Mark Stoops didn't have a lot to celebrate last season. (UK Athletics Photo)
Things are going great for Kentucky men’s and women’s basketball but that does not mean a lot of UK fans have forgotten about football or the disappointing 4-8 2024 season.
Kentucky suffered significant losses through graduation, the transfer portal and early entry into the NFL draft and hopes to restock talent through high school players it signed in December and a bevy of players it has added in the transfer portal.
Of course, Kentucky football coaches predicted last year’s transfers were going to make a major impact on the 2024 season. Obviously that did not happen.
One fan I know — who asked not to be identified — has been a long-time football season ticket holder and often travels to road games. The same fan has been all-in on baseball long before last year’s World Series run and was happy to see Mark Pope as the new men’s basketball coach.
However, this fan still has a lot of questions about the football program.
“Thing for me is, we paid for the circus we call Kentucky football — we’re enabling and rewarding the absence of loyalty and perseverance that is the portal,” the fan told me. “We deserve to know, exactly, what the hell happened last year.”
I think that is a fair concern because remember UK coaches — without prodding — said it was the deepest and most talented roster Mark Stoops had ever had in Kentucky. With a 4-8 finish, it did not quite turn out that way.
“We had the most complete depth chart (last year) we’ve had since I have been paying attention. I wanna know how our money (tickets, parking passes, merch, NIL donations, K Fund, etc.) was squandered,” the fan said.
Fair questions, especially with calls from UK coaches for fans to donate more to NIL.
“Maybe I’m naive, but I don’t think the problem is Stoops and (recruiting coordinator (Vine) Marrow, though Stoops needs to check his comments sometimes,” the fan said.
Agree or disagree with this perception?
25 Responses
How can it not be Stoops?
😊😊😊
Oops… meant to be…
👍👍👍
No, u had it right the first time!!! LOL
Of course it is Stoops and a few under vetted coaching hires. The FB team is our weakest link in the major sport chain. He may have a strong defensive background and history but has been in over his head to think those skills transferable to offense. He has made some questionable hires on coaching staff and it appears he is losing more talent than he is bringing onboard. The short term looks like rinse and repeat and the seat will continue to get hotter in 2025. It seems like no one wants to play or coach for him.
Mike you nailed it when you said it seems like no one wants to play or coach for him. Also, a $9 million salary can make a guy complacent. Can he fix that for next year? I don’t know, but if he doesn’t get it fixed next year it’s doubtful that he can ever get it fixed.
Great questions Barry
This team has many problems and they all come back to Stoops as the HC. The lack of discipline on the field has been blowing smoke for years. This past season, it became a full fledged fire. Numerous good plays were called back due to a lack of discipline or just not having a good IQ and understanding the situation.
Wide receiver coach has been a swinging door for years, yet most years receivers have the same problems of not knowing how to get separation, not holding on to the pass, and just not battling hard enough. This is probably a lack of coaching and a lack of ability or desire on the player.
Tight ends have been proclaimed as the best ever at UK about every year, but you can just about count on both hands how many times they are actually thrown to most seasons. Take your shoes off and you probably have more than enough digits to count the times. This is due to several factors: OL stinks, play calling or lack of, the belief that TEs are just for blocking. I think the idea of TE just blocking falls on Stoops because this has been a consistent problem with every OC.
I am sure there are several other problems to go along with these, but these are pretty much consistent with Stoops, no matter who the OC has been. They have really become glaring problems since the passing of John Schlarman because Schlarman was able to cover up many of Stoops’ problems on the offensive side of the ball.
OF…you nailed it with EVERYTHING you said. Stoops will not be able to right this sinking ship and needs to be purged from program just like Calipari. Everyone has lost confidence in him.
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👍👍👍 to all these knowledgeable BBN FB Fans!
The buck stops here… should be..:
“NINE MILLION BUCKS STOPPED HERE”
ZERO ROI
Any business wasting millions cleans house before those responsible for poor decisions waste millions more! The AD, the President (yet another President seems to need a co
competency test), & others responsible!
Never saw a team just quit
Every. One starting with Walker needs to give back the NIL money
They, including KEY AND BROWN took the money and ran
In college football everything is on the coaches plate. Please try to name one national championship team with a mediocre coach – can’t be done.
Our biggest asset is Big Dog , and even he can’t convince Stoops to throw to his boys. Take a gander at NCAA and Super Bowl champs going 10 years back – wonder of wonders – they have a great pass catching TE’s.
I’m weary of even commenting.
Here is the complete list of seasons in which Kentucky has had a winning SEC conf record since Bear Bryant’s last recruits graduated (after 1956 season) that did not result in being put on probation:
1964 (Bradshaw)
2018 (Stoops)
2021 (Stoops)
And the seasons in which Kentucky finished with as many conference wins as losses:
1979 (Curci)
1984 (Claiborne)
1993 (Curry)
1998 (Mumme)
1999 (Mumme)
2006 (Brooks)
2016 (Stoops)
2017 (Stoops)
In the 54 seasons from 1957 to 2012 (excluding the probation-creating 1976 and 1977 seasons), Kentucky football had:
– 1 winning record in conference play
– 6 seasons with a .500 record in conference play
– 47 losing seasons in conference play
So you could say Kentucky went 1-47-4 in conference play from 1957 to 2012.
Since Stoops arrived in 2013, Kentucky has gone 2-8-2 in conference play.
The question isn’t, “What went wrong in 2024?” Going 1-7 (or worse) in conference play is normal for Kentucky football. It happened 20 times in the 54 seasons between Bryant’s players graduating and Stoops arriving.
The question is, “What went right from 2016 to 2023 when Kentucky went 31-35 in SEC play?” That’s the best 8 year period for Kentucky football since Bear Bryant.
Good numbers J Melton I had not really thought about
I learned a few things having spent 38 years in a "high performance level" business environment. 1. There is a difference between managing and leading. If Stoops has been leading, it is clear that he is leading in the wrong direction. If Stoops has been just managing then he has not been earning the team’s respect much less his salary. 2. Having been around high level people for a long time you get the scent of when a manager is BS’ing you. I don’t know what the real problem in the locker room is but I know when I’m being snookered and we are being snookered. There is more to this story than we are being told. It’s time to come clean. 3. I refuse to believe that that president of UK would put up the product that was put on the field last season. You don’t get to that level by just accepting the check as the end of the year. These people are planners and think years in advance. You can’t tell me that after last year’s performance there isn’t something gnawing in the Pres’s craw.
Long story short, someone at the Cat’s managerial level needs to communicate with the fans. And it ain’t the coach.
Snookered is an interesting word RJohn
🙂 Yeah. I used it intentionally…Happy New Year!
I’ve had season tickets for several years and try to go to 1 road game each year. I appreciate everything Stoops has done for the football program and he has had the best run by far during my lifetime. I never imagined the game day atmosphere at Kroger Field being as intense and enjoyable that is has been the past several years, including the Sept and Oct games this past season. With that said, I think it is obvious that Stoops is responsible for the decline that has occurred the past 3 years. The lack of offensive continuity is the most obvious problem. You can point to coaches, QB development, OL play, under utilization of TEs, play calling, etc. How is it possible to recruit any elite talent or top notch coaches on that side of ball at this point? Stoops has been in charge for all of this. On one hand I agree you need to give Hamdan a second year, but how do you explain the games this year when Wimsatt was inserted to run one play and everyone in the stadium knew what play he was going to run? It just seemed chaotic with no real feel for the game. Stoops’ crunch time decisions have always been a weakness and really haven’t improved during his career. Not going for it on 4th down against Georgia was a big mistake in my view and i don’t believe he would’ve went for it at Ole Miss if he hadn’t received so much criticism for not doing in the Georgia game. I was still very optimistic after the Ole Miss win, but the rest of the year was incredibly frustrating. The players and coaches both quit in some of those games. Where was the pride and determination when you are getting embarrassed on the field? Stoops has also consistently not had the team ready to play for at least 1-2 games/year. I had hoped SC was that game this past year.
I am not optimistic that this team can win next season. The teams that we could’ve beat this year (SC, Aub, Vandy, FL, Louisville) are all trending up and will be more difficult to beat next year. 4 of those will be away games. I have a 5 hour one way drive to Lexington for the games. The tickets, hotels, etc keep getting more expensive and why do I want to do that and leave frustrated and disappointed? I can deal with losses to better teams as long as we coach and play with the effort everone can be proud of. If I had to decide today whether to renew my season tickets, I’m a NO. I don’t Stoops is the type of coach that can fix this. I’m sure he is very disappointed in the results and wants to end on a high note, but I think a new coach will be needed. Complacency hits everyone except maybe Saban. I hope I am wrong and they play with passion and get back to a bowl game this year. One last comment – Stoops makes $9M/year. I think it is very hypocritical and further disappointing if he does not publicly make a very significant NIL donation to try and fix this. How do you ask Kentuckians that make 100 or more times less money than you do to give their hard earned $ to support your team? Perhaps he has already done this privately. He needs to announce it and lead by example.
Good stuff BW
Consider Iowa and Illinois.
Neither is an elite football program.
Illinois likes to think it can compete with elite programs like OSU, Michigan, Penn State. Every decade or two a coach has a great season and a couple of good ones, then the difference-makers leave. A losing record results. Fans get frustrated. Coach gets fired. New coach after new coach comes and goes until one has a great season and a couple of good ones, then the difference-makers leave. A losing record results. Fans get frustrated. Coach gets fired…
Iowa has had two coaches since 1978.
It does not think it can compete with elite programs consistently. It understands that one of the two state universities in Iowa can’t compete consistently at the elite level in football.
Instead, it builds a program to beat peer schools most of the time, while usually getting soundly beaten by the elite programs.
When it has a down year, it doesn’t fire the coach. The same coach rebuilds a competitive team.
In a conference that had 3 elite programs and 10 peer schools, that resulted in lots of winning records over the past few decades.
Implication? Divide the schedule into 4 parts, and evaluate each part separately:
– Elite program opponents
– Peer program opponents
– Inferior program opponents
– the main rival opponent
Success over a 5 or 10 year period equals:
– beating peer opponents and your main rival >50% of the time
– beating inferior opponents >95% of the time
– beating elite program opponents >20% of the time
Dial those percentages a bit differently if you wish. But the key point is that Kentucky (like Iowa and Illinois) will never consistently beat most elite program opponents in football.
In 2024, Kentucky performed well against elite programs: It beat Ole Miss, played Georgia to within one point, and was not blown out by any elite opponent. There were no 45-3, it’s over before halftime, losses to elite programs.
But Kentucky performed poorly against peer schools, losing to South Carolina and Vandy, for example.
And it lost to its rival, Louisville.
Against inferior opponents, it did fine.
Kentucky now plays in a conference that contains most of the country’s 20-25 elite football programs. The only conference peer schools are Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi State, South Carolina, and Vandy.p
J Melton you are right, Kentucky team is in a much better place now then when coach Stops took over and, has more respect from other SEC schools then anytime in my life. Let’s not forget " COACH STOOPS DID THAT" he deserves the chance to right the ship he built!!!!! and like always,
" GO CATS"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think Stoops deserves to right his wrongs! We will be much better next year! We are doing a fantastic job in the transfer portal. Our receiver room is much better! Our defense will be better! Our Oline should be night and day better! I want Stoops to go out with a bang!
Kids that come to a school for big NIL money are usually pretty hard to coach. It’s all about them or else you wouldn’t have given them all of the money. Kids that come to a school by way of the transfer portal usually have had issues with coaching. Kids that come to a school by way of the portal for big NIL money will always have issues with being coached. These are two monsters that need to be caged because the next step will be billionaires sponsoring (buying) college teams. Education has already become an afterthought due to OAD. The inevitable end will be forget about education, just come to my prep team that will get you ready for the pros. I guess we better find a cage for OAD while we are at it…but are we AT IT?
Apparently some of the blue Kool Aid has been hidden for consumption. I hope it becomes a rare and expensive brew !
The Iowa and Illinois analogies are pretty cool -difference is they have some historic basis in success . We have Bear, Fran and stoops – total of a few years. I certainly don’t have the answer – and Joe doesn’t have enough dough to get over the hump.
Some kind of Money Ball genius possibly !?