Mark Stoops’ biggest accomplishment as UK football coach? These Cats have a chance.

A funny thing happened on the way to the 2023 college football season. Kentucky sold out its season ticket allotment. It’s true. Not only is it true, it’s never happened before. Not in the Mark Stoops era, anyway.

It didn’t happen after Stoops was first hired back in 2013. It didn’t happen after he reached his first bowl game in 2016. It didn’t happen after Kentucky beat mighty Penn State in the Citrus Bowl to cap a 10-3 season in 2018. It didn’t happen after the 2021 campaign, when the Wildcats’ wheel of fortune landed on another double-digit win total.

So why now? Is it because everyone — even patrons in the cheap seats — can finally buy a beer at Kroger Field? Is it because three years removed from a deadly global pandemic, people finally feel safe in crowds? Is it because Big Blue Nation wants its final taste of SEC divisional football before Texas and Oklahoma crash the conference party?

My guess is the return of popular play-caller Liam Coen has something to do with it. Talk about pleasant surprises. Who knew Coen would execute a U-turn after spending last season with the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams? My guess is the arrival of reportedly deadeye passer Devin Leary has something to do with it, too. Seeing how the North Carolina State transfer fares against SEC defenses should be worth the price of admission.

I also think Stoops has something to do with this, too. Yeah, Mark Stoops. This is his 11th season here. Among SEC coaches, only Alabama’s Nick Saban has walked the sidelines at the same school for a longer period of time. There are worse places to be than second on a list to Saban.

Stoops is 66-59 here. He is UK’s all-time winningest coach. I’ve already dubbed him statue-worthy. (My friend Dan Issel says I must have been dropped on my head as a baby.) Stoops is 35-17 over his last four non-COVID seasons. He’s 16-16 in SEC play for the same time frame. By Kentucky football standards, .500 is parade-worthy.

It’s not enough for Stoops, of course. You’ve seen him on the sidelines. He’s a competitor. Smoke can pour from his ears. He’s not as obsessed with the officials as his days as a young head coach — that’s a good thing — but he still forcefully expresses his opinions to the men in stripes when warranted.

Stoops wants to win the league. He wants to win the division before next year, when there are no more divisions. He wants to play in the SEC Championship Game. He wants to take his team to one of the traditional big-boy New Year’s bowl games.

Those are tough asks, of course. Kirby Smart is recruiting like some kind of Marvel hero at Georgia. We already mentioned Saban. Tennessee might actually be Tennessee again. Florida could become Florida again. Same for Auburn. You never know. And, in case you missed it from earlier in this column, Texas and Oklahoma become part of SEC country in 2024.

Plus, college football itself is in a tornadic state of change. Conference realignment. Transfer portal. Name, image and likeness collectives. Legalized sports gambling. Billion-dollar television rights deals. Streaming networks. The multiplication of demanding donors. Helicopter parents. It’s all a bit much.

Against the wind, Stoops still stands. He’s built a solid program. It’s not a championship one, but it is consistently competitive. There’s not the feeling that this thing will all fall apart at a moment’s notice. It could. SEC monsters await around every corner. Disaster is a always bad break away.

Still, I’m old enough to remember when we entered many a Kentucky football season knowing the Cats had no chance. None. Zero. Zilch. There was always hope, of course, but most times, deep in his or her heart, by Labor Day a UK fan was merely bracing for the misery sure to come.

To me, that’s Stoops’ greatest accomplishment. This year, like the last few years, we enter the 2023 Kentucky football season thinking, these guys have a chance. A chance to do something special. Because they do.

This story was originally published August 28, 2023 at 7:00 AM.

John Clay

Lexington Herald-Leader

859-472-4218

John Clay is a sports columnist for the Lexington Herald-Leader. A native of Central Kentucky, he covered UK football from 1987 until being named sports columnist in 2000. He has covered 20 Final Fours and 42 consecutive Kentucky Derbys. Support my work with a digital subscription