Mark Stoops Discusses the Role NIL and Transfer Portal Free Agency will Play this Offseason

On the day a new NIL fundraising initiative was launched, Mark Stoops discussed the important role NIL and the transfer portal will play for the Kentucky football program. There are short term benefits and potential long-term roster-building consequences.

Monday morning Athlete Advantage launched The 15, providing the BBN a new way to raise funds for student-athletes, particularly those who play for Mark Stoops’ team. Following the loss to Vanderbilt, the timing of the launch was not ideal. However, some of the reoccurring problems that have plagued the Wildcats can be addressed with NIL funds and the transfer portal that Stoops simply described as ‘free agency.’

“There is free agency. I didn’t create that, but let’s be honest,” he said during his Monday press conference. “There’s a salary cap, that some people have none, and there is free agency. It makes life different. Now you better adapt, you better adjust and you better be able to overcome it. Again, I play by the rules that are that are put in front of me. I didn’t create that free agency. The sustainability of 85 free agents a year is kind of interesting. How would you like to operate an NFL team with every one of your guys is a free agent every year? How do you think they’d do?”

The world of college athletics has changed. It can change what the Wildcats’ roster looks like next year, for better or worse.

Watch the latest Mark Stoops press conference on the KSR YouTube Channel.

How Kentucky got to this point

Once ranked No. 7 in the country not so long ago, the team picked to finish second in the SEC East will be at best a 7-win team with a sub-.500 record in conference play. There have been plenty of problems, but if you had to point to one big one, it’s the Wildcats’ offensive line. Mark Stoops repeatedly stated he did not want to make excuses, but he did share how they got to this point.

“There are reasons why we got caught a little thin and offensive line,” said Kentucky’s head coach. “We’ve gone through some real life stuff that has been hard, you know what I mean? That’s three years and then change doesn’t help either, you know with a guy coming in late. We got put in this position. It’s my job to get it fixed. But there are some things that we can fix and we will get fixed. That’s where the portal and things of that nature can help you to where, when we took over 10 years ago, those things weren’t there.”

John Schlarman fought cancer for three years before ultimately passing away. His successor left after one season. While breaking in a new offensive line coach, Stoops had to make an untimely offensive coordinator hire the week spring practice was scheduled to start. It’s easy to understand why Kentucky’s offensive line has been behind the proverbial 8-ball.

Fortunately for Stoops, he believes the transfer portal can make up for years of lost time in one offseason. Additionally, the head coach is confident there are still a couple guys on this roster that can develop into contributors in the trenches.

“We got guys, they just need time,” he said. “They may need an offseason, they may need strength, they may need to gain weight or lose weight. There’s things you just constantly work. There’s guys that pop up like Jamin (Davis).”

Unintended Conseqeences of NIL, Transfer Portal Free Agency

Jamin Davis embodied the ‘recruit and develop’ mantra that made Mark Stoops a winner at Kentucky. A low three-star recruit, he chopped away for three years until he was forced into a starting role and turned into a first round draft pick. That example is in danger of going away in this new era of college football free agency.

“Nobody talked about Jamin until that year he blew up. You just don’t know, and that’s a good lesson for our players. He didn’t play a whole heck of a lot, but when he was ready, he was working, working, working, then he had that opportunity and blew up in one year,” Stoops said.

“We have guys that you don’t know when that time’s gonna come. They just gotta continue to put in that work, continue to get better and then eventually when they get on the field, how good are they gonna play? That’s kind of who we had to be for all these years. That’s still what you have to be in my opinion to have the consistency that you want.“

This brings Kentucky to a crossroads. The Wildcats’ old path to success may no longer be viable. Mark Stoops is doing what’s necessary to adapt by embracing NIL and recruiting players from the portal, but that does not slow down the year-to-year roster turnover. The more players that come and go, the harder it is to maintain and cultivate a winning culture. Stoops fears the days of Jamin Davises may be done.

“We’ve been blessed with guys that have left (in the transfer portal) where I’d probably say 100% was almost mutual. Now, that will change. But that’s everybody. That’s reality. That’s the new world. That’s not a knock. That’s OK. There are players on our team right now that I absolutely love and I think they down deep love it here, but they may decide to go somewhere else that’s better for them. That’s just the new world. You don’t take offense to it anymore.”