LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Kentucky finally ponied up.
Mark Stoops weathered a 4-8 season stacked on a 7-6 season stacked on a contract that aged like milk. He even had appeared to weather an 11-game SEC losing streak and a 2-5 start to this season.
What he could not weather, however, was a brutal 45-17 beatdown by Vanderbilt that wasn’t as close as the score indicated. A result that illustrated how much ground Kentucky had lost to a one-time SEC bottom-feeder.
And he could not weather Jeff Brohm’s addias rivalry edition swiftly and repeatedly striking his posterior in a 41-0 loss to Louisville that revealed Stoops’ motivational mojo was dwindling.
Word came down from ESPN's Pete Thamel late Sunday that Kentucky leadership had come to a meeting of the minds, or a passing of the hat, or both, to end the longest football tenure in the school’s history, and longest active tenure in the SEC.
The cost is considerable: A $37 million buyout for Stoops and several million to assistant coaches. But the cost of not acting, in the end, was even greater. Stoops, the winningest coach in school history, undoubtedly raised the floor for Kentucky’s program. But he could not raise the ceiling,
Just one day prior to the decision, after what would be his final game as coach, Stoops said there was a “zero percent” chance he would walk away from the job. He would be Kentucky’s coach next season if he had anything to say about it.
Sometimes the hardest thing to read is the room. Especially when the smoke detector is already going off. But Stoops read it, finally. As Chris Low of On3Sports reported, he agreed to spread his buyout over time, a conciliatory parting nod that said: I get it.
Trying to pass off another season of Stoops after Saturday’s 41-0 verdict in The Ville would be like trying to peddle watered-down Ale-8-One. You’d have to hire the ShamWow guy and give him unlimited SEC Network rights.
Kentucky fans weren’t asking for a miracle. They weren’t demanding a national title. They were asking for something resembling forward motion. Something more than million-dollar misses at quarterback. Something more than four yards and a cloud of contractual regret.
What they got was a shutout in their most bitter rivalry, with bowl eligibility on the line and dignity on the ropes.
Because when you go 5–7, then 4–8, then get flattened like a cocktail cherry on the Bourbon Trail by your in-state rival, the buyout stops being a barrier. In fact, it turns into a receipt.
This was not an easy move for Kentucky.
Stoops accomplished what no other coach had: Ten wins. Twice. An SEC Coach of the Year award. A national defensive player of the year in Josh Allen. Seven straight bowl games. He made Kentucky not just competent, but relevant. He raised the floor and redefined what was possible.
But he never found the staircase to the next level.
The program didn’t just plateau, it slipped. And by the end, there was no longer momentum to sell, only memories.
It was Bobby Frost, one-time coach at Dartmouth, I think, who said, “Nothing gold can stay.”
Especially if it tries to interview at Texas A&M, then gets ghosted.
But let’s stop here and say, clearly, Stoops wasn’t a villain. He gave Kentucky stability, identity, and something to argue about at Thanksgiving. That’s not nothing.
Still, the timing isn’t ideal for Kentucky. The carousel is spinning. Names are off the board. The pool is more murky than deep. But Kentucky’s opening shouldn’t be discounted. The school sits in a gold-standard league, with motivated donors, strong facilities, and a fan base that’s tasted relevance and is hungry for more.
In a way, Kentucky is now where Indiana was in the Big Ten, stuck, impatient, and ready to pay its way into the next tier. But unlike Indiana, Kentucky has shown what it can be. The trick now is convincing someone else to finish the climb.
UK paying the likely equivalent of the math department payroll to make a coach go away sends a message. But it’ll take more than a buyout and a handshake. It’ll take vision. And urgency. Kentucky waited too long to act, long enough for top names to vanish and the calendar to tighten.
Fortune favors the bold. The Latin proverb is said to have been used by Pliny the Elder upon investigating the eruption of Vesuvius. I don’t know that it bodes well that I’ve wandered into comparing the actions of UK’s athletics leadership to volcano victims, but here we are.
Still, Kentucky moved, and did so with a measure of grace. This wasn’t a panic firing. It wasn’t a booster revolt. It was, in the end, an acknowledgement. A coach who deserved respect received it. And a program that needed change accepted the cost.
The wins will stand. So will the respect. But so will the final score at L&N Stadium.
Forty-one to nothing.
That’s not a rivalry result. It was a resignation letter. Stoops just didn’t realize he had signed it.
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