Mark Stoops opens up with Marty & McGee
Every year at SEC Media Days, all 14 head coaches in the conference are put through a whole day of interviews. KSR gets plenty of time in the print room, but a lot of work is done on the side for television purposes. ESPN rolls deep to this event every year and collects content to use throughout the season.
Ryan McGee and Marty Smith are ESPN personalities who host a weekly Saturday morning radio show together while also serving as on-air talent for the SEC Network. For the last few seasons at SEC Media Days, this duo has hosted each coach in an interview room for some questions that will be used in a made-for-TV special on the SEC Network.
That special aired this week, and Stoops made some pretty interesting comments. KSR is here to break it all down for our readers.
Shots fired at Shane Beamer?
Shane Beamer puts it on strong. He just does. After a 7-6 debut season at South Carolina, he is letting anybody with an ear know about it as he attempts to bring Gamecock football back to national relevancy.
Despite never being a coordinator, Beamer got the South Carolina coaching job after the Gamecocks fired Will Muschamp. He got some full buy-in from his players immediately and then let his team give him a mayo bath after beating North Carolina in the Belk Bowl. From there, the second-year head coach has gone on just about every college football podcast (did you know Big Game Boomer has a podcast?), has had multiple features written about him and his team, and has been the focal point of numerous social media videos sent out by the South Carolina media team.
A Full House spoof got a lot of attention, but one centered around a musical classic from the artist known as Soulja Boy got the new head coach a ton of attention at SEC Media Days in July.
One day after these shenanigans at the College Football Hall of Fame last month, Stoops went through the media rounds to talk about his program. While sitting with Marty & McGee, the head coach seemingly took a shot at how, maybe, one particular program goes about propping up a rebuild and creating buzz.
“I think ultimately it’s about the respect throughout the league when you’re dealing with coaches and players,” Stoops said when asked about the rewards of his rebuild at Kentucky. “Win or lose, you walk out you know you’re going to be in for a physical matchup. You know that we’re coming to play, we’re coming to compete and having that mindset. That’s not easy to change. I’ve talked years and years ago about climate vs. culture. It’s easy to change a climate. You just change a uniform, talk a little game, dance around, put on some stupid sunglasses, and you can change a climate. But to change a culture is at the core. I’m quite certain we’ve changed our culture.
Certainly does seem like Beamer has changed the climate at South Carolina with some of the offseason antics we’ve seen in Columbia. Kentucky has won 7 of the last 8 meetings with the SEC East foe and that game on Oct. 8 in Kroger Field may have just gotten a lot more interesting.
Regardless, Stoops is feeling very confident about the upcoming season. The evolving football culture in Lexington appears to be a top reason why Kentucky is now built to win at a high level.
“That culture throughout our whole organization has totally flipped,” Mark Stoops said. “From being kind of looked like as a dog to being looked at as you better come ready to play because we’re coming. Our players feel that, our fans feel that, and that’s a good feeling.”
Chasing the beast
Kentucky has not hidden away from publicizing its goals for the 2022 season. The Wildcats want to win the SEC East and play in the SEC Championship Game for the first time in program history. The only problem with that is there is a juggernaut in the division.
Kirby Smart has built Alabama East at Georgia. The Bulldogs have inked four consecutive top-five recruiting classes having signed 30 top 100-recruits over the last three cycles. The SEC East program is the defending national champion that has won four division titles in five seasons.
Everyone in the division is chasing Georgia as this program is now reaching Alabama levels of dominance. Kentucky knows that.
“What’s the beast at the end? It’s Georgia right now,” said Mark Stoops. “Alabama on the other side. They’re really taking it to another level. That’s a high mountain to climb. However, that’s the goal. That’s what you gotta do.”
In Lexington, the Cats cannot focus on Georgia’s recruiting success or what Smart is returning to his roster. Kentucky must focus on itself and handling the tasks in front of them. If business is handled, these programs could meet for the SEC East title for the third time in five years.
“I can’t control them, but I gotta control us and how do we get better,” Stoops told Marty & McGee. “Then if you have that shot you have it. We had a shot to play them once or twice in a game but didn’t take care of it. Had a shot, but maybe next time we’ll have a better shot.”
Kentucky hosted Georgia in the de facto division title game in 2018 and played Georgia in 2021 for the deciding game of the division race. The Wildcats are hoping to get another crack and it may just come this year.
Georgia will visit Kroger Field on Nov. 19.
There will always be adversity to overcome
Go back a decade, and things were looking bleak for Kentucky football. In 2012, the Wildcats hosted Vanderbilt to start November. Hardly anyone showed at Commonwealth Stadium and the home team was shut out in a 40-0 loss.
Kentucky had hit rock bottom in football. The university turned to Florida State defensive coordinator Mark Stoops to get them out of the hole. A decade later, Kentucky has two double-digit win seasons in their back pocket and enters the 2022 year inside the preseason top 25.
A lot has changed and these feel like good times for Kentucky football. However, there will always be challenges that await.
“When you’re in the SEC, and you’re 14 and if it was 18 you’d have been at 18,” Stoops said. “You’re as low as you can get. To fight your way out of that in this league does say something. One of the things I talk about with the team — we have some deep roots in our program. Our athletic director, my president, myself, we’ve all been together for 10 years. We’ve been through some battles.”
Kentucky needs that work history maybe more than ever now. There is some obvious in-fighting currently happening within the athletic department, and no one is quite sure how that will shake out. At the same time, college football is being rocked by changes brought on by NIL and the transfer portal. Kentucky has survived tough times under Mark Stoops and is confident they’ll survive this next storm.
“It’s a turbulent time right now in college football,” Kentucky’s head football coach said. “Fortunately, we’ve been through a lot of these battles, and we’ll get through this one.”
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