debacle.
It was not just the end of a five-year winning streak against Louisville but it was a clear indicator of what has happened to UK. The toughness and physicality are gone out of the program as Louisville pushed Kentucky around most of the game.
The Cardinals ran for 358 yards and averaged seven yards per run against what was supposed to be one of Kentucky’s best defenses. Louisville had the ball for 35 minutes. The Kentucky offense had five turnovers — two fumbles by Jamarion Wilcox, two interceptions by Cutter Boley, and one interception by Gavin Wimsatt — and just could not sustain any consistent offense (UK was 0-for-9 on third down conversions).
True freshman quarterback Cutter Boley threw for 160 yards in the second half at Texas the previous game to earn his first start. He was only 6-for-15 for 48 yards before he was literally knocked out of the game in the second half by Louisville’s big-boy football that overwhelmed UK.
It was a dismal end to a 4-8 season for a team that was supposed to be the most talented coach Mark Stoops has had and the deepest team he’s had.
Fans are disenchanted — and should be. Stoops now faces a major reboot and all the goodwill he has built up with fans is gone. He’s complained too much about NIL money and the need for more but his team did not deliver this year. The Cats were undisciplined and mistaken-prone most of the season.
“Now people forget the 10-win seasons (Stoops had). They remember 7-5, 7-5 and 4-8. You are in a rut,” said former UK player Jeff Piecoro, the UK Radio Network analyst.
Make it a big rut and in the Southeastern Conference, it doesn’t get easier. Kentucky’s schedule will be even tougher next year and the Cats are going to likely lose a lot of players in the transfer portal. Kentucky also has to decide what it will do at quarterback next season — or maybe if Stoops will keep offensive coordinator Buch Hamdan for a second season.
Stoops has to make some staff changes. A 4-8 finish at Kentucky now dictates that after eight straight bowl seasons. However, Stoops said on his postgame radio show that he “needs the offensive staff to stay” because lack of continuity has hurt UK on offense.
“(Defensive coordinator) Brad White has been nothing but loyal and I love our defensive staff and that continuity has helped us,” Stoops said.
Kentucky has to be better in the transfer portal to prepare for the 2025 season and find a way to rebuild/rejuvenate the offensive line.
“In all honesty, I don’t think it can get much worse,” Piecoro said about the offensive line that at times started four players from the transfer portal this season.
Stoops didn’t disagree.
“We played behind the chains and we don’t have a chance. We just got beat. We got beat at guard. Cohesively we have not put it together at offensive line and the comfort level is just not there,” the Kentucky coach said.
“The turnovers were definitely big. For us to have this many turnovers and the way we are playing right now and the way we are built and there is no chance.”
That might be an honest evaluation but it also shows how the program slipped this year.
“I let it get to this point. I have to get us out of it,” Stoops said.
10 Responses
“I let it get to this point. I have to get us out of it,” Stoops said.
Stoops is half right – he let it get to this point. It’s a 3 year slide of epic proportions since it ended with 4 wins in 2024.
UK is 1-8 in 2024 against college level teams.
3 cupcake wins only fake the record to 4-8.
So, UK paid $9 Million for ONE win!!!
Very fan in the BBN KNOWS the OC & OL coach are absolute losers! Yet the HC wants to keep them. Should we lift or cry!?
Brock is gone – possibly to UGA to lead them to another SEC championship game.
Cutter will face the threat of a season ending concussion if the OC & OL coach stay, so he may need to transfer to avoid a major injury.
UK FB is NOW at the chjoker level.
Stoops refused to STOP running off OC’s with his interference and that led Coen to leave TWICE after UK had a 2nd 10-win season, That stubbornness is why UK FB now has the stench similar to many decades of the past.
The Stoops era ended with a 10-win season.
We were down by 20 trying to start fights with the Louisville players. It was disgusting. Stoops needs to leave but he never will because he won’t make over 3 million a year at his next job. He is over paid, and really needs to be fired. Mack Brown was fired and was having a much better season than Stoops. Its just a bad culture and it has been. Fights in the locker room. The defense wasn’t even running they were jogging! I don’t think Stoops is the man for the job amymore. Watch another powerhouse scoop up Jon sumrall and we get Stoops for the next couple years. How does anyone think we will be better next year? With all the experience we are losing it should have been a rebuilding year next year instead he will be asked to win with a much worse team. Unless we kill it in the portal there is no way stoops rights this ship!
Clearly, the players checked out last week. Probably had to show up to collect the NIL checks.
Pitiful football.
Stoops is, and should be, DMW. He is not capable of fixing any culture. He is not in a curve going down, he is at the bottom. He did not have the locker room for most of the season and that is on him and the staff. How are we in a good place with defensive continuity as he suggests? Are we all missing something. The OC and OL coaches need to find new homes for sure. Hamdan may be the worst these eyes have seen in a long while. The words "short passes" and "tight ends" are not in his vocabulary or game plans. Cutter has shown some potential but still may not be the answer. Stone should be feeling a little more secure if he honors his commitment. If Syracuse, Indiana, SMU and some others can do it why can’t UK? We can’t and won’t because of current Coaching Staff.
The two biggest errors:
1) Flirting with Texas A&M when you make $9M at UK. Seriously? Your agent played you, bruh. You didn’t deserve a raise at UK, nor did you deserve the TAMU job. You already have a good job, an extremely competitive contract, and long tenure.
2) If you want to compete in this SEC, it starts with the QB position<period> Not just QB1, QB2 also. Build the coaching staff, OL, DL, culture, attitude, and everything else for ONE SEASON from there.
💩
Stoops leaving is wishful thinking. Can’t afford to fire him and no one is going to pay him $8million and years left on his contract. What puzzles me is that Stoops somehow thinks he has what it takes to fix this thing. Clearly he shows that he doesn’t.
He thinks he wants to keep drawing the big checks.
He probably has no idea how to fix all the problems this football program has.
I know things are bad when the comments section on this site is virtually dead. I gave this team and this coaching staff way beyond more credit going into this game yesterday than they ever deserved. This was the first time in many years that the KY team, in spite of the season results up to that point, could not and did not show up for the Louisville game. And while not expecting a win, I expected them to at least show up, compete, and fight (fight, as in the football sense, not the extracurricular sense. Which, while on the subject, amazes me because it seemed they had enough energy and internal passion to get up for extracurricular fighting, but not fighting to win the football game!!) Anyway, based on alot of the predictions I saw, most people expected the same as I did: a loss, but they expected it to be a close game and probably a war between both sides. Well, you know the program has completely collapsed and u know that players have completely checked out long ago when they no longer even care about beating LOU. I took for granted our guys would view this game as their bowl game considering this was going to be their last game for alot of them, and considering how they have always felt about LOU, and that even if they had been miserable now for awhile, that they at least could essentially put the rest of this season behind them once it was time to kickoff. Because at that point, that’s all u got left anyway….. Obviously, they would have preferred this game to have never even been played. Stoops has completely lost the culture, the spirit, and the mentality that he built and instilled here: the blue-collar work ethic is gone, as well as the toughness, the intensity, the sense of urgency, the PASSION—the guys who played here from 2016 to 2021 had a love and passion for KY, and a strong desire and sense of pride to make KY a force and competitor in the SEC. That meant something to them. It’s clear that that mentality is gone, and that these guys who are here now are just showing up for a paycheck. Its a shame to say, but that’s what is being shown. As a fan, all we can ever really go on is what we see, and what we can sense or feel ourselves based off that. And I think most of us can say we have seen a change, a trend downward in all aspects of the program the last 3 seasons. I could see right away in 2022 such a huge dropoff in terms of style of play, offensive execution, and team spirit from not just in 2021 but in those prior 5 seasons as well. Then there was another dropoff in that same thing last year after losing Levis and Rodriguez and several other veterans from 2022 and starting the offense new again with Leary and Davis. Last year, Davis was basically a one-man wrecking crew on offense. This year, it was another dropoff offensively, but this time, a catastrophic one from both of the previous two years combined, where the QB play, the OLINE, and the passing game were so bad that the MVP of the offense this year was the kicker, Alex Raynor. He was this year basically our only hope of being able to score any points at all. I can’t imagine had we not had him! And when he got his opportunities, it was like he HAD to make every single kick for us to even be able to have a chance of staying in the game. All of this to say that I would have never dreamed we would be where we are on DEC 1st, 2024 when looking back and remembering where we were on JAN 1st, 2022, after winning the Citrus Bowl with Will Levis to secure the second 10-3 bowl-winning season, along with another 8-5 bowl-winning season, all within a 4-yr period. I truly believed back in JAN 2022 that the program was at the best spot it had ever been in, and that that awesome 2021 season, and the run we had been on since 2018 was only the beginning. I believed that all of that success was only going to enhance our recruiting, and that we were going to be able to continue building strong teams defensively that could win at a reasonably high level with in the SEC. I felt like Stoops was on the right path with that and in a good place within himself. I knew we still needed to upgrade offensively, but I thought what they had seen and gotten out of Will Levis gave them the answer of the type of QB and the type of offensive system they wanted to run. I felt that Stoops had finally gotten some answers and some help as to the kind of offense he wanted to instill, thanks to what Levis and Wan’dale did that season. And I thought he had maybe finally surrounded himself with some better help in the dept of assistant coaches and OC’s, being that he had dipped into the talent pool of the NFL with first hiring Coen and then Scangarello and Yenser. It seemed he was intent on taking another step and trying to upgrade KY in every way–in other words, putting the big-boy pants on. And Levis was coming back again for one more year, along with Rodriguez, so there was reason to feel good and have hope for our future. Stoops had been on a strong run of building that blue-collar spirit and mentality and work ethic that really began back in 2016, but it took off to a new level in 2018, and really peaked from the until 2021, and in that period some of the fruits from that labor were finally earned and enjoyed by all those teams. And again, I felt at the time that it was only the beginning, that those years were just a launchpad forward for more years that potentially could be even greater, but at the very least, just more of the same as what we had had. I felt that Stoops had discovered some things about his teams, but more so even himself and his own coaching and his approaches to his system offensively that he hadnt before that would take the program and himself in a new positive direction forward. I felt he had learned some things that would help him to become a better coach, and I thought he wanted it bad enough to make it happen! U know, if u are coaching at the same SEC program for 12 yrs, the hope is that u are learning some things as u go along that will help make you better as a coach and help make your program better! How wrong I was on all of that!!! I drank the Kool aid, I will admit it……and instead of all of that being just the beginning, it was the beginning of the end!! Its like there was this fundamental change with all of that starting in 2022. Some of that has to do with the changes in college fb–this was still the pre-transfer-portal-and-NIL era, so we had a large core group of the same players here for anywhere from 4-7 years who we have finally lost all of in 2021, 2022, and 2023. It was the group that was the most responsible for taking that culture Stoops built and upholding it and living and playing by it–and through that culture, they built a new KY FB BRAND, they gave KY a new reputation of being a legitimate, respectable program in the SEC, gave them a reputation to the league’s other coaches and players of being blue-collar, hard-working, and physical. They allowed KY to elevate themselves to a new level in recruiting to where they were getting legitimate SEC-caliber athletes to come play here, and allowed KY to build SEC-caliber teams here, especially on the defensive side of the ball. From 2018 to 2021, KY seriously had top-5 SEC defenses in each of those seasons. That’s what makes it so insulting to see all the BS drama that has gone down on the offensive side all of those years–we have had alot of good KY defensive teams under Stoops wasted because the offense was so horrendous. The defensive teams here have had to do more to carry the load for the ENTIRE TEAM than is fair to ask of any unit. That’s where accountability falls on Stoops for not putting in the time on developing QBs and figuring out some kind of offensive identity/offensive philosophy. Each year I feel like that that problem becomes more and more obvious based on what we see ON THE FIELD—and it has been building and building more and more, really more so the last two years, and it finally caught up with him and spiraled out of control this year. You cannot continue to put the entire burden of your success on the defense after all these years–eventually you have to figure out some kind of a solution, some type of system/style/philosophy on offense, that will best suit your defensive philosophy, because at some point, you have to start figuring out how to move the ball consistently down the field and figure out how to move it through the air–and you have to eventually figure out how to score points—END ZONE–TOUCHDOWNS. What was the number, something like 4, 5, 6 offensive TDs scored this year in 8 SEC games? And I may be being generous with those guesses! I also heard that we had more turnovers this year in SEC play than we had touchdowns?? That’s unheard of for anybody in this league. This is a big-boy league. And as much as we like to dog the ACC, this year we wouldn’t have even had a winning record against them. U aren’t going to beat anybody with numbers like that. Nobody except the 3 teams we beat: Southern Miss, Ohio U, and Murray. We r so bad now we might not even beat Southern Miss if we were to play them again! And I guarantee u we would NOT BEAT OLE MISS AGAIN if we were to play them again right now. We were one fluke play away from being 3-9 this year, and let’s face it, they are in reality a 3-9 team based on their play on the field this year–The Ole Miss win was a total fluke. One fluke play that we would fail at executing 99 times out of 100. Most of that game we struggled offensively the same as we have all the other games, the only difference in that game was that we still had most of our team healthy, especially the defense–we had just about all of our defensive players still healthy back then, and that Ole Miss game was one of their best performances of the season–that one and GA–those were probably the two best defensive performances of the season. That defense was gutted after both Hairston and D-JACK went down, and they were never the same the rest of the season without those two. But even still, u look at the point totals of most of the games this year, and the fact they were competitive in most of the games they played, the heaviest burden of success for this year’s team fell on the offense. This was the year that that issue really came home to roost more than any other. And the biggest reasons why: all the losses from the O-LINE of the last 3 yrs finally catching up. And the same with the long stretch of the revolving door of RBs. This was the first year we had no established RB who we knew would be the guy and who could carry the load. Ray Davis carried that on for us for one more year last year. This year for the first time we were forced to turn to who we had in our crop of new freshmen/redshirts or transfers. DEMI was a semi-veteran, and he did ok, I think he gave all he could, and he did well for what was being asked of him, but he’s not a true running back. He’s not physical enough, not strong enough, not able to take the amount of hits over the course of the season that a Davis could. So then Wilcox looked to be the next guy from our recruiting classes who might emerge as that dependable back, and he had some good moments this year, and that’s why hopes were high on him going into yesterday, and why people were hanging on to him and Boley as a few last glimmers of hope. That’s why fans feel so let down–its like we weren’t asking for alot at this point–but damn dude, not one lost fumble by Wilcox in that game yesterday, but TWO!!! So with that, along with the fact that this was year 3 of trying to rebuild that offensive line, then years and years of not being able to develop QBs, and the same years-long problems with inept wide-receiver play, it truly was an ALL-SYSTEMS crash this season with that offense. It was a 4-year crash in the making, but maybe even longer than that. Some problems are more recent, but others go back for a long time in the Stoops era, particularly the QB issue. But even with all of that, in alot of these games, your defense still did well enough to give u, the offense, a chance to win the game–EVEN WITH AS BAD AS YOU WERE!!! Look at the opponent’s point totals from some of the losses: GA 13, Vandy 20, AUB 24….. Even a very mediocre, crappy offense could alot of times at least get to 20. But 20 was this team’s high-water mark. And then even in the games against the big dogs where we seemed to actually play a little better–TN, TX, FLA–we were still in all those games either at halftime or in the 3rd qtr, or early 4th, and at those points, our defense had not yet given up all the scores they eventually would, so they were still holding serve against the opponent, and it was at those points where it was up to the offense to do its part. Again, it’s not fair to ask one side of the ball to do all the work. Honestly, I don’t see how Stoops gets as many defensive recruits as he does–I wouldn’t want to play defense for his teams knowing what I know about his offenses! All those games they were still in in the second half, those games were lost because the offense could not move the ball and they always ended up turning it right back over to the opponent, either on downs or via a pick, a fumble, etc……so then those defensive guys have to go right back out on that field again. They ended up being exhausted and getting worn out in all those games, and who could blame them? When u think about everything from that perspective, it really starts to put into focus just how unfair Stoops’ on-field and in-game philosophy and system really are. And that can lead to the "OFF-THE-FIELD" and behind-the-scenes problems that end up destroying that program culture and team camaraderie. Honestly, I think all of that culture was broken this year in a way that it hadn’t been yet. It had been sliding that way for the last two seasons, but it completely gave way this year. And I think thats because it has taken Stoops himself down in a way he hasn’t been taken down yet either, and right now I think deep down inside, the foundation of who he is as a coach and as a man has been rattled to its core. Based on some other things I have read and heard about in the last 24 hrs that I didn’t necessarily know about before, I think everything he has reaped in the last 4 years has come home to be sown this year. And it’s interesting: all the things I have heard about, they all mostly are of the off-the-field variety, and the point of origin for them goes back to that end of 2021- beginning of 2022-time period I talked about earlier that I said I felt was the dividing line between the best of the Stoops era here at KY, and the beginning of the slide downward that has led us back basically to rock bottom again. So there is no denying that connection in off-field incidents and drama, and the big dropoff in quality of play at the time that u were witnessing ON the field. Part of it involved the incident with those players getting paid for unworked hours, which began in 2021 and resulted in the wins from that great season being vacated. And that story broke, mind you, the last week in AUG leading up to the start of this football season. Also in JAN of 2022 was the first of two resignations by Liam Coen from KY, which I don’t think we have ever still to this day stopped paying the price for that loss. I mean, that guy proved himself in one single season, and if you cant make it work with someone young, fresh, and dynamic like him, u aren’t going to make it work with anybody. I have always said he was such a fantastic breath of fresh air for this program that it desperately needed, and resulted in the most fun season K has had since the Rich Brooks era. I said back in 2021 make this guy the head coach right now–or make them DUAL COACHES: make Liam the Head Offensive Coach and make Stoops the Defensive Head Coach—if only things could be that simple!!!! And Liam wasn’t anything at all the same on his second trip in here–he was like a shell of the former coach he was here in 2021. IDK if that was due to his health, or to Stoops, or to Leary, or to his NFL aspirations–but he wasn’t the same. But of course neither was our team…….as far as the other off-field drama that dates back to 3 yrs ago, I have heard some make mention of Stoops’ divorce that took place somewhere during that time, and that in these subsequent 3 yrs after that, that Stoops has not handled the fallout from that very well. It’s the kind of behavior that would fall along the lines of a Billy Clyde Gillispie while he was here. And we all know Stoops loves the bourbon– in addition to the fact that there may be additional social vices going on besides just bourbon, but combined WITH THE BOURBON!!!! So, when u start thinking abt these vices playing out over time, and becoming a bigger factor along the same timeline as witnessing major dropoffs in quality of play on the field, lack of discipline and mental stability in games, lack of spirit, fight, determination, passion and hunger for the game, and for WINNING, the dropoffs in all of those quality-character traits in players and coaches makes sense. There is a direct correlation between what we have seen on the field and what has happened away from it. And I’m not trying to judge anybody over their personal lives. Divorce obviously is one of the hardest things for people to go through and get over–all I am saying is rather than some of the usual vices that is so easy for any of us to get into when dealing with something like that, u, Stoops, are lucky and privileged enough to be the head football coach at the University of Kentucky–how bout show a little gratitude to the fans and to the athletics admin and pour your energy and what u are feeling from your personal heartache into investing that grief into the development and nurturing of your players? Put what u are feeling into recruiting and into all of that NIL fundraising u are always griping about!!! Practice what u preach: you’re always preaching hard work–well, work! Work on making your guys better, work on developing some kind of offensive identity or philosophy, work on finding something that can be a good balance for what u are trying to do offensively, figure out what it is u WANT to do offensively, rather than just always saying "big play, big play, we’re trying to develop a big play" ….. Let me tell u something, Coach: I have watched enough college FB in my life to know that u ain’t gonna be able to convert a big play until u figure out how to move your offense through the air for 10 yards first! Figure out how to get a first down via a pass. Figure out how to move the chains via a pass. Figure out how to develop a QB and try to do it. Find a quality OC who knows how to move the ball thru the air and who will try to figure a way to work their scheme around the way u want to try to win games. Figure out how to get the tight ends involved in the passing game. Find a new OLINE coach who would be interested in trying to help u bring the Big Blue Wall back. Take some cues from Mark Pope and Kenny Brooks while you are sipping your bourbon, and listen to those two couches talk about the time that they spend with their players and the level to which they invest themselves IN THEIR PLAYERS’ LIVES to help them become more successful in the game of bball and more successful in life. Listen to Kenny Brooks talk about the amount of time that he and Georgia Amoore spend together just sitting in the coach’s office talking together. Take some advice from the people who are around you, Coach–that is, if u choose to surround yourself with them. There is a lot we can call learn from so many of the things I have heard said by the two bball coaches. There is a lot you could learn from them and others there around you, if u choose to reach out, that u could bring to the table of reconstructing your football team. There Is so much work that u could put in, that just from the casual fan’s standpoint of the last 3 yrs, can see that has been left neglected or unaddressed. There was a time, Coach, when the fans didn’t have to say all these things to u–u knew them, u believed in them, and u did them. So we r saying this to you now, Coach: u are becoming another of what we just finally got to cut ties with: another lazy, entitled, spoiled, condescending, arrogant, unwilling-to- work-and-do-the-hard-sh**–ego-maniac who believes they are somehow now KING, and who believes they are above the fans, and who knows better than everybody else. Don’t become that guy, Coach. U can do better, u ARE BETTER, and YOU WERE BETTER!!! U are obviously going to have another year. So whatever fans u do still have behind u next year I wouldn’t be biting the hands that feed me if I were you. Make something positive out of this year. Put down the bourbon and forget the debauchery–thats always gonna be around till the end of time, brother, and it ain’t gonna win u any ball games!! If u have truly given up on all of it, then you should go on and leave–do the right thing. But if you still want it, then do the right thing by it too: focus on rebuilding your culture, rebuilding your brand, rebuilding your team, and don’t become another condescending jerk who thinks they are better than all the fans and who thinks they can do no wrong–because that’s not going to end well for anybody, including YOU. U have a year to fix your program and fix yourself–there is still time–so use it wisely–and we’ll see u next AUG.