UK basketball’s Mark Pope comments on the firing of Mark Stoops
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- UK basketball coach Mark Pope commented on the firing of football coach Mark Stoops.
- Stoops was dismissed Monday after 13 seasons as Kentucky’s football coach.
- Pope talked about Stoops’ firing during Pope’s weekly radio show.
Kentucky basketball coach Mark Pope has weighed in on the school’s decision to make a leadership change with its football program.
On Monday, UK fired Mark Stoops, the Wildcats’ all-time winningest coach, after 13 seasons. Less than a day later, Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein was hired to replace Stoops.
But in between, Pope took time during his weekly radio show Monday night to address Stoops’ dismissal.
“I love Mark. I talked to him (Monday) and exchanged texts with him after the Louisville game, and we were together last week,” Pope said. “What he’s done for the University of Kentucky is incredible. By a whole host of measurements he’s the greatest, most successful (football) coach to ever coach here. He gave his heart and soul to this place.”
Stoops suffered two consecutive losing seasons to close his Kentucky tenure, including a 5-7 mark this season. The Wildcats played for bowl eligibility in their final two games of the regular season, losing 45-17 at Vanderbilt on Nov. 22 and 41-0 at Louisville on Saturday to close the campaign.
While Stoops is UK’s all-time winningest coach, he went just 17-24 after signing his last contract extension in November 2022.
“Just grateful for his friendship and mentorship,” Pope added about Stoops. “I know the season didn’t go the way that he wanted it to, and maybe it’s been a little tough spell... Man, he loves this place. He talked to me today about how much he loves Lexington and how he hopes to spend the rest of his life here. I’m just grateful for him. On a personal level, he’s been a great friend and, like I said, he’s been an incredible coach here. I think he saw that this was just the right time for the change, but just a ton of gratitude for him.”
Pope and Stoops overlapped for 20 months in Lexington after Pope was hired as John Calipari’s replacement in April 2024.
“The one thing I know about Mark is he could not have given one more ounce of blood, sweat and tears, of his whole heart and life, to this pursuit of making Kentucky football what it was,” Pope said. “And so, we’re so grateful for him.”
Infamously, Calipari and Stoops bickered publicly in summer 2022, with things reaching a boiling point when Calipari said Kentucky was “a basketball school” as part of his push to build a new basketball facility. Earlier this year, the early stages of the planning process began toward building a new practice facility for UK’s basketball program.
Pope went 24-12 during his debut 2024-25 season as the UK basketball coach, guiding the Cats to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019. This season has been a struggle so far for Kentucky, which is 5-2 overall but has lost both of its games against marquee opponents (Louisville and Michigan State).
Now ranked No. 18 in this week’s AP Top 25, Kentucky will get another crack at a top opponent on Tuesday night when No. 16 North Carolina (6-1) rolls into Rupp Arena for an ACC/SEC Challenge matchup.
This story was originally published December 1, 2025 at 7:22 PM.
