Vicky Graff Photo
Saturday night’s game at South Carolina could have restored faith among Kentucky football fans if the Cats had won, which looked possible after UK scored on its first two series.
Instead, South Carolina turned a fumble recovery and interception on consecutive plays in the second quarter into touchdowns and demoralized the UK fan base with a 35-13 win over Kentucky.
Kentucky’s offense was a non-factor the last three quarters, and the defense also had trouble getting quick stops against South Carolina, which averaged 5.4 yards per play and ran for 178 yards after having negative rushing yardage a week earlier in a loss at Missouri.
Social media reaction to Kentucky’s loss was not kind, as many fans made it clear how upset they were with coach Mark Stoops after another loss after a bye week and another SEC loss.
Here are some of the reactions that popped up on my X (formerly Twitter) timeline as the game ended.
Keith Peel: “UK Football is at a crossroads. They can continue with Stoops and watch a Joker Phillips 2.0 ending, or they can pay the money, get rid of Stoops, and hire a younger, more energetic, hungry OFFENSIVE MINDED COACH to try to bring some excitement back to the program. Time to choose.”
Tom Sanders: “Horrible. Culture going south. Time to move on (from Stoops).”
Jeremy Renfrow: “This could be the nail in Stoops and (offensive coordinator Bush) Hamden’s coffin. Losing is one thing but being embarrassed is another, and the latter has been too frequent.”
Will Bowen: “We suck! Hard to watch. What UK does after this season will show the fans what the football program means to the University.”
Dan James: “Complete dumpster fire. Long-time fan, but it’s time for a change.”
Mike Cooper: “This team, as always after a bye, looks completely unprepared. With this O-line, too many deep drops. Time to move on from this staff.”
Carl Kroboth: “Stoops has not wanted to be here since flirting with Texas A&M. UK should have shut the door then.”
Dave Epperson: “Time for Stoops to go. So predictable. No QB can have success in the 1960s offense we have. Every QB has failed here and will continue to. Need an offensive mind who is younger to lead this program into the future.”
18 Responses
4-9 in games off a bye week, AND Stoops gets a second bite at the bye apple in just a few weeks.
This team was not ready to play, whether it rained or not.
This has been Stoops' trademark, lack of readiness, since the very beginning.
Stoops does not want to be here. But he has no where else to go where he can find a fool willing to give him almost 1 million per game, and about 2 to 3 millions per win.
However, UK's AD gave him a contract that UK cannot afford to terminate.
The right thing for Stoops to do is resign and retire. This season is lost, and all focus must be on the future, without Stoops.
professor, the right thing for stoops to do is to retire? Yeah morally and for the benefit of Kentucky football in the fan base that's what he should do. For him personally? For his family? He's owed $30 million a little more than that actually. He's not going anywhere. He would be a fool to leave. He's already at the end of his career and he's not going to go somewhere else now because no place will ever hire him so he's gonna ride this horse into the barn. He's not leaving until they cut him a big fat check. Unlike Calipari he's not going anywhere. We all owe Coach Cal a debt of gratitude. He could've stayed here and rode the gravy train, but he thought enough of this program to take a pay cut and leave. We didn't even have to pay the differencet which would have been more than fair. I don't think it's a fact of stoops not wanting to be here. He just can't win in the SEC because he has no offensive mind and he's not gonna allow an offensive coordinator. Absolute free rein. Here we are again with a 100% run first mentality. Partly because we can't throw the football and secondly that's what stoops wants. Our our run game isn't good enough and let's face it in the SEC if that's all you got you're dead. Our defense is mediocre. They may be the worst third down and long defense in the history of football. Same as it has been for several years. Third and 14 guaranteed first down. This team has no discipline. He hired that idiot Eric Wolford back as offensive line coach. Our offensive line is terrible at pass protection. And every week we play the other team's quarterback is better than ours. Cutter Bowie would throw it up anywhere. He cannot protect the football. We have now had a guy who was battling for the starting position at Georgia, Brock, before that we had Devon Leary, former ACC best quarterback. Now in the NFL. Will Levis, who actually had one good year at Kentucky, and that is when he was playing Tim Tebow football. Once he went to traditional quarterback style, he was less than mediocre. His success was reckless, abandoned, and sacrificing his body. Wants he knew he was going to the NFL and started hook sliding instead of running over people. I think we were about six and six. For 50 years other than the Tim couch era, Jared Lorenzen, and Andre Woodson every single game. I said the other team's quarterback is a lot better than ours, and that didn't matter who we were playing.
Boley could not have played any worse than he did, and he didn't seem to show much emotion in the game or on the sidelines. He took way too much time in decision making and holding onto the ball and, of course, the inability of our receivers to get open has been a long standing tradition. Key and Brown leaving have also really impacted the team. There is still not a lot of evidence that the BBW is back. It is still hard to erase the Burton bobble from my brain even a day later. We have coached and played our way to the bottom and also zero optimism things will get better short term.
If you remember, big kahuna, key, and Brown could not get open last year? We have not had a good receivers coach apparently? Because both of them are lighting it up once they left Kentucky.
It's time for stoops and the whole moldy program to rebuild. We are paying out an insane amount of money to a very, very underqualified coach who is paying a grossly overpaid staff. Look what Vanderbilt is doing? We will get crushed by Vanderbilt, we will get crushed by Louisville, do I even need to mention, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, and Alabama? Oh my God. It's gonna be brutal.
The stagnant offensive plays with receivers unable to get open and the OL looking like the USA southern border during the o’biden years by letting anyone get through, is in a 4-year downward spiral which has been affecting the mental & physical decline in the D side of the ball. The locker room status impacts ALL the players and there is not much to cheer about after getting whooped game after game.
Let's face it. Would any quarterback prospect who was any good at all come to Kentucky to play under Mark Stoops? Quarterbacks don't get better playing for Stoops, they get worse. Even if a team is solid at every other position, if it has a bad quarterback and bad play calling, its chances of winning are not very good against the level of talent in the SEC. The Professor is right…Stoops doesn't want to be here, but nobody else wants him. Thanks to Barney, we have ANOTHER contract dilemma. At least Calipari did the honorable thing and left when it was clear that BBN no longer wanted him here. I guess Stoops tried to do that with Texas A&M but fumbled at the goal line. In football, BBN doesn't talk about winning national titles, making the playoffs, or even winning a conference title. We long for the days of getting another Music City Bowl bid whether we win that game or not. Now with a 9 game SEC schedule, we will not get another bowl bid as long as Stoops is the coach. Maybe Mark Pope will be successful in lobbying for a 40 game basketball season and move its start date to October 1 and have Midnight Madness around September 10. That way BBN would only have to suffer through 2 football games and not 12.
Stoops was not going to leave here to be honorable to the BBN. He was going to Texas A&M where they've got the biggest person in football. They just paid off Jimbo Fisher for about 80 million. I think the biggest problem under stoops is we cannot execute on either side of the football which is a total lack of discipline. The year we beat Tennessee with a wide receiver, playing quarterback, Matt Roark we did it with three plays all day, but we executed. We can't execute a simple screen running up. The middle is about the only thing we've been able to execute on a consistent basis since stoops has been here. And we have had some studs, Benny Snell, Chris Rodriguez, Ray Davis and now McGowan. We had others before that, but not of this caliber. If you take those guys away, we never won more than six games in a year. No way. Plus, Levis and the 10 Win season he played like Tim Tebow. That's how we won 10 games. It was not through the air.
Repeated results for years and only 1 common denominator.
Stoops said he was changing the culture and replaced many, many players from last year to this year. Having the same results or worse as the team last year identifies the culture problem. It's not the players!!!
Save your breath unless you can write a $30M check. Thanks Barney.
Boley looked like just what he is, a talented young QB with no experience. Leave him in and let him learn. Maybe salvage something from this season.
Agree. I think we've proven that the transfer QB's don't work out. As has been pointed out ad nauseum, no quality QB wants to transfer here and play in this system. Our only hope is to develop a bleeds-blue local QB.
I agree that Boley can be UK's future QB. How has the portal revolving door of QBs worked out?
Given the state of this program, keep it in Boley's hands, and develop him for next year and beyon. However, put Boley back to QB2, and he is gone at the end of the year, just as so many other promising young QBs have come and gone, and UK is locked into that revolving door for the foreseeable future.
Like a lot of unsuccessful coaches, Stoops is not a multi-dimensional thinker as evidenced by his game calling and preparation. He gets locked into a method and stays there and cannot admit that he is wrong. In my working career i was teamed with a lot of ex-military pilots with a technical degrees. Those kind of people succeed by staying alive and they stayed alive by recognizing their mistakes and immediately making a correction going forward. They can also have great situational awareness. I'm not saying that we need ex-pilots as football coaches but we need that kind of mentality at the helm.
Kentucky is going nowhere with a STOOPid coach!
Poorly prepared, bad QB play, defense unable to get stops when needed most, strange play calling, etc., etc. Is any of this a surprise?
Unless Stopps does us a favor and steps away like Cal did, we’re in for a continued downward slide. Either that, or we have to pay the $$$ for a buyout. Sad situation.
Instead of spicing up Kroger field by spending millions on things like a beer garden…God help, and whatever else they dream up; take that money and use it to buy Stoops out. It may not be enough, they might have to rely on a few major donors to contribute, and also bite the poison pill by making up any shortfall, but it would be nice to see a football coaching change at Kentucky asap.
In all honesty, Kentucky football is in a free fall now. USC was far more physical than UK, Beamer has Stoops' number with what, three wins in a row, or is it four. I believe Brohm and Louisville will dominate UK football when it is all said and done eventually. May I add that UK couldn't beat Tennessee if their lives depended on it with Stoops at the helm. UK does have a strong kicking game, and some great RB's. They gave it their all. I feel for the Kentucky players. They deserve better coaching than they seem to be getting. UK football needs a fresh start with a proven winning young football coach and a salary that is far less than 9 mil a year for starters.
Stoops needs to take his money, close to 38 mil I think, and go live happily ever after. Mr. Barnhart needs to make that happen someway. Why take the abuse and constant second guessing now. Coach has lost a large number in this fan base. Georgia will absolutely kill UK after the tide whipped them this past Saturday. Stoops will have no answers as usual. Professor is right, Stoops needs to resign. When I gaze at the schedule going forward, UK may not win another game.
Well, here I am again. I am just so disappointed and sad. I do feel for the players and I give them the benefit of my doubt, perhaps they are not being coached to the fullest of their ability. I do not see much enthusiasm in their faces; happy fist bumping, slapping each other on the rears, running onto the field. Just happy players. Something is definitely missing with our team. The SEC is the best conference in football, even though the Big 10 says otherwise, so I do think it is time for Stoops to go. I wish someone else would want him and/or he would retire and leave on his own. And I agree with some above, we need some young, go-get-'em new blood. But I wonder, who might want the task to rebuild our program? It would definitely be a challenge; but one worth taking, I believe, for a young assistant somewhere to have dreams of turning UK into a true SEC school. And with an offensive brain. That's it for now from this 83 year young fan who, come hell or high water, will forever love UK. GO CATS!
I like your thinking Kathy