Kentucky coach Mark Stoops on the sidelines during a 20-13 loss to Vanderbilt. ERIC CRAWFORD
It was strange timing for the question, but Dr. John Huang asked it nonetheless at Mark Stoops’ Monday news conference in Lexington. And let’s be fair, it is a narrative on the minds of fans. It involves an endgame, and I’m not talking about the end of the University of Kentucky football season.
Near the end of a Q&A session on Murray State, Huang asked Stoops: “There’s a lot of chatter out there, or speculation or innuendo or whatever, people are saying that, hey, you’re going to step down at the end of the year and chuck it all and enjoy life. Can you put those rumors to rest?”
Stoops’ reply: “Very briefly. Zero. Zero percent chance I do that. Next question.”
The next question is not just for Stoops, but for the Kentucky team, and it’s just as uncomfortable.
If the Wildcats are capable of playing with teams at the highest level of college football, what the heck has been going on?
Because if Stoops isn’t stepping down (and seriously, would anyone expect him to answer any differently at this point?), Kentucky football needs to step up.
If you can battle Tennessee to the wire in Knoxville, why are you losing to Vanderbilt at home? If you can beat Ole Miss on its home field, shut down the Rebels like no one else all season (and like no one other than top five teams like Georgia, Alabama and Baylor the past five seasons), why are you losing big at Florida? If you can play within a point of Georgia, what was happening against Auburn?
Kentucky ranks No. 12 in the nation in scoring defense and total defense against nationally ranked opponents. But why is it giving up 32 yards more per game against FBS teams with non-winning records?
The Wildcats’ own talent and ability and sheer grit against top teams are what convicts its overall record this season. They were capable of more.
And that deficiency in those games falls on coaching. It has to. Now, we can all agree that it’s hard to motivate guys and they make money whether they win or lose and all that. All the changes in the college game.
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But we can also agree that Kentucky has entrusted Stoops with that job and is paying him $9 million annually to do it. And they pay him the same against Tennessee and Vanderbilt.
The roughest part, perhaps, is that even if Kentucky wins out, pulls an upset at Texas – which anyone who has watched the Wildcats this season knows they can do – beats Louisville (again) to end the season, how much of a celebration is that going to be?
How satisfied will anyone be with that bowl appearance?
Winning home games in conference is not too much to ask. Beating teams in the league that are at or below your level is not too much to ask.
“We still have a quarter of the season left,” Stoops said. “So you know, it’s up to us on how we decide to finish. I trust our team. I believe in our team. And you know, we’ll be excited to get back on the field today and start our prep for Murray. . . . We’ve shown that we can play with anybody, but we can also lose to anybody, and there’s a lot of teams like that. . . . But anybody will tell you, it is truly about us and our mentality and how we prepare and how we play and all those things that go into it, and turnovers and just different things.”
But at this point, Stoops has worked himself into a difficult situation. Because with every game Kentucky plays well, the spotlight returns to games where it didn’t.
This team wasn’t predicted to contend in the SEC this season. Nobody was expecting it to threaten for a playoff spot. But the Wildcats are 1-6 in the conference and, if not for Mississippi State, would find themselves in the basement.
Nobody has won more games at Kentucky than Stoops. No one has built the kind of consistency that Stoops has. But even with all that, there’s zero chance Kentucky will stomach this kind of season much longer.
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