By Chris Marler
Does Mark Stoops have the answer or has he been the problem?
Remember last offseason when the unthinkable almost happened and Mark Stoops was reportedly leaving Lexington to take the Texas A&M job? That was coming off of the Aggies paying Jimbo Fisher $76.9 million to not be their coach anymore. Who would’ve thought that when the news broke that Stoops would be returning to Kentucky that it was the Aggies who dodged a major bullet?
Mark Stoops is a good coach. However, he has been graded on a curve in regards to his success for quite some time. Stoops has done a tremendous job at Kentucky, making them a relevant program. He had two ten win seasons in a four year span. But, is he worth being a top ten paid coach in college football?
Stoops is making $9.01 million per year in Lexington. That’s especially wild considering that the same fanbase was so vocal about John Calipari being overpaid for the return on investment fans felt they were getting from him. Stoops has been a good coach, but he’s not a great coach. There’s no better example of that than the last three seasons.
Kentucky has been a top 25 team at some point in five of the last seven seasons. They were ranked in the top 11 in three of those seasons and as high as No. 7 in 2022. However, they have finished ranked just twice in the 12 seasons he’s been in charge. That’s a problem.
Stoops is 1-18 against top ten teams. He also has just three wins all-time against SEC opponents who finish with a winning record. That’s a problem. That’s a really big problem.
Stoops may partially be a victim of his own success, but he’s also victimized a lot of potential that he’s had under his regime. Kentucky feels like a place that was a flash in the pan compared to a place with sustainable success. It also feels like a place where talented transfer portal quarterbacks have gone to die over the last several years. Since that 10-win season in 2021 Kentucky has shown nothing but regression.
The Cats came into last season with a former five-star quarterback as their starter and a defense that features six returning starters in the front seven and a potential first round pick at cornerback. They regressed in almost every defensive metric there is, including dropping from No. 2 in rush defense to No. 15 in the SEC from year to year. Their quarterback, Brock Vandagriff was statistically the worst or second worst starter in the league almost across the board statistically.
All of this falls on Stoops. And, for a program that wants to believe they are not just a flash in the pan every four to five years, you have to win games. Instead, it feels like the biggest wins for Kentucky the last few years have been their closest losses. Even after their huge road win at No. 4 Ole Miss last season, there was nothing but regression after, as they lost their next seven conference games.
So, how does Stoops fix it? To start, he probably needs to address the man in the mirror. Because, for Kentucky, the call has been coming from inside the house.
