When Mark Stoops took over for Joker Phillips in 2013, he inherited a Kentucky football program coming off a dismal 2-10 season that hadn’t experienced a winning campaign in its last three years.
Since then, Stoops has transformed the Wildcat football program, leading them to two 10-win seasons and a nine-win campaign. Under his leadership, the Wildcats have celebrated New Year’s Day bowl victories over Penn State and Iowa amid a four-bowl-game winning streak.
However, the team is coming off back-to-back 7-6 seasons, and it appears that Stoops and the Wildcats may be falling victim to the new precedent of expectations they’ve set for Kentucky football. Has Kentucky reached the apex of its football capabilities in the SEC? Stoops doesn’t believe so.
Stoops Not Settling For Recent Success in the SEC
Coach Stoops knows he has ushered in the most successful era in Kentucky football history. During his time at SEC Media Days, he thanked SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey for reminding the room that UK is one of only eight teams in the country to go to eight straight bowls and one of just three in the SEC.
“There’s been some consistency. I appreciate Greg just mentioning the fact we have been to eight straight bowl games. There’s only eight teams in the country that have done that. I think only two in the SEC besides Alabama and Georgia. Then, of course, Oklahoma, who hasn’t been in the league, but they’ve done it as well,” Stoops noted.
“That’s not nothing, but we want to improve.”
Stoops also made the room aware that the players and coaching staff are not settling for just making bowl games and that they believe there is more to accomplish at Kentucky. The Wildcats head coach and his squad are focused on pushing further and reaching new heights.
“We just want more,” said Stoops. “You know, I think I talked about it last year but where we’re at, the margin for error, we have to make the best of every situation.”
Suppose you had told Kentucky fans following Stoops’s 2013 hiring that Kentucky football would be 75-65 under their new head coach, including a school record of eight consecutive bowl berths, they would have been ecstatic.
But that is where Stoops has taken this program, and now he wants to keep pushing. And that is the message he continues to deliver to his players.
“That’s the message with the team ultimately,” said Stoops. “We’ve got to get better. We’ve got to find a way to make those plays in critical moments to push us over the top.”
“We’re not interested in just existing. I’m not here, I’m not coaching, I’m not back for the 12 years just to exist,” Stoops explained. “We want to find a way to improve, use these rules, whatever it is to make changes, to make that jump and get to the next level.”
Stoops must fully believe that Kentucky can accomplish even more in college football. Though there are no details regarding negotiations, it was widely reported that Texas A&M had Stoops very high on their list during their last coaching search before ultimately hiring Mike Elko from Duke.
During his time on stage at SEC Media Days, a reporter from Texas asked Stoops if he was pursued by other schools following the 2023 season. Stoops replied, “Pretty aggressively by Texas A&M, and we’ll leave it at that.”
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