UK football mailbag: Why is Mark Stoops still the coach after the Tennessee loss?

The sting of Kentucky football’s 56-34 loss to Tennessee was not enough to end the Mark Stoops era Sunday despite a growing number of fans calling for him to be fired.

So, it should come as no surprise what the main topic of interest is in the Herald-Leader’s weekly UK football mailbag. Here we go again.

@Catsfan769 on X: How can you not fire Stoops after this game? A school like Kentucky needs to get ahead of the coaching search to have a chance.

I understand the desire of some fans to see change when so many other programs have already fired their coaches this season, but I have a hard time buying the idea that an in-season firing matters much for the search. Agents have a good idea what jobs are likely to open and there is surely already back-channel communication between candidates and administrations considering change. For instance, Jon Sumrall is not going to take the Kentucky job just because it opened before Auburn or Ole Miss or LSU if those schools are actually interested in him too. Either the opportunity to coach at his alma mater is too good to pass up or he is going to be more pragmatic about what job he takes next. In the latter scenario, his agent will be gathering information about where he stands for every potential opening, regardless of when they happen. Sumrall — or any other sitting coach — is not going to accept a new job while his current team is still playing for something.

The transfer portal does not open until Jan. 2. If Kentucky does make a coaching change — and I’m still of the belief that only happens if Stoops decides to negotiate down his buyout — as long as it happens by the beginning of December, there should be plenty of time to get a new coach in place in time to build a staff and roster for 2026.

Cameron Pate on X: When’s the announcement coming that Stoops has been fired?

I know no one wants to hear this again, but the structure of Stoops’ buyout makes a true in-season firing still difficult for me to imagine. Unlike James Franklin, whose $49 million buyout from Penn State is due in regular installments through 2031 and will be offset by his next coaching salary, Stoops would be owed his full buyout (almost $38 million) within 60 days of being fired. The scenario where things get ugly enough that athletics director Mitch Barnhart and the administration feel they have to find a way to fund the full buyout only happens after the possibility of a surprising finish that would possibly help Stoops land another job is off the table.

Greg Spencer on X: Been reading about a negotiated buyout. Why would Stoops take less than what’s owed?

This is probably the only question that matters if Kentucky is going to make a coaching change. Only Stoops knows the answer. It’s a matter of how much appetite he has to continue to weather the negativity around the program if the results don’t improve in the final five games. The other factor is how concerned Stoops is with preserving his legacy here. Sure, a majority of fans might want him fired now, but spinning his departure as a decision for the good of the program would go a long way in reminding fans of all the success he had here.

But yeah, you can never assume anyone is going to walk away from money they are owed in a fairly negotiated contract.

Yabba Gabagool on Bluesky: With his stats blowing up, does Cutter (Boley) leave for a better place or stay with the home team?

@Wildcats_Braves on X: Will Cutter and the younger wide receivers (yes, some of them look like they could be good) stay if this is it for Stoops?

I wrote about this after the Tennessee loss, so make sure you’ve read that story. Boley wisely declined to bite on a question about the pressure on Stoops after the game, so we don’t have much insight into his thinking. The most likely scenario is Boley is still worth more to Kentucky (in terms of revenue sharing and NIL deals) next season than any other school, but he will have to decide if money is the driving factor in his stay-or-go decision. When Kentucky fired Bill Curry, keeping Tim Couch in the fold was a key factor in the search that ended with “Air Raid” architect Hal Mumme as UK’s next coach, but Couch did not have the ability to transfer somewhere else without sitting out a season. Boley will likely need assurances from Stoops or his replacement if a coaching change is made that whatever offensive system UK runs next season can continue his development and improve his NFL draft stock.

Catsden on X: If Stoops doesn’t return, in my opinion UK has to go out and hire a coach from the offensive side of the ball. We gotta keep Boley, DJ Miller, Cam Miller and Willie Rodriguez.

There is a reason that when programs fire a coach they often go the opposite direction for the next hire, but I do think the Stoops era has skewed Kentucky fans’ thinking that a defensive-minded head coach cannot field a good offense. Look at Oregon. Dan Lanning was a defensive coordinator and still hired Will Stein, the offensive coordinator who is on the top of many UK fans’ wish lists to replace Stoops. I think Sumrall would be the top candidate if there is a coaching change regardless of his defensive background, but he would likely have to assure the UK administration he will field a more explosive offense than what has been on display for much of the Stoops era. If Sumrall turns the job down, I do tend to agree that an offensive-minded candidate is more likely to be the hire. That might still not be enough to keep those players if they get transfer interest from powerhouse programs though, so it’s probably not wise to base the decision on their futures alone.

@JCrew001 on X: How could a defense look so bad that last drive of the half?

The Goblin on Bluesky: It’s pretty difficult to understand why we had matchup problems since we were mostly putting our defense into zone coverage. That’s the whole point of zones. Since this was a known challenge going into the game, isn’t the point of coaching to find a way to mitigate against this?

Stoops is right that Tennessee is a bad matchup for Kentucky (although I think it was actually the plays where Kentucky had to defend in one-on-one coverage that were the bigger issue). In the opposite way that UK always seems to play Ole Miss better than other opponents, the defense never seems up to the challenge of slowing Tennessee’s unique offense. The two-minute drill before halftime that essentially ended any hope of a UK comeback was a perfect example of those failures.

The question Stoops did not address is why Kentucky’s cornerback depth is so thin that an injury to one starter last year (Maxwell Hairston) and this year (DJ Waller) has put the defense in a spot where it can apparently not defend this type of spread attack. Considering Stoops built his career around coaching defensive backs, that makes the coverage issues all the more troubling.

The biggest problem for this team is you have no idea what to expect week to week. The offense was terrible early, but the defense was good. The offense was good against Tennessee, but the defense was awful. Both units were good against Texas, but two crucial special teams mistakes directly contributed to the loss. It’s hard to build any momentum when the performances vary so widely based on the opponent’s strengths and weaknesses.

@RinoTrollCat on X: At what point does the media turn their attention from critique of Mark Stoops to critique of Mitch Barnhart? SEC ADs will always be graded on the health of their football program.

Barnhart certainly deserves scrutiny for the current situation. If things get ugly enough that UK does actually fire Stoops at the full cost of his buyout, there is a real question to be asked about whether Barnhart should get to make the next hire.

But Barnhart also gets credit for hiring Stoops in the first place. Stoops is the winningest coach in program history. He took UK to eight straight bowl games. He led the Wildcats to two 10-win seasons. When he was hired in 2012, everyone would have considered that record a rousing success, regardless of how his tenure ended.

Kentucky also isn’t like other SEC programs. Basketball is always going to be more important here, and with Mark Pope’s team looking as good as it did in the preseason exhibition against Purdue on Friday, Barnhart is going to get some additional leeway for making that hire when it was incredibly unpopular at the time.

Ed Helinski on X: After consulting a psychic medium, a crystal ball or whatever else, what’s the rest of the UK regular season going to look like?

I was on record last week in expecting Kentucky to enter the Louisville game at 5-6 with bowl eligibility on the line (then lose to its archrival). Do I feel confident about that prediction after watching the Tennessee game? No, but I still think Auburn and Florida are vulnerable in the next two games. If UK’s defense can play closer to how it did against Texas than Tennessee against two teams that are not nearly as explosive as Tennessee, Boley’s improvements should give the Wildcats a shot in both games.

I still think Kentucky gets one of the next two games and handles Tennessee Tech, which is undefeated at the FCS level. That’s enough to kick the can to the end of the season on a coaching change decision.

That being said, I’m preparing for all scenarios over the final five weeks.

@RoushKSR: Did you enjoy the macaroni and cheese in the press box?

Yes. I eagerly await the pregame spread at Auburn next week as I check off one of my two remaining SEC football stadiums I have not covered a game at yet. (Oklahoma is the other.)

This story was originally published October 27, 2025 at 6:30 AM.

Jon Hale

Lexington Herald-Leader

(859) 414-6776

Jon Hale is the University of Kentucky football beat writer for the Lexington Herald-Leader. He joined the Herald-Leader in 2022 but has covered UK athletics for more than 10 years. Hale was named the 2021 Kentucky Sportswriter of the Year. Support my work with a digital subscription