Mark Stoops and the Kentucky Wildcats are gearing up for another season in Lexington after an incredibly disappointing 2024-25 year.
The Cats finished the season with a 4-8 record, the worst season since Mark Stoops took over in 2013.
With that being said, Kentucky fans thought Stoops might be heading out, but he is back for another season and is on the hot seat… Right?
“Stoops is one of the best coaches in UK’s 100-plus seasons of college football,” Bruce Feldman wrote for The Athletic. “The Wildcats have had only four 10-win seasons, and he’s responsible for two of them. Last year was the first season since 2015 in which the Wildcats didn’t make a bowl game, as they went 4-8 and 1-7 in conference play.”
One of the biggest issues the Cats have faced over the past few years is finding consistent play on the offensive side of the football.
“Getting the offense right has been his biggest challenge here. The optics of losing top recruiter Vince Marrow to archrival Louisville aren’t great, but Kentucky fans hopefully haven’t forgotten how tough this job is or that they hadn’t had even one Top 25 finish in the 28 years before he arrived. On top of that, his buyout is enormous at close to $40 million,” Feldman wrote.
Feldman continued with this Stoops situation, discussing how hard and how expensive it will become for the Cats to move on from Stoops, so the Kentucky Athletics are hoping for a bounce-back season now more than ever.
Will Stoops get the program back on track this season? We shall see.