5 Stages of Kentucky Football Grief: From Denial to Acceptance Under Mark Stoops

Kentucky football fans are among the most resilient in all of sports. Mark Stoops brought a level of success to the program that some believed was impossible. That four-year run of excellence has evaporated over the four years since. How are we supposed to handle this see-saw of emotions? By applying the five stages of grief to what has transpired.

Denial

Late-season wins served as bandages on program wounds. The program was in danger of significant deterioration at the end of the 2023 campaign. After the South Carolina game, Stoops was spotted in a state of disarray underneath Williams-Brice Stadium, seemingly at a loss for how they fell so far to lose to a team that was that bad.

The next week, they picked themselves up and beat a Top 10 Louisville team that was on its way to the ACC Championship Game.”See, Stoops has still got it.” That was denial.

Anger

There’s anger after every loss. That’s how this sport works. What I’m describing is a different kind of anger directed toward Mark Stoops.

The Kentucky head football coach and the Hall of Fame Kentucky head basketball coach got into a public feud, and surprisingly, many took the football coach’s side. That trivial argument isn’t when things turned.

The undefeated Wildcats went to Georgia in 2023 and got shellacked. After the 51-13 loss, a radio show caller got under the head coach’s skin. Stoops responded by acknowledging the talent gap between the teams. If fans wanted to change, they could help.

“We could use some help. That’s what they look like, when you have 85 of them,” Stoops said. “I encourage anybody who is disgruntled to pony up some more.”

Although he was not wrong, the delivery completely changed the relationship between Stoops and the fans. The Youngstown guy was “one of us.” After that, he was the guy crying for more money from the yacht. Nothing else, not even taking two steps out the door to Texas A&M, enraged fans more during his tenure, leading to irreconcilable differences in this relationship.

Bargaining

Maybe Stoops could get this train back on the tracks? Even after they got bulldozed in the SEC opener by South Carolina in 2024, Kentucky fought admirably against top-ranked Georgia before losing by a point. The Cats were the better team all day and they should’ve won, but hey, at least they were close. Maybe if they played like that all of the time, it could be a really fun season.

Two weeks later, they did just that. Kentucky went on the road and knocked off a Top 10 Ole Miss team. The victory would ultimately prevent Lane Kiffin from reaching the CFP for the first time, serving as proof that Mark Stoops could still successfully navigate the Wildcats through the SEC.

Depression

Kentucky has not won a game against a Power Conference foe since that September Saturday in Oxford. That is nine straight SEC losses, oh, and a blowout against Louisville, where only fans wearing red were in the stands for the final quarter. The last home win over a Power Conference foe was Sept. 30, 2023. Kentucky hasn’t scored more than two offensive touchdowns in a Power Conference game in at least two years. I don’t know exactly how long. It’s so depressing that my brain doesn’t want to remember all of these embarrassing statistics.

Acceptance

If you were still holding out hope, Mark Stoops gave you a chance to be hopeful against Texas. Kentucky thoroughly dominated the Preseason No. 1 team in the country. The Wildcats had twice as many yards and three times as many first downs as the Horns. Surely, they won the game, right? Wrong.

For just the second time in a calendar year, Kentucky was in a one-score game in the fourth quarter against a Power Conference opponent. I got caught up in that thrill ride. For the first time in a long time, we got to actually talk football on the Rapid Reaction, rather than debate Mark Stoops’ future. That’s when Adam Luckett hit me over the head with the hardest truth yet.

Kentucky played almost a perfect game, Cutter Boley had 300 yards of offense, and it still wasn’t good enough to beat a team at home that will finish in the middle of the SEC. Texas averaged 16.7 points per game against Power Conference foes entering the game. Kentucky held them to 16 and still lost. Sixteen points.

In a year where Mark Stoops had to prove that he still had his fastball, he went back to what made him successful. That style worked then. It is not working now. It’s time to accept that reality as we grieve the end of the most successful era of Kentucky football in a generation.