Mark Stoops shoots down buyout report: "There's zero chance I'm walking away"

Alan Cutler got the Big Blue Nation all a flutter yesterday when he said on his radio show that Mark Stoops approached Kentucky’s administration after last season about negotiating his buyout. After Kentucky’s 35-14 loss to No. 12 Georgia, Stoops was asked directly about that report and shot it down.

“I’d hate to give anything like that legs,” Stoops told Jon Hale. “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.”

As another reporter started to ask a question, Stoops interrupted him to add, “I don’t want to address that crap no more.”

Should Kentucky want to part ways with Stoops after this season, it would owe him nearly $38 million within 60 days of his dismissal, a figure that goes down by $9 million each season. Following the loss to the Bulldogs, the 16th straight in the series, Kentucky is 1-10 against SEC teams since the beginning of the 2024 season. If you extend it to the last 16 games against SEC foes, Kentucky is 2-14.

When asked, Stoops said he believes he can get the program back on track.

“Absolutely, it’s hard. Listen, I’ve been there. We talked about those and knocking down some pegs, and moving up. I’ve been there and done that. It’s hard. You’ve got to have the right pieces in place. We’re not exactly where we want to be. We’re better than we’ve been in the recent past, but we’re still not where we want to be.”

On this morning’s pregame show, Matt Jones shared what he heard about the conversation between Stoops and athletic director Mitch Barnhart following the loss to Louisville last fall, suggesting that the only way Stoops would have left is if UK agreed to pay his full buyout.

“Mark Stoops and Mitch Barnhart had a conversation about the future. It was put to me that Mark Stoops basically said, ‘If you don’t want me to be here, you can buy me out.’ It wasn’t an angry thing. It was in the conversation… I don’t think he went to him and said, ‘I want out.’”

Kentucky now enters its second bye week at 2-3, with No. 9 Texas coming to town on October 18.