Mark Stoops focuses on the present as Kentucky's SEC home losing streak lingers

The past offseason was a busy one at the Joe Craft Football Training Facility. Mark Stoops and his Kentucky staff went through a hard roster reset while they attempted to rebuild and restructure the program’s culture following a highly disappointing 4-8 campaign in 2025. That big rebuild took away from one of last season’s biggest storylines. It has been a long time since this program won an SEC game at home. It’s been an even longer time since this program has won more than two SEC games in the same season at home.

This losing streak will likely become a big storyline again. Despite having lost every power conference home game last season and owning a seven-game SEC losing streak, Stoops is not dwelling on this recent ugly trend for the Kentucky football program. The Cats are just worried about getting better and being ready to play this week.

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“Not to diminish any of that, but I don’t even think about that,” Stoops said. “It’s what do we have to do this week? I think we all understand that the focus of that the focus is on this week. This game.”

Earlier in his press conference to kickoff Ole Miss week in Lexington, Mark Stoops admitted it’s not easy to put last year’s result when UK beat Ole Miss in the rearview mirror. Kentucky will try its best to stay focused on this week’s task without considering the big picture implications. Stoops wants his program to stay in the moment. He’s already dealt with — and ended — one overwhelming streak during his time at Kentucky.

“You’ve heard me say for 13 years say, last year was last year, this year is this year, and that’s always the answer because it’s true. I’ve been on both sides of it, right? I go back to the thousand of questions I get for losing to Florida for 31 years or whatever it was,” Stoops said. “So that one was a little bit obnoxious.”

Since beating LSU in 2021, UK is just 2-11 at home in conference games with seven consecutive losses on the backend of that record. That ugly streak looms large, and this program likely cannot have a successful season in 2025 unless it ends. It remains critical that Kentucky finds a way to end it sooner rather than later no matter what is said this week. The Cats found a way to end a previous ugly streak back in 2018 after some tough moments. Will that experience help them end this streak?

We will find out soon.