Mark Stoops knows Kentucky fans are frustrated with how his team played this year. (Vicky Graff Photo)
What message does Mark Stoops have for frustrated Kentucky football fans after a lopsided 41-14 loss to Louisville Saturday ended a disappointing 4-8 season?
“Yeah, I understand the frustrations completely. We are not very happy as well. I can promise you that we are going to get back to work and get it fixed,” Stoops said after the game. “The misery index goes around, you know, it goes around.
“For myself, I’ve been around a long time and I’m really concerned and excited about the rebuild. Fans got to wait a long time. I get to go to work tomorrow and for that I understand it and accept it and can promise you we will go to work to get the team back to being a team they can be very proud of.”
Stoops made it clear he intends to be back coaching next year and not walk away from a $40-million contract and UK athletics director Mitch Barnhart has made it clear he wants Stoops back.
“Everyone wants to replace me right now, but I am not going anywhere,” Stoops said after the game. “My butt will be in my office tomorrow. Anyone who wants me to be gone anywhere is wishful thinking. My butt is going to work. I am sorry I disappointed folks. But I am optimistic we will turn it around.”
That’s a little difficult to comprehend considering the expectations UK had this season but yet won only four games and figures to lose many of its best players, especially on defense. However, South Carolina went from not being bowl eligible in 2023 to winning its ninth game this year by beating Clemson Saturday.
“Sorry we did not deliver a better performance today and throughout the season. I told the team how much I appreciated the guys, that that was their last game and what they did for this place whether it was a short amount of time or many years, like some of those guys. I just greatly appreciate them,” Stoops said.
“The players that are returning, if they do return, because we’ve got a lot of meetings to have this week and organize what our plan is moving forward. But, you know, we’ve got to go back to work, we’ve got to go back to being who we are and be very tough and be very disciplined and very fundamental and we were not always that this year. You know, it wasn’t very good, I understand that and it’s very frustrating. I understand that and I accept the responsibility of that.
“We’ve done good things in the past and we know how to do it. I feel like we have a good plan to move forward here and there will be a lot of moving pieces in the next two, three, four weeks and we will get it fixed. That excites me and motivates me.”
15 Responses
ANOTHER stupid buyout clause. Barnhart is batting 1000 in the stupid department.
100%
I just don’t get it.. Why the large contracts.
Stoops would have been better off if he would have fessed up at the beginning of the season and stated that his team was not going to be very good this year. At least the fans would not end up feeling like they have been fleeced by by a bunch of con men.
I don’t know where Stoops goes from here
Every segment of the football team has so many holes to fill. The entire OL and the entire defensive secondary has to start afresh.
Worse yet, who that is really any good would want to come to Kentucky to play football?
The AD & the administrators above him should have to pay for dumb contracts.
TLT was given a secret contract extension.
The fraud was given a life-time contract and could still be trashing UK BB while getting paid $9 Mil a year if not for the pigs calling him to Arkansas
Stoops was given a contract far beyond his worth and now he is in the same position that the fraud was in – he decides if and when he leaves.
The AD has failed, failed and failed. He lucked out and hired a great BB coach in Pope but he first went after others with no UK connection.
Accountability – NONE
That’s how the UK Athletic Department & those above it operate – with zero accountability!!!
Agree on the lifetime contracts. The AD is effectively no longer the boss once a lifetime contract is signed. I appreciate what Stoops has done for UK Football but I have little confidence that he can fix this.
Larry- Is a coach allowed to contribute to NIL funds?
Great idea – tell Stoops to “pony up” a few million for NIL money
What lifetime contractS? Nobody other than Cal, and even that was tongue-in-cheek.
No, coaches can’t directly contribute to NIL. Schools have a set amount they can contribute and it is capped.
You appreciate what Stoops has done? You all sure bail pretty quickly after one bad season.
How do you fix a problem if you don’t know what the problem is?
There’s going to be an exodus as soon as the portal opens of all players with other offers and I don’t see a rush the other way coming. I think the same thing happens with the recruits.
Obviously the players have NO respect for Stoops as evidenced by a player in uniform in line at a concession stand during the last game.
Mitch, this is YOUR problem.
Excellent summary of UK FB and the AD who fueled the failure by the HC!
When Caliponzi only won 9 game – the costs were $1 million dollars a win. Stoops wins 4 games, and the cost is a whopping $2,250,000 per win. Start by getting rid of Eddie and your brother for starters, the offensive line coach, heck start over Mark. You cannot even tell us what the problems are!!!!! Both you and Mitch are "gaslighting" the fans.
Stoops says "I AM NOT GOING ANYWHERE"……too bad the fans cannot say the same!!! The current players on the roster and future recruits will not be the only mass exodus you are going to see from KY. We are looking at a season next year that will look like the last season of football here before Stoops took over: Joker’s last season. Here we have been disappointed in the slips from 2022 and 2023 when we finished with back-to-back 7-6 records, and we would have killed for that this year. Sadly enough, next year we may very well be saying "I wish we could have just won 4 games"……I have already seen 9 of the 12 games on the schedule for next year, and all 8 of the SEC games look like losses to me, based on all the current trends and patterns, and the way things stand now. So there’s 4-8 right there–AT BEST. The only other game I saw that there could be a chance at winning is the season-opener against Toledo–but if I recall, they had a pretty good season this year–maybe 7- or 8-game-winners, and up at or in contention for the top of their conference. I think they are at least better than any of the 3 out-of-conference teams we played this year. I haven’t seen who the other 3 teams that we play next year are–that schedule may not be finalized yet–im not sure–but the point is it’s not about to get any better next year in any aspects–unless Stoops performs some kind of magical facelift with the program–i don’t see that happening. It sickens me to say that we have officially reached CAL-status now with Stoops. Because he is now even talking like CAL and just overall is carrying the same attitude and the same behaviors that is characteristic of the same narcissistic jerk that CAL became. It’s just the same situation and the same monster that Marnhart once again created. Giving the coaches of the two largest, highest revenue-generating sports GOD-like contracts that have basically enabled both coaches to operate without any accountability and allowed them to be exempt from any consequences. Stoops has total and full control now, and u can tell by the way he is talking that he knows deep-down that HIS PERSONAL CONTRACT is the only thing that’s keeping him here. He knows if this was any other program that he would be out on his ass right now. The difference between UK and the other SEC programs is that the AD’s of the other programs actually have INVOLVEMENT in their school’s major sports–they don’t cut off their control over and their own leverage that they have in regard to the coaches of their athletic programs. In most every other program, the coaches know that they are under a certain amount of pressure to perform well and to produce results, and they know that there are incentives in place for them to do well, and they know that they have to WIN more games than they lose in order to at least continue on with what they are making, but especially if they want to make MORE–or if theyre interested in getting extensions! It’s pretty clear that Marnhart has some kind of a problem with operating like most typical AD’s—he must suck at, or hate, working with coaches on the normal aspects of coaches’ employment, like contract negotiations and addressing performance issues–i mean, he is the one who is the BOSS, but he operates like anything but one—honestly he operates like a scared little man. I mean, look at his track record: the deal with TLT, remember he made Joker the coach-in-waiting THE VERY MOMENT that Rich Brooks announced the end of that season would be his last and that he was retiring!! Without waiting even a second after–that season hadn’t even started over yet–he handed that coaching job right over to Joker. People forget about that one–but that’s one of the worst decisions ever made in college football history. Then obviously the "lifetime" contract given to COACH GOD in 2018. Then this deal with Stoops–but this has been going on long before now– he has already had alot of other "perks" in Stoops’ contracts that go back several years, like the automatic extension that comes with getting to 7 wins every year–that alone in todays world is a joke–of course, that clause might be applicable again now, sadly enough!! LOL but that clause was put in sometime like in 2015, 2016 when things were completely different with the program–at that time, sure, ok, u could understand the reason for that, because back then early on in Stoops’ rebuild here, 7 wins was all we could ever hope to aspire to. And as i said, we may be back there now. But supposedly, we GOT PAST THAT, DID WE NOT??? Didn’t we get to where that 7-win mark was the MINIMAL EXPECTATION rather than the ceiling? Like, ok Marnhart, that was ok in the beginning, but how about RE-VISIT your contract details after a few years go by and things in the program change? U make some progress as u go along, and as the results get better, so should the expectations. I guarantee no other coach in the country has an automatic one-year extension for getting to 7 wins every year. There’s one piece of good news for going 4-8!! It just astounds me that that is still in place after all these years. How about adjusting that to an automatic one-year extension for getting a winning record on the SEC part of your schedule!!! Some LEGITIMATE INCENTIVE!!! and a legit accomplishment to justify the reward. And who says he should have an automatic extension for any accomplishment? How about just figure out, as an administration, what u really want the expectations for your football program to be–how about coaches and administrators working together to decide what kind of an investment and commitment do u want to make for this football program and what do u want the identity of it to be, what kind of culture do u want, what are your expectations with recruiting, and team performance, coaching performance–and wins and losses……and your expectations for where u want to be in the SEC, how do u expect to compete there? If there was any off-season for Stoops and Marnhart to get together and have this honest conversation, and make some real legit decisions about the future of this program, this is the year to do it! The game changes, and HAS CHANGED, and it would be nice to know that they would get together and do this—but we all know that’s not happening. Have fun next year, fans, as we are forced to suffer through Joker 2.0 by our spineless, out-of-touch-waiting-for-retirement A.D. and the new CAL of the college football coaching world who is gonna tell u that he is the answer and don’t believe what u see and nothing is wrong–until it all ends after 4-5 seasons’ worth of 2-10 season records and no longer able to win in our own conference.