Mark Stoops reiterates there is ‘zero’ chance he walks away from Kentucky
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Stoops vows 0% chance he resigns; firing would trigger a $38M buyout.
- Kentucky finished 2025 5-7 with back-to-back blowouts and second straight losing season.
- Staff turnover looms; multiple assistants' contracts expire and recruiting rank drops.
If Kentucky football is to make a coaching change, it will not be because Mark Stoops elects to walk away.
“I’m going to be here as far as I’m concerned,” Stoops said after a season-ending 41-0 loss to Louisville that dropped Kentucky’s record to 5-7. “Now, I can’t control decisions that are made. You’re asking me. Like I said, zero. Zero means zero, 0% chance I walk.”
Stoops’ mindset remains important in the decision because he would be owed a $38 million buyout within 60 days if he is fired outright. That buyout is viewed as cost prohibitive for a department that has taken $141 million in loans from the university, unless Stoops negotiates its format or amount.
Since Stoops pursued the Texas A&M job in 2023 only to be spurned at the last moment after he had reportedly been offered the job, rumors have persisted that he might consider walking away from Kentucky. But he has been adamant whenever asked that he has no interest in giving up.
“We’re going to work like we always do,” Stoops said Saturday. “We’re going to try to build this roster. We’ve been in tough spots before, and we’re going to continue to improve.”
Kentucky ended its 2025 season in embarrassing fashion with back-to-back blowouts losses to Vanderbilt and Louisville. The Cardinals were playing without their top four scholarship running backs and their top receiver. Saturday’s rout followed a 45-17 loss to Vanderbilt that the Commodores led 45-3 at the end of three quarters.
With Saturday’s defeat, Kentucky suffered its second straight losing season. The Wildcats did add one win from their 4-8 mark in 2024, but the five wins came against two Mid-American Conference teams, an FCS program and a pair of SEC teams that fired their coaches this season.
Stoops is UK’s all-time winningest coach but is 17-24 since signing his last contract extension in November 2022.
Stoops appeared to have salvaged something from the season with three straight wins to open November that featured improved offensive results behind quarterback Cutter Boley, but that progress evaporated in the final two games.
“We certainly didn’t play very good in particular these last two games,” Stoops said. “We were making some strides. We certainly didn’t at the end.”
Kentucky is set to sign the lowest-ranked high school recruiting class of the Stoops era next week. Asked about that ranking Monday, Stoops said he had to first focus on retaining his own players with the revenue sharing and NIL funds available to him.
The staff did accept commitments from two junior college defensive backs this week, but the roster appears to need transfer additions who could start at wide receiver, offensive guard, offensive tackle, nose guard, inside linebacker and punter even if all the players with eligibility remaining return.
“I love the young players that we have on our team,” Stoops said Saturday. “I have to get more. We have to get more depth.”
UK athletic director Mitch Barnhart was not available for interviews after the game. Earlier this month, with Kentucky on a three-game winning streak, he told the Herald-Leader he would meet with Stoops to assess the future of the program at the end of the season, as normal.
Even if Stoops is back, there could be major turnover on his coaching staff.
Seven assistants, including defensive coordinator Brad White, are working on contracts that expire in June. Offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan is under contract through the 2026 season, but Stoops will have to decide if he can continue with the same offensive system after the abysmal finish.
“Just been thinking about this season,” White said Saturday. “That’s all I care about. I haven’t really thought about anything other than trying to win this football game. I’ll spend tomorrow trying to figure out what went wrong in this football game. All those things get handled at the end of the season anyway.”
Stoops has frequently pointed to a group of young playmakers as evidence better days are ahead for the program, but he must convince those players to stay rather than transfer if they receive interest from higher-profile programs before the transfer portal opens on Jan. 2. Boley, a redshirt freshman, leads that group.
“This is definitely where I want to be,” Boley said Saturday. “I want to play for Kentucky.”
Boley said the blame for the last two performances has to be placed on the players rather than Kentucky’s under-fire coaching staff, but he and the rest of the in-demand Wildcats will have to weigh how any staff changes affect their decisions to stay or go. The struggles against Vanderbilt and Louisville also add questions about how good Kentucky’s young nucleus actually is.
Against Louisville, Boley completed just 14 of 27 passes for 107 yards and two interceptions. He threw for 280 yards in the 45-17 loss to Vanderbilt the week before, but 203 of those yards came in the fourth quarter after Kentucky had fallen behind 45-3.
Freshmen wide receivers Cam Miller and D.J. Miller garnered hype for midseason breakouts but finished the year with just 13 catches each. The gaggle of young defenders coaches hyped in the second half were not enough to prevent the final two opponents from combining for 96 points as injuries affected depth on that side of the ball.
“I was proud of the growth we were making,” Stoops said. “We were improving and getting better and we couldn’t sustain it. We didn’t play very good here these past couple weeks, and it’s a tough situation.
“I have to continue to get the depth that’s needed to hang on. We have some injuries at some positions that we’re just not getting it done. Not playing very good football. But truthfully we didn’t play good in any area today.”
The status of the coaching carousel may ultimately affect UK’s decision on Stoops, too.
Already James Franklin and Eric Morris, two coaches who would have been attractive targets for Kentucky, have been hired by Virginia Tech and Oklahoma State, respectively. In the SEC, Florida, LSU, Auburn and Arkansas are already weeks into their coaching searches.
Tulane coach Jon Sumrall, a former Kentucky linebacker and assistant coach, would almost certainly be the top target for Kentucky’s job if it were open, but ESPN reported Saturday that Sumrall is now the favorite for the Florida job. Even if Sumrall takes another job, there would be attractive candidates for Kentucky, but several of them might have new jobs by the end of the weekend.
For that reason, Kentucky will need to make a final decision on Stoops’ status quickly. Wisconsin, Florida State, Maryland and Baylor have already announced their embattled coaches will return in 2026 rather than be fired with massive buyouts due them.
If Kentucky follows that same path, Stoops and Barnhart will need to find a compelling argument to drum up the type of financial support that will be needed to retain the best current players and find roughly half a dozen more starters in the transfer portal.
“We have work to do,” Stoops said. “We have a lot of things to do. Again, I feel like there’s a good foundation to work with. We need more players, and we need the players that we have to continue to be developed.”
This story was originally published November 29, 2025 at 3:54 PM.