What Kentucky football’s Mark Stoops should have said on his radio show this week

You know it has been an unusual week when Mark Stoops has to take time during his appearance on the SEC football coaches weekly teleconference to proclaim that he still likes Kentucky fans.

“I love our fans, whether they give one cent, one dollar or a lot of money. It doesn’t matter. I love our fan base,” Stoops said Wednesday.

Kentucky football’s all-time coaching wins leader felt compelled to emphasize his affection for the Big Blue Nation after remarks Stoops made during his weekly radio show Monday night.

After being assailed by a caller with an obscure stat that was essentially a complaint about Stoops failing to get UK over the hump against the SEC’s best teams, the Kentucky head man took responsibility for the Wildcats’ dismal performance in last Saturday’s 51-13 loss to No. 1 Georgia.

However, Stoops then added “Fans have that right (to complain). I give it to them. I just encourage them to donate more, because that’s what those dudes are doing. I can promise you Georgia, they bought some pretty good players. You’re allowed to these days. We could use some help.”

Mark Stoops said what? Listen to UK football coach’s controversial comments about NIL.

Boom. In one paragraph, Stoops created a national kerfuffle both about how Georgia recruits as well as the overall landscape of college football in the name, image and likeness era. Stoops also ginned up an in-state imbroglio over what obligation Cats fans should feel, if any, to financially support recruiting collectives affiliated with UK football.

Let’s walk through the issues Stoops raised and offer helpful suggestions, where necessary, on what he might have said instead.

1). Georgia. When asked in Athens about Stoops’ remarks, Georgia coach Kirby Smart said he took no offense. Why would he? A rival SEC coach just vouched for the potency of the Bulldogs’ NIL program. You can’t get much better free advertising than that.

2.) The NIL landscape. Clearly, an SEC head coach speaking publicly about the role that money plays in high-level recruiting still packs some shock value.

It shouldn’t.

Notwithstanding the NCAA’s many decades of “amateurism” propaganda, there’s not one thing wrong with the players — who are the entertainers in a multi-billion-dollars entertainment industry — reaping some of the financial rewards from their endeavors.

While the rules need to be uniform across all states, if the players are able to claim some of that bounty when they have leverage as recruitable prospects, who does that hurt?

3.) Kentucky fans. If they offered a course in “The Public Relations of College Football Coaching 101,” one of the first strictures would be “Don’t call out your fan base immediately after losing a big game.”

That’s where Stoops went wrong on his radio show.

His remarks came in response to a caller, “Jason in Louisville,” who was belittling the turnaround of UK’s football fortunes under Stoops by pointing out, accurately, that Kentucky has only two wins over SEC teams who finished with winning league records.

Left unsaid was that UK under Stoops has six wins over SEC teams that went on to finish 4-4 in the league — and would have had winning conference marks had they not lost to Kentucky.

Regardless, one doesn’t need inconsequential stats to illustrate that Kentucky has not yet been able to pierce the SEC’s elite tier. Just citing UK’s records under Stoops against Georgia, 0-11, and Alabama, 0-3, tells you that.

What Stoops could have pointed out is that, over his tenure, Kentucky’s record has improved against every single team UK plays every year except for one:

Florida: Kentucky lost 31 straight from 1987 through 2017. The Cats have now won three straight and four of six.

Louisville: UK lost five straight from 2011 through 2015. The Wildcats have since won four straight and five of six.

Mississippi State: The Cats lost seven straight from 2009 through 2015. Kentucky has subsequently gone 4-4 vs. the Bulldogs.

Missouri: UK lost three straight from 2012 through 2014. Going into Saturday night’s matchup with Eli Drinkwitz’s Tigers, Kentucky has won seven of eight.

South Carolina: UK lost 10 straight (2000 through 2010) and 13 of 14 (2000 through 2013). Kentucky has since won seven of nine.

Tennessee: UK lost 31 of 32 from 1985 through 2016. Kentucky has subsequently gone 2-4.

Vanderbilt: Kentucky lost three straight from 2011 through 2013. The Cats have since won eight of 10.

Only against Georgia — against whom Kentucky has lost 14 straight — has UK failed to show progress under Stoops.

So, when assailed on his radio show for failing to beat a team that is 35-1 overall since the start of the 2021 season, what Stoops should have said is:

“We have gotten over many humps to get to the point where we have played Georgia for the SEC East lead three times in the past six seasons. The next hump to get over is going to be the hardest, and that’s just the truth. That’s why, right after our next big win, I’ll be happy to share with you how you can help us try to get where we all want to go — if you want to.”

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