Mark Stoops encourages fans to 'pony up' on NIL contributions following Georgia blowout

Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops made it clear the Wildcats were “outcoached and outplayed in every area” in the team’s blowout loss to Georgia in Athens on Saturday.

“I wasn’t satisfied in any area,” he said Monday. “And I will not make excuses.”

The Bulldogs won 51-13 in a game that felt over from the opening kick. Minimal pushback with one shot in the foot after another all the way through the final buzzer. Kirby Smart’s group looked like one that had won back-to-back national championships, one ready to make a statement against the ranked Wildcats at home.

Clearly the best team in college football, certainly in the SEC.

“I’m not trying to stir up any controversy — I have no idea who two, three or four is or whatever, but it’s clearly Georgia and everybody else,” Stoops said during his call-in radio show Monday evening. “I have friends on their staff, I talked to some guys after the game, and they were like, ‘Mark, they they were geared up, they were ready.’ We had their full attention and they responded.”

7-0 turned to 14-0, then 21-0 early in the second quarter. By the time the fourth quarter rolled around, the Bulldogs had already pulled their starters. Once those dominoes started falling, it was all over but the shouting.

“In our league, it matters. Home or away, it can get away from you very quickly and we didn’t do a good enough job to handle that environment,” Stoops added. “The number one thing I talked about, whether our guys are too amped up, we get silly penalties, overthrow a football, don’t tackle, you name it.”

The loss was what it was, something the program has no choice but to take on the chin and move forward. This team has issues and Stoops has got to get them figured out.

“I’m not making excuses. That’s the way it is,” he said. “We’ve got to watch it, we’ve got to see it. You’ve got to own it, you’ve got to solve it and then you’ve got to go do it.”

But Stoops also doesn’t want to dismiss the progress his program has made and won’t let one blowout loss to a team that hasn’t lost since 2021 kill its momentum. He took exception to a caller who pointed out that the Wildcats had only beaten two SEC teams with winning records in the conference since he arrived in Lexington — a skewed, but technically correct stat.

Instead, he pointed out that Kentucky was tied for fourth in SEC wins since 2018.

“Georgia is the No. 1 team in the country — a clear No. 1. It’s ridiculous what they’re doing right now,” Stoops said. “… They’re one for a reason. Would I like to be there? Yes. But there’s a big difference between one and everyone else. Climbing the ladder in the SEC, you think it’s easy? I sat here and watched a bunch of people try to do it, it’s not easy at a lot of different schools. I’m not being sensitive about it, but bring it on, see if you could do it.”

And if fans want better, he suggests they ‘pony up’ on their NIL contributions to help pay for a better team. That’s how Georgia did it, he says, legal in the name, image and likeness era.

“The other side of that is, if you want to do that, complain, deny or make excuses. And we’re not going to do that, it is what it is. Fans have that right, I give it to them,” Stoops said. “I just encourage them to donate more, because that’s what those dudes are doing. I can promise you Georgia, they bought some pretty good players. You’re allowed to these days.

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