The Most Important Game of Mark Stoops' Career (again)

We are now in the 4th season of Mark Stoops' tenure at the Kentucky and it seems the match-up Saturday with the South Carolina Gamecocks will be his most important game to date. Yeah, he's had a bunch of these kinds of games, particularly in the last two seasons. Let's take a look at the "biggest games of Mark Stoops' career" and how he has fared in those match-ups.   Game Florida vs. Kentucky (2015).................................L (14-9) Kentucky at Vanderbilt (2015).............................L (21-17) Louisville vs. Kentucky (2015).............................L (38-24) Southern Miss vs. Kentucky (2016).....................L (44-35) South Carolina vs. Kentucky (2016).....................? (?-?)   So, things haven't gone so great for Stoops in his first four "biggest games of his career." In fact, they've gone terribly. 0-4 isn't good any way you cut it. Last year's games carried a different kind of significance than this season's games. The reason I chose the Florida, Vandy, and Louisville games is because a win in any one of those games would've resulted in a bowl appearance and we aren't having the discussion we're having today. This year, however, it ain't about going to bowl, it's about hanging on for dear life for Mark Stoops and winning back the support of the fans. A South Carolina win this weekend would be a huge start in regaining back that support. At this point, I believe the only way for Stoops to fully regain the fans support is to win all of the "winnable" SEC games left on our schedule (South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State, Mizzou). These four wins combined with wins over New Mexico St. and Austin Peay gets us to that magic number of six wins and a bowl game. A win in each of these "winnable" SEC games will result in yet another "most of important game of the Stoops era." Stoops is 0-4 in these games currently. He needs, desperately, to get to 4-4, otherwise the future begins to get bleaker. All we can do is hope Stoops can overcome his history in these games and get some wins. It's definitely possible. We'll see. I think he can do it.