Why other football programs should covet Mark Stoops, and why UK worked to keep him
Kentucky football head coach Mark Stoops before Tuesday was among a “who’s who” of coaches some believed could be on the move this offseason. Some, it turns out, were wrong.
UK and Stoops agreed in principle to a contract extension through the 2027 season, with amended terms from his last contract. That agreement was signed ahead of the 2019 season and was set to pay him $5.1 million in the 2022 season; financial terms of the new contract were not yet publicly available.
Las Vegas oddsmakers ranked Stoops high on their odds lists for open jobs at LSU (which hired Brian Kelly on Monday), Oklahoma (left vacant by Lincoln Riley, who bolted for USC on Sunday, and still unfilled as of Tuesday afternoon) and Notre Dame (another sudden vacancy). Online reactions from those fan bases to a potential hire of Stoops ranged from distressed to excited, but most featured a similar undercurrent: “We’re hiring Kentucky’s coach?”
Stoops is clearly an attractive enough candidate to have his name floated about, so it’s worth asking: Why would elite college football programs want to hire him? That question begs another: Why was it so important to Kentucky’s administration to do what was necessary to keep him in Lexington?
These answers should suffice for both.
Cellar to ceiling
Kentucky went 2-10 in its last of three seasons under Joker Phillips, who was canned after a 40-0 loss to Vanderbilt in front of friends and family at the venue then known as Commonwealth Stadium. That result was memorable enough that Stoops alluded to it following his team’s win over the Commodores this season, a 34-17 decision that left some fans wanting more in terms of margin of victory.
“Did you like it the year before I got here, playing them?” Stoops asked during his Monday news conference following that game. “I imagine not.”
Pre-Stoops, Kentucky hadn’t finished with a winning record in the Southeastern Conference since 1977. It’s done that twice under him, in 2018 and this season, and in both seasons had legitimate opportunities to play itself into the SEC championship game, something it’s never qualified for since the league started hosting one in 1992. The Wildcats will play in their sixth straight bowl game, a school-record streak, and this year won nine regular-season games for the fifth time since the SEC was formed (and, again, did so for the second time under Stoops’ watch).
Stoops is, by every measure, the best Kentucky football coach since Paul “Bear” Bryant, and if you wanted to make the case that he’s better — given the world in which college football is played in 2021 compared to the 1940s and 1950s — it would at least be worth listening to the argument. UK was in the SEC’s cellar when he arrived and he’s gotten it closer to the ceiling than it’s been in 40-plus years. If achieving that level of success at a program more accustomed to trying to reach “also-ran” status isn’t good enough, then what is?
Kentucky under Stoops hasn’t become a national powerhouse, an aspiration he’s had in mind for the program since before he coached his first game. It has certainly gained more respect, though, to the point of being on the fringes of the College Football Playoff discussion earlier this season, and is far from the laughingstock it once was.
Big Blue Wall
A gigantic poster celebrating the late John Schlarman adorns the side of Kroger Field facing UK’s indoor training facility. Every home game, an offensive lineman wears the number — 65 — that Schlarman wore as a player at UK. These are among the ways that UK has honored a man who helped Stoops attain a level of excellence never before witnessed in the trenches.
Stoops and Schlarman helped transform UK’s offensive line from, on average, one of the smallest and least physical in the SEC to one that has, in four of the last six seasons, finished as no less than a semifinalist for the Joe Moore Award, handed out annually to the nation’s best offensive line. Of all the position groups in the Wildcats’ locker room, that one has the most consistent claim to being the team’s finest; and it’s certainly the only one with a brand — “The Big Blue Wall” — that stands apart from the team’s own logo.
Since Stoops’ arrival, three UK offensive linemen have been drafted into the NFL and at least a couple more should join those ranks in April. Before Larry Warford — selected in 2013 a few months after Stoops showed up — a Kentucky offensive lineman wasn’t drafted for 20 years.
Willingness to adapt
A strong defense. A power running game. A commitment to physicality. Those have proven to be staples of a Mark Stoops football team.
A dynamic passing attack that excites modern fan sensibilities? Not so much before 2021. Stoops’ hire of former NFL assistant Liam Coen changed that, and while it’s clearly yielded the desired result, it came at great personal cost.
Former offensive coordinator Eddie Gran was let go after five seasons, all five of which ended in bowl appearances for the Wildcats. Prior to Coen, he was the only OC under Stoops to help guide UK to a bowl, but fans — and recruits — weren’t satisfied with the direction of the offense. Making the change wasn’t an easy one for Stoops, but with the program at a crossroads, he bet on the path of higher promise and is reaping the rewards.
Making tough decisions on the field happens regularly, but choices off it don’t often present themselves as publicly as that one did last year. It’s those decisions that often affect the health of a program more in a bigger-picture sense, and Stoops has demonstrated the moxie to make them.
Consistency
Any head coach worth his contract will consistently field winning football teams, but the level of consistency at which Kentucky has played under Stoops is special for a program with its history.
Kentucky since the 2016 season — its first with a winning record under Stoops — is 46-29. That number of wins is seventh-most in the SEC over that span, but just one behind Auburn and two behind Florida. Georgia (64) is the only other team in the Eastern Division with more wins in that stretch. This season was the third time it has won at least eight games in a season over a four-year stretch since 1949-1952.
Those numbers aren’t the largest, or flashiest, but again, context is key: the Kentucky football program, historically, is one of the worst among Power Five football teams, and was in some of its roughest shape ever when Stoops took the reins. Coaches don’t stumble into winning seasons at UK, and stringing them together at the rate he has is mostly unheard of. That resonates with athletics directors.
Personality
A native of Youngstown, Ohio, Stoops brought a blue-collar personality to the Kentucky head coach’s chair and would take it to any seat in which he’s positioned. It seems to play well with recruits — most players who end up at Kentucky rave about their experience after the fact, including those who leave seeking more playing time elsewhere — and a fan base comprised mostly of individuals residing in rural parts of this state.
“He’s a player’s coach,” quarterback Will Levis said Saturday. “A lot of people say that about a lot of coaches, but he really is. His whole thing is as long as we respect him he’s going to respect us in all aspects of a game, inside football or outside football. He’s a great dude and we all fight for him as hard as we can. He’s just got that personality that makes you want to go to battle for him.”
Stoops is a lot of things, but a great quote usually isn’t one of them. He doesn’t seem to mind that, and neither should anyone else; he doesn’t get paid to trade barbs or make headlines off the field. College football is certainly more entertaining thanks to vocal personalities like Lane Kiffin, but Stoops isn’t that, and he’s probably better off for it; hiring flamboyant characters comes with its own risks that some ADs might prefer not to take.
This story was originally published November 30, 2021 at 9:26 AM.
