Mitch Barnhart still confident Mark Stoops can return UK football to glory
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There are now six power-conference college football head coaching jobs open, but Kentucky coach Mark Stoops’ job still appears safe.
“Make no mistake about it, we want success,” UK athletics director Mitch Barnhart told the Herald-Leader when asked about the state of the football program after Tuesday’s Champions Blue board of governors meeting. “We want to work through it. We’ve worked through these things before. I think if people look at the history, what we’ve done in Kentucky, we’ve always found our way through. We’ve worked through difficult moments.
“If everyone will reflect on the program that (Stoops) inherited and where he took us for eight straight years. Then the changes in the world of college athletics occurred, and it was a struggle for us for a couple of years just to try and find our way. And so that middle part, everyone was pretty much on board, and everyone was fine, and now we’re having to adjust to some changes in college athletics and work our way through it.”
Kentucky enters Saturday’s matchup against No. 21 Texas at 2-3 on the season and 0-3 in SEC play. The Wildcats have lost nine consecutive games against power-conference competition, dating back to last season. Kentucky has also lost its past nine home games against power-conference foes. The last home win against one of those teams came in September 2023.
UK ranks 111th nationally in yards per game (331.6) and has not scored more than two offensive touchdowns against a power conference team since the 2023 season finale. Kentucky’s defense started the season on a high note but has struggled in recent weeks and now ranks 109th nationally in yards allowed per game (402.2).
“There is no question that I understand the angst and the desire for us to be the program that has an opportunity to enjoy those celebratory moments and has an opportunity to go to postseason play and to enjoy those magical runs,” Barnhart said.
After failing to live up to rising preseason hype but still reaching bowl games in 2022 and 2023, Stoops and Kentucky collapsed to a 4-8 record in 2024. A second straight losing season now looks likely with the Wildcats set to be the underdog in all six remaining games against power-conference competition.
Still, Barnhart said he was confident Stoops could return the program to the success it had in a run of eight straight bowl games from 2016 to 2023.
“Mark is working hard,” Barnhart said. “… Can I promise everything that everybody wants me to promise? No, there’s no promise. We can play our hearts out and go and have one tough moment that goes against you in a game, and all of a sudden you find yourself with a loss that you didn’t want. And that doesn’t mean you didn’t give effort, you didn’t work your way through it. But Mark and his guys are working hard at it.
“Are we where we want to be? Absolutely not, but we will continue to battle and see if we can find it. We’ve got seven games left and an opportunity to get better every week. I watch our team, and there are young guys in our program getting better.”
Even with UK’s 10 wins from the 2021 season later vacated due to NCAA rules violations, Stoops officially remains the program’s all-time winningest coach. His on-field record at UK is 79-76. No coach has left UK with a winning record since Blanton Collier in 1961.
Stoops’ contract appears to offer him significant job protection regardless of the downward trend in the program.
UK would owe Stoops just less than $38 million if it fired him Dec. 1. That buyout payment would be due in full within 60 days.
Considering the athletic department has taken $141 million in loans from the university to cover a projected operating deficit the next two years and provide up-front cash for facility improvements designed to drive revenue growth moving forward, the prospect of UK paying Stoops’ buyout is difficult to imagine without Stoops being willing to at least negotiate the amount of time the money must be paid.
“I’m thankful that he’s done a lot for us, and I want to make sure that we fight with him and give him the best chance we can to go forward,” Barnhart said.
Stoops’ buyout would be the third-largest in college football history after Penn State fired James Franklin earlier this week with a reported cost of close to $50 million. But unlike Stoops’ contract with Kentucky, Franklin’s Penn State deal reportedly specified the buyout be paid out in monthly installments through 2031 and includes language that would reduce Penn State’s obligation if Franklin is hired by another school.
Stoops’ last raise came in November 2022 amid reports linking him to openings at Nebraska and Auburn. The day after UK and Stoops finalized that deal, Kentucky lost to Vanderbilt at home, snapping the Commodores’ 26-game SEC losing streak. UK is 14-20 since that extension was signed.
That downturn coincides with the advent of players being able to transfer and play immediately at new schools and make money off name, image and likeness endorsements. Barnhart acknowledged Kentucky struggled to manage that transition, especially as the SEC schedule became even more difficult when the addition of Texas and Oklahoma led to the end of the two-division format.
“Mark has been a great developer of talent,” Barnhart said. “If you look at the guys that have gone on from this program, he has developed talent incredibly well. We’re trying to figure out the balance of making that adjustment between developing and ready-to-play. … But there’s a difference in that, and so we’re finding a way to how do you marry those two pieces up and still have an opportunity to be the program everybody wants you to be.”
This story was originally published October 14, 2025 at 11:59 AM with the headline "Mitch Barnhart still confident Mark Stoops can return UK football to glory."
