'We have to do it on the field': Mitch Barnhart wants improvement from Kentucky football

Pretty much everyone knows what is at stake for the Kentucky football program this fall. The Wildcats are coming off arguably the worst season of the Mark Stoops era and must get things corrected with 50 new players facing one of the toughest schedules in college football. Showing progress could be difficult.

Kentucky Director of Athletics Mitch Barnhart discussed a multitude of topics in his press conference at media day on Friday morning. The soon to be dean of college athletic directors wants to see improvement but acknowledges the elephant in the room.

“We got to get better. We’ve got to fight and find our way to some more wins in a really, really difficult schedule. I was looking at our schedule the other day, and they said that — I’ve heard everybody say that we’ve got the second or third most difficult schedule in the SEC,” Barnhart said when asked what would success looking like for Kentucky football in 2025. “I’ve heard fifth or sixth. Regardless, if you look at the schedule, it’s a difficult schedule.”

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Kentucky’s schedule features six teams that won at least nine games last season. Three of those programs made the College Football Playoff. Many will consider Georgia and Texas to be among the handful of teams who could win a national championship this season. The task ahead of the Wildcats is a difficult one.

Throughout the offseason, fans online have been outspoken and pessimistic about this program’s future with Stoops at the helm. That all eventually turned into the “Motivated Mark Stoops” meme that became unavoidable whenever Kentucky football was discussed online. The program’s all-time winningest coach is yet again a true underdog again after spending a decade-plus building this program up and helping it climb the SEC ladder. Mitch Barnhart believes this is when Stoops is at his best.

“We’ve been in this spot where we’re coming off tough moments where we didn’t get what we wanted to do, and Mark is really, really good at fighting through adversity,” said Barnhart. “So I’ve been so pleased with how hard our staff has worked, the way our players have worked, the roster we have in place.”

“I was at practice yesterday again. Enthusiastic group of guys bouncing around, and I know it’s early in the fall camp, and everybody is bouncing around, right? I love the enthusiasm of our team. I’ve been at a couple team meetings with them. They’re fully engaged, ready to go, and Mark uses the term “locked in.” They seem pretty locked in.”

Mitch Barnhart refused to get into specifics when the topic of wins/losses came up but the leader of Kentucky’s athletic department kept coming back to improvement. He also pointed out that UK is a place that has “embraced our coaches” and that has led to long tenures. Long tenures typically mean success. Success leads to big contract extension. Stoops really isn’t in hot seat territory despite some of the fan unrest. UK still believes in the head football coach and has millions of reasons to be that way because of the current contract situation. Now is all about putting together a bounce-back campaign.

The vibes are very positive in and around the Joe Craft Football Training Facility as fall camp is off and running. There appears to be true optimism about what this UK team could become but the challenge is clear and it won’t be an easy mission to accomplish. Kentucky could get better without seeing a bump in the win column. That creates a tough situation as this program adjusts to life in an SEC without divisions.

“We have to do it on the field, and our league is unforgiving. It is an unforgiving place to play football, but we’ve got to find a way to get better,” Kentucky’s athletic director said.