There’s been speculation in recent weeks about Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops potentially stepping away from the Wildcats program following the end of the 2024 season. Stoops older brother Bob retired from coaching at the age of 56 and Mark is now 57. And after all, Stoops reportedly was heading to Texas A&M last offseason before the Aggies decided to go in another direction.
But asked about the possibility of giving up his post as Kentucky’s head football coach on Monday, Stoops emphatically denied its possibility.
“Zero percent chance I do that,” Stoops stated.
It’s been an incredibly disappointing season for Kentucky with the Wildcats entering their Saturday matchup against Murray State boasting a 3-6 (1-6 SEC) record. Barring a surprising 3-0 close to the season with wins over Texas and Louisville, Kentucky is going to fail to make a bowl game for the first time since 2015.
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Kentucky failed to make a bowl game in Stoops’ first three seasons as head coach but had earned eight straight bowl appearances before this season including 9-3 regular seasons in both 2018 and 2021. The streak of making a bowl game in eight straight seasons is the longest in program history.
But this season isn’t the first sign of decline for Kentucky football in recent seasons. After going 10-3 in 2021, Kentucky went 7-6 each of the last two seasons. Stoops has been a 7-5 merchant in his time at Kentucky, posting the record in the regular season five of his 12 seasons as head coach.
While Stoops has done better at Kentucky than any coach not named Bear Bryant, he’s still had very little success against Tennessee. The defensive minded coach is just 2-11 against Tennessee during his Kentucky tenure with his only victories coming in 2017 and 2020 in the final seasons of Butch Jones and Jeremy Pruitt’s tenures.
Tennessee knocked off Kentucky two week ago at Neyland Stadium, surviving a scare to beat the Wildcats 28-18. Josh Heupel improved to 4-0 against Kentucky during his Tennessee tenure with the win.
