Mark Stoops admits keeping longevity at Kentucky is 'a real challenge'

Since Nick Saban‘s retirement, a new head coach in the SEC has taken up the mantle as the longest-tenured in the conference. That’s Kentucky Wildcats head coach Mark Stoops, who has been with the program since 2013.

2025 will be the 13th season for Stoops at Kentucky. It’s been a tenure that, outside of last season, has largely been successful. That’s created an impressive longevity that Stoops was asked about during SEC Media Days.

“It’s a real challenge,” Mark Stoops said. “When I got to Kentucky, I think, as I mentioned — I might as well just stay away from that. I was gonna say something, but I say things tongue in cheek, and it gets taken way out of control. When you lose, you got to watch what you say up here.”

Mark Stoops got to Kentucky in 2013. He inherited a team coming off a 2-10 season. That made for a bit of a slow rebuild, and Stoops didn’t get the Wildcats to a bowl game until his fourth season with the program. Since then, however, Kentucky took off and has gone 77-73 overall under Stoops, making eight bowls in a row.

“Truthfully, when we got there, there was so much work to be done. I’m very proud of that run that we had. I mean, it’s the best run that we had — maybe one other one with Bear Bryant if you go back to the ’50s there,” Stoops said. “But there’s an eight-year run there where we’ve been as consistent as anybody in the history of our school.”

That run of eight bowl games made in a row is the longest stretch of bowl games in the program’s history. However, it didn’t include any New Year’s Six games. Under Bear Bryant, Kentucky did go to three straight New Year’s Six games and had five straight AP Top 25 finishes. However, there were fewer bowls in general then, so the streak ended at three despite those Top 25 finishes. Still, Bryant left Kentucky after just eight seasons total, again pointing to Stoops’ longevity today.

“Our local media was asking me this morning, each coach that stands up here, we go back a little bit,” Stoops said. “But we’re really concentrating on this year, like what’s ahead of us, but when you have a down year, you have to stand up here. You have to own it. You have to face it. Talk about the things you’re doing to address it. Then move on. I’ve stood up here after two 10-win seasons. That’s only happened two times in the history of our school. I don’t really want to talk about that here. I want to talk about this year. So, there’s a fine balance there.”

In 2024, Kentucky missed a bowl, snapping that eight-season streak. Mark Stoops and the staff needed to go back to the drawing board because of that. The hope now, looking forward, is that they’ve addressed the issues that led to that season and can find success for years to come.

“So, for me, it’s just exciting. As I’ve mentioned… But it’s really excited about the opportunity. Diving into the challenge that lies ahead of us and embracing that, and having fun with it. This sh*t’s hard, and you might as well go enjoy it and dive into it. There’s a lot of people who can’t do it and didn’t do it for 12 years and didn’t do it for 13 years. Not at Kentucky. You look at the history of what we’ve done,” Stoops said.

“There’s a lot of great ones that didn’t make it very long. So, I’m proud of the run that we have. I want to use last year for us to learn from and to grow from and to get better, and to get back to who we want to be. That’s something that our program deserves. That’s something that our fanbase deserves. The great people of Kentucky, the administration, we’re all in and we’re excited about this next season.”

Mark Stoops and Kentucky will open the season with Toledo on August 30th. The next week, the Wildcats open SEC play by hosting Ole Miss. So, it’ll be fairly early when the Wildcats have a chance to make a statement for the 2025 season.