Kentucky Wildcats

Kentucky Football: Is Kentucky Any Better With Mark Stoops?

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Is the Kentucky football program any better with Mark Stoops as head coach? Is it any easier to sit down and watch the Wildcats play?

Could the college football season have started any worse for Kentucky football and head coach Mark Stoops?

If you want to count the fact that the ‘Cats didn’t get blown out by Southern Mississippi, then you are clearly a fan who thinks with the glass half full. After watching the Florida Gators death roll all over your optimism, I’d say that glass was thrown against a wall and shattered.

While I picked up the pieces of my shattered glass, I begged the question: Is Kentucky football really any better with Mark Stoops as head coach?

Searching for the positives, I can only point to one major improvement. On the recruiting trail, Kentucky has enjoyed some successes in keeping the best in-state talent from going elsewhere.

Ryan Timmons (Florida/Ohio State), Matt Elam (Alabama/Ohio State), Landon Young (Alabama/Ohio State), and Drew Barker (South Carolina/Tennessee) come to mind as guys who had other high major offers and elected to play for Stoops and Kentucky instead.

Despite being able to put better talent on the field than former head coach Joker Phillips, Stoops currently has one less win. Phillips also led Kentucky to a six-win season, while Stoops has yet to win more than five.

Phillips led Kentucky to a bowl game in 2010 and defeated Louisville, Ole Miss and Tennessee during his three-year tenure. Stoops has yet to accomplish any of those feats in his three years.

Stoops’ coaching staff has also suffered. In 2013, Kentucky fans were promised an explosive offense known as the “Air Raid” with then offensive coordinator Neal Brown. After year two, Brown bolted for a head coaching gig at Troy.

Insert, then extract, Shannon Dawson in 2015.

Now, Stoops needs two offensive coordinators in Darin Hinshaw and Eddie Gran. Add the departures of Bradley Dale Peveto, Craig Naivar (Special Teams), Andy Buh (Outside Linebackers), Derrick Ansley (Defensive Backs), Chad Scott (Running Backs), Tommy Mainord (Wide Receivers), and Erik Korem (Strength/Conditioning) to the list of changes.

As awful as Kentucky has been on the defensive side of the ball, two of the longest tenured coaches on the staff are on defense. D.J. Eliot (Defensive Coordinator/Inside Linebackers) and Jimmy Brumbaugh (Defensive Line) have been with Stoops for all three years. Eliot and Brumbaugh even changed Kentucky’s defensive scheme from a 4-3 to a 3-4 after the 2014 season.

Yet, Kentucky still gives up 89 points in their first two games.

This season, I’ve only seen regression from a program that promises me a better product on the football field. A promise that is made to me as a loyal Kentucky fan–a fan who is filled full of hope every year that the ‘Cats can finally turn the corner.

Mark Stoops has helped give me some shiny new facilities and some Kentucky talent to root for, but I continue to watch my team dwell in the cellar of college football mediocrity.

In case you were wondering, the current buy-out clause in Mark Stoops’ contract gives the University of Kentucky 12 million reasons to keep him around for a while longer.

Basketball season begins in one month.