KSR Today: Mark Stoops, unfortunately, goes back to work

I can’t remember the last time that level of pessimism surrounded a Kentucky football game. Actually, yes, I do. It was the Joker Phillips era, the days of walking into a matchup where the result was already decided. The opponent would decide the final score, you were just there for the ride, one fans were impatiently waiting to come to an end. There was no late shift in hope or “any given Saturday!” copium huffs. Big Blue Nation understood their Wildcats were walking into Sanford Stadium and leaving with a blowout loss, turning on ABC at 11:59 AM ET with a sigh, saying, “Let’s get this over with,” under their breath.

Georgia played with its food from the opening kick, moving down the field for back-to-back touchdown drives to essentially kill the entire first quarter (and Kentucky’s motivation to finish the other three). The Bulldogs hit some turbulence on autopilot to open the second quarter, giving up a lazy touchdown and throwing an uncharacteristic pick while weighing dinner options later that night, then played patty-cake the rest of the way before settling on a 35-14 final.

Credit where it’s due, though. Cutter Boley had his best game as a Wildcat against real competition, throwing for 225 yards and two touchdowns. The future is undoubtedly bright for the young gunslinger, who showed toughness and poise while making pro-caliber throws. Cameron Miller might also be a gem at wide receiver — although it took until the fourth quarter of Week 6 to find that out, somehow. Some young playmakers emerged on the defensive side of the ball, too, namely CJ Works, Grant Godfrey and Cam Dooley.

The current product, though, led by the longest-tenured coach in the SEC in Mark Stoops, now stacking ten straight losses to Kirby Smart — who continues to sing his praises hoping to keep a guaranteed win on the schedule — is completely dead in the water. We’re not even at the halfway mark of the season, but with eight league losses in a row (and counting) while sitting at 1-12 against power conference competition since the end of 2023, it’s going to get worse before it gets better. This program is last in the SEC by a wide margin and fan apathy has set in as the transition to basketball season begins with Big Blue Madness thankfully stepping in place of another horrific football experience next Saturday.

Stoops’ response to all of it? “We’ll keep on working. … You gotta block it out and go back to work.”

He used some variation of the word “work” six different times in yet another postgame press conference following a loss. In one ear, out the other. Just meaningless hot air disappearing into the ether as he collects his cash and lives blissfully in the past, death-gripping his status as the winningest coach in Kentucky history as if it means anything about the current trajectory. He’s a top-15 paid coach in the sport, leading a bottom-15 program in the sport — and he’s not going anywhere, so he says.

When asked about the report that he approached the administration last season about a potential buyout, Stoops not only shut it down, but suggested he didn’t want to play that song and dance after every loss this season.

And there will be plenty more of them.

“I’d hate to give anything like that legs,” Stoops said. “There’s zero — I told you last year. You guys can write or say anything you want about me, but I told you last year, there’s zero chance I’m walking away. You know what I mean? Zero. There’s no quit in me, so that’s unequivocally, 100% false. Anyone who says otherwise is lying. I don’t want to address that crap no more.”

Just as we don’t want to watch this crap “no more,” Mark. Read the room and understand the laughingstock you’ve turned this program back into, destroying the legacy and goodwill you worked so hard to build. We’re a few short years removed from legitimate statue talk, only to hold the program hostage financially — and gloat about the folks in Lexington being stuck with it, unless they want to pony up and get rid of him. Ironic, right?

Kentucky is between a rock and a hard place here. You can’t afford to get rid of Stoops, but can you afford to keep him, knowing where this is trending without any tangible evidence of a turnaround? 2024 was supposedly the “one-year blip” as the 13-year coach, nearly in tears, talked about how passionate he was to get things right in 2025.

“You could take this or leave it, but I’ve never been as motivated as I am right now. If you know anything about me, I do not like an ass kicking,” Stoops said in March. “We didn’t play to our best last year and I can guarantee you since that season was over, when we lost on Saturday against Louisville, our butts were in that office on Sunday and have not stopped since.”

Where has that gotten us? Worse, somehow. Much, much worse. We can say we’re going back to work until we’re blue in the face, but that was apparently the fix last offseason. Saying it now makes no difference — which is why fans can’t help but poke fun. We’re in boy who cried wolf territory.

Save the buzzwords; actions are telling us all we need to know. As Mark Stoops goes back to work, Big Blue Nation is going back to 2012, tuning out with two months of apathy to go as a real title contender takes the floor at Rupp Arena.