'I didn't do anything different': Mark Stoops says quiet offseason was not intentional

Mark Stoops told the media and fans that his program was going to quickly get to work once the 2024 season. Kentucky then pulled off a mini-rebuild with heavy roster turnover via the transfer portal. But throughout spring practice and at SEC spring meetings, Stoops had a clear message.

No headlines.

“There’s a lot of things. I don’t want to get into a headline today,” Stoops told Sirius in Destin. “That’s one thing I want to get out of the summer.”

In his first press conference with local media since spring practice ended at SEC Media Days on Thursday morning at the College Football Hall of Fame, KSR asked Stoops about the “no headline” philosophy and why it seemed so important for the program to maintain a low profile this offseason after a highly disappointing 4-8 campaign. Stoops believes nothing has changed from previous offseasons.

“I didn’t do anything different this offseason with y’all. I don’t think. People have tried to insinuate that I’ve been laying low on purpose,” Stoops said in Atlanta. “But I think people would appreciate the fact that we’re just working, and we’re trying to get better, and we’re trying to assemble a quality football team, and we have a lot of work to do. I think you understand that, and I think everybody understands that. So I think the people of Kentucky, and everybody just in general, would appreciate me putting my head down, going to work, and building a better football team. But it wasn’t intentional.”

“Maybe y’all just looking for some ammo.”

Since the end of last season — and really in every year during his tenure — Mark Stoops has talked about getting back to work and the blue collar approach that this program will have under his watch. But the head coach also admitted that he had to “fix that culture” in the offseason. Putting their head down and getting back to work in the facility was the plan. That’s exactly what the program did.

Kentucky did a terrific job of not making any headlines this offseason. Mark Stoops accomplished that top priority goal. That will change during the season when this newly built football team will look to prove doubters wrong after having a normal offseason in a year where this organization needed a lot of things to change to prevent the 2024 season from repeating itself.

Did this quiet offseason fix the program? We will find out soon.