What Went Wrong for Mark Stoops at Kentucky

The Mark Stoops era has come to a close after 13 seasons in Lexington and more wins than any other Kentucky football coach. In September of 2022, tailgaters around Kroger Field told Drew Franklin that Mark Stoops deserved a statue outside of the stadium. How did things change so quickly? It actually started that spring in Minneapolis.

Minnesota Vikings Hire Kevin O’Connell, NOT Jim Harbaugh

Jim Harbaugh was the frontrunner to be the next Minnesota Vikings head coach in Jan. 2022. During Harbaugh’s visit to Minneapolis, The Athletic detailed the seismic shift inside the facility that ultimately led them to pass on the Michigan head coach. Harbaugh returned to Michigan and won a National Championship, while the Vikings instead chose Kevin O’Connell to lead their franchise.

The dominoes of this decision reached all the way to Lexington and cost Kentucky a chance at another season with double-digit wins.

Liam Coen was prepared to run it back with Will Levis and Chris Rodriguez against a favorable schedule. Only one thing could change that. With O’Connell gone, Sean McVay and the Defending Super Bowl Champion L.A. Rams needed a new offensive coordinator. It was an opportunity Coen could not pass up.

Stoops had everything teed up for a spectacular 2022 season, maybe the best in the history of Kentucky football. The way the coaches’ contracts were structured, and the hires he made to fill the gaps in the staff, it was clear that Kentucky was going all-in. After a successful season, a high-profile job would take Stoops elsewhere.

That plan still almost worked. Seventh-ranked Kentucky scored with seconds on the clock to beat Ole Miss, but it was overturned by a penalty. Will Levis was strip-sacked on the next play, days after Rich Scangarello infamously said, “Bring on the blitz.” Levis was injured on another sack, forcing him to miss the following game against South Carolina. Kentucky lost three out of four before limping to a 7-5 finish.

Mark Stoops deserves credit for changing his offensive philosophy to raise the ceiling of his program. He found a rising star to create a pro-style attack, and cashed in with a 9-win campaign. Unfortunately, that change only worked for one season.

The Play That Started the Spiral for Stoops

Kentucky was undefeated and the No. 20 team in the country when Ray Davis and College GameDay traveled to Athens. Georgia ran the Cats off the field in a 51-13 blowout. Kentucky got off the mat and built up a 14-0 first-quarter lead at home against Missouri. That’s when Eli Drinkwitz dialed up this fake, and even though it was covered, it resulted in a touchdown.

After this play, it took Mark Stoops two more years to win another SEC home game. He got a couple of SEC victories in the Magnolia State, one against a Zac Arnett-coached Mississippi State team. Stoops got two more this fall, defeating a Florida interim head coach and winning at Auburn in Hugh Freeze’s final game as the Tigers’ head coach.

Kentucky Quit Recruiting and Developing

“Recruit and Develop” was the backbone of Stoops’ success at Kentucky. With Vince Marrow at his side, Stoops raided traditional Big Ten territory and gave those athletes a chance to play in the SEC.

Benny Snell was an overlooked, mid-three-star recruit from Ohio who became the school’s all-time leading rusher. Maxwell Hairston had a similar recruiting profile in Michigan before he became Kentucky’s first defensive back taken in the first round of the NFL Draft. DeAndre Square was a Detroit native who became a three-year starter and team captain. Maryland was Luke Fortner‘s only Power Conference scholarship offer before he developed into a multi-year starter at multiple positions on the offensive line.

This brings us to the development part of the equation. John Schlarman recruited Fortner when nobody else would, then transformed him into an NFL Draft pick. Steve Clinkscale created a Michigan pipeline before he helped Michigan win a National Championship, and now he’s coaching the L.A. Chargers. Jon Sumrall had already accepted the head coaching position at Troy, but he returned for the Citrus Bowl.

Square was injured, but returned to the game to make the game-clinching interception. “I came back to coach that kid and to watch him make that play,” Sumrall said through tears. “Made my year”

Mark Stoops often said, “It’s not on just one guy. It takes everybody.” That includes his coaching staff, and the one he assembled in recent years didn’t cut it.

Pony Up

Kentucky had to change how it recruited and developed because of the addition of NIL money and the transfer portal. A strength of Stoops’ program turned into a weakness. Sure, there were early success stories, like Levis and Wan’Dale Robinson, but holes in the program were not filled. They took on more water because of roster mismanagement.

Bad evaluations led to misses, but a beloved coach could withstand setbacks. The fanbase had no tolerance for it once Stoops’ attitude toward roster-building changed.

After the blowout loss to Georgia in 2023, a caller on the Mark Stoops Show got underneath the head coach’s skin when he pointed out that Stoops had only beaten two teams with winning records in the SEC.

“I can promise you, Georgia, they bought some pretty good players. You’re allowed to these days. We could use some help. That’s what they look like, when you have 85 of them,” Stoops said. “I encourage anybody who is disgruntled to pony up some more.”

Technically, he was not wrong. But it sounded like an excuse after a blowout loss from a millionaire. The excuse-making continued the following year, when he regularly complained about fundraising. For years, Stoops’ Blue-Collar approach made him “one of us.” That was thrown out the window with two words: pony up.

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Stoops Misses Texas A&M Landing Spot

Before sitting down for Thanksgiving dinner at my parents’ house in 2023, I learned from some friends in College Station that Stoops’ name was being floated around to fill the vacancy left by Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M. After shaking off the initial shock, I spent hours working phones to receive some sort of confirmation, confirmation that never came. Two days later, during College GameDay, Pete Thamel shared that Stoops is a name “expected to emerge” at Texas A&M.

Once the pregame show ended, Kentucky took the field at Louisville. It was expected to be a coronation for first-year head coach Jeff Brohm, who was on his way to the ACC Championship Game. All that was left was a rivalry win over a team that appeared to be in shambles after a devastating loss at South Carolina.

Instead, Stoops rallied the troops one more time. Ray Davis celebrated one of his three touchdowns by throwing Ls Down in Jack Harlow’s face. The Kentucky running back ended the game with a 37-yard rushing score in the final two minutes to give the Cats a 38-31 win.

It was a feel-good win over a rival ranked in the Top 10, the perfect send-off for Stoops. Even though he squashed those rumors after the game, we were prepared for a long night at the KSR compound. For a few hours, the job was Stoops’. We were ready to report that he was leaving Kentucky, until the money-men at Texas A&M revolted against AD Ross Bjork, ultimately overturning his decision. At 1 AM, Stoops said he was staying, ending a chance to leave on a high note, while simultaneously adding another strain within BBN.

Vince Marrow Leaves for Louisville

As bad as things felt at the end of the 2023 season, they were significantly worse in 2024. After missing a chance to knock off top-ranked Georgia at home, Kentucky rallied to beat Ole Miss on the road. It looked like the Cats had corrected course. Then the wheels fell off.

Kentucky’s traditionally stout defense was letting opponents run all over them. The offense couldn’t score more than two touchdowns against an SEC foe because they got stuffed at the 2-yard line in four straight games. The 4-8 season culminated with a 41-14 loss to Louisville, where you could only see red in the stands during the fourth quarter.

The humiliating loss was just an appetizer. Over the summer, Vince Marrow shocked the Commonwealth by leaving Kentucky to accept a job as Jeff Brohm’s de facto general manager at Louisville.

Coaches lose assistants to other programs all the time. This wasn’t just losing an assistant. Vince Marrow was Stoops’ right-hand man. Not only was he Kentucky’s primary recruiter and the loudest voice in the program, but Marrow and Stoops were lifelong friends who grew up together in Youngstown. And he was willing not only to leave, but to go to a rival?!?!? It was the canary in the coal mine for Stoops’ time at Kentucky.

Kentucky Mismanaged Cutter Boley

Despite it all, Stoops’ extraordinary buyout forced Mitch Barnhart to give the coach a chance to win his way back into the hearts of BBN. It would not be easy against one of the ten most difficult schedules in the country, but Kentucky had a budget equipped to build a team that could withstand the rigors of SEC play.

In the preseason, this looked like a traditional Mark Stoops team that would win with a strong running game and stout defense, led by transfer quarterback Zach Calzada, a veteran who had a big enough arm to provide some explosive plays. During fall camp, something surprising happened. Cutter Boley stole the show.

Boley was a cut above the rest during open practices, and the praise continued from coaches and teammates after exceptional scrimmages. Despite the public outpouring of support, he never got a chance to win the job by practicing with the ones.

Calzada started the season, but even before he injured his throwing shoulder in week two against Ole Miss, it was clear he wasn’t the man for the job. They handed the keys of the offense to Boley, and he was even better than expected. Meanwhile, Calzada was telling Garrett to get his money right.

Boley’s play provided a light at the end of the tunnel, a way forward for Mark Stoops. Unfortunately for Stoops, it was too little, too late to make up for his preseason talent misevaluation. Kentucky needed just one more win to return to a bowl game. They lost those final two games by a combined score of 86-17.

For 13 years, Stoops struggled to find a game-changing quarterback. He found one just as the sun set on his Kentucky tenure.