LEXINGTON, Ky. (WDRB) – For Mark Stoops, the defense after Saturday’s 41-14 loss to Louisville ended a disappointing football season was two-fold.
Look at what I’ve done. Look at what other people are doing. (To that I would add one more thing to look at -- the empty seats in Kroger Field at the end of Saturday's game.)
“We've been on the right side of (the Louisville rivalry game) for many years and we know what it feels like to be on the right side of it,” Stoops said. “We know now for the first time in a long time what it is like to be on the wrong side of it. It's not very much fun. I know the year was very frustrating to a lot of people, you know, to our fan base. They were wonderful and stuck with us the entire year.”
Just making sure everyone heard that Stoops had won five in a row over Louisville, and been to a bowl game in eight straight seasons, which is no small feat. He is the winningest coach in school history, and that is worth remembering.
Beyond that, Stoops said, he knows that programs in the era of payments for players and the transfer portal can turn around instantly. He knows it, in part, he said, because he watched the end of South Carolina’s win at Clemson in the locker room after his game.
Kroger Field near the end of Kentucky's loss to Louisville on Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024.
“I just caught the end of a game in there and (athletic director) Mitch (Barnhart) and I were talking, and I caught the end of an SEC team that didn't go to a bowl game a year ago, just won nine,” Stoops said. “You know, it can happen.”
The question is whether Stoops can make it happen. And it is a question. There’s no question he will get a chance to make it happen. Given his contract and the $44 million owed to him, the school isn’t in a position to make a move. And maybe it shouldn’t, given what he has built at Kentucky.
(Though, as Don Draper famously told Peggy Olson when she said she didn’t get enough encouragement from him in Mad Men, “That’s what the money is for.”)
Stoops has developed some very good teams at Kentucky and built strong defenses and remarkable consistency. He declined to defend the results of his program this season, though he vigorously defended his ability to correct them and develop a better team.
But the days of development are all but over. You nurture a player these days, you might be nurturing him right into a sweeter deal somewhere else. Stoops pointed out recently that Oregon has largely developed its roster in-house, with only 14 portal players. But it takes money to develop those guys. And unless Nike is moving to Lexington and I missed it, the quicker route is to build via transfers. And even that doesn’t always work. Ole Miss invested heavily in its current team and has the same number of wins as the aforementioned South Carolina.
And let’s talk about South Carolina. Stoops got a much closer look at South Carolina back in September, when the Gamecocks came to Lexington and left with a 31-6 victory. It was the first of four home SEC games – all losses – in which the Wildcats scored a total of three touchdowns.
Kentucky freshman Cutter Boley made his first career start in a loss to Louisville in Kroger Field.
Not three touchdowns per game. Just three touchdowns. Period. They’ve now lost seven home conference games in a row (five to ranked teams, let’s be fair).
The concern is that instead of continuing its gradual climb, Kentucky under Stoops has plateaued, and may now be in decline.
It’s the difference between falling off a curb and falling off a cliff. Where Kentucky is right now, nobody can really say. But on Saturday Stoops used the word “rebuild.” That’s an indicator.
“I understand the frustrations completely,” Stoops said. “We are not very happy, as well. I can promise you that we are going to get back to work and get it fixed. 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 concentrated on and excited about the rebuild. Fans (have) 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.”
What will this look like? Quarterback Brock Vandagriff, most would wager, will look elsewhere. Stoops expressed confidence in freshman Cuter Boley, who started in his place on Saturday but left with an injury in the second half. Gavin Wimsatt, who came on in relief, threw two TD passes in less than two quarters, giving Kentucky 15 passing touchdowns and 17 interceptions for the season.
“I will let Brock discuss that,” Stoops said of Vandagriff. “He and I have had our conversations and it's not for me to talk to you about what Brock wants to do.”
Nor did Stoops elaborate on possible staff changes, only to say that he expected there would be some.
A young Kentucky fan sticks it out until the end during the Wildcats loss to Louisville in Kroger Field on Nov. 30, 2024.
“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,” Stoops said. “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. You know, 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.”
Several times, Stoops said, “We know how to do it.” And he can, I think most would agree, compile a roster of solid talent. He built a team good enough to beat Ole Miss on the road and play Georgia to the wire at home. Stoops knows how to get talent. And he can develop it. But to win today, you’ve got to be innovative on offense, or so much more talented that innovation doesn’t matter. And at the very least, you have to beat the people you are supposed to beat.
Can Stoops do that, when those teams are pounding the portal and getting better? The empty seats in Kroger Field on Saturday screamed that the Kentucky fan base isn’t united in certainty. Kentucky fans sold out every game this season, and showed up in force -- until some empty seats in freezing cold on Saturday. Famously, they ponied up. Some, at this point, are feeling let down.
When things go bad these days, they go bad. Social media turns works against you. Recruits become hesitant. The best coaches think twice about signing on. Coaches already in the program start to look elsewhere. Can Stoops modernize his approach to change that narrative?
That’s what he’ll have to set about proving from tomorrow forward. Because the way you used to do it, you can’t do it anymore.
If you could, you’d be reading these words on a piece of newsprint. The world has changed. And catching up is not easy.
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