Memo to UK athletic director Mitch Barnhart. When you pull out the checkbook to cover Kentucky’s fine for a field-storming good time Saturday night after the 20-13 win over Florida, keep it out for another minute.

It’s time. Start the statue.

Yes, memorializing living and breathing souls is a dangerous precedent. Louisville is probably pretty glad they don’t have a Bobby Petrino monument. Urban Meyer’s latest misbehavior had to make Florida and Ohio State personnel glad that the Urb isn’t memorialized in Gainesville or Columbus. But if it all went south tomorrow (and there’s no reason to think it will), the yeoman’s work Mark Stoops has done for Kentucky football has been special. Build the statue.

Kentucky football’s lackluster history is generally defined by a couple of golden moments, the first and longest under Bear Bryant in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Bryant went 60-23-5 in Lexington, led UK to 4 bowl appearances in 5 years in an era when those weren’t handed out like door prizes, and masterminded UK’s great 11-1 squad in 1950, the one that knocked off No. 1  Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl and has an argument to be considered the national champion.

Bryant left, either because he was underappreciated or underpaid, or because he didn’t enjoy life in the shadow of Adolph Rupp. Since then, success has been more fleeting. There were a pair of golden years in 1976 and 1977, when Fran Curci led UK to an SEC title and a 10-1 season in 1977 that battles 1950 for UK’s best team ever. There were a couple of nice years in the early 1980s under Jerry Claiborne, and some highly entertaining times in the late 2000s under Rich Brooks. But success never lasted. Curci’s Cats went on probation, Brooks retired, Claiborne faded. Hal Mumme came to town in a shower of touchdown bombs and was gone 4 years later. Nobody could get it turned around and keep it turned around.

Until Mark Stoops.

It hasn’t always been glorious. The 2-10 start in 2013 with an Ohio Valley Conference type squad was followed by a quick improvement to 5-7 in 2014. But another 5-7 season in 2015 dimmed enthusiasm. And after Kentucky opened the 2016 season by blowing a massive lead to Southern Miss and then getting bombed in Gainesville 45-7, it was fair to wonder if Stoops would be another casualty of UK football. At that point, his record in Lexington was 12-26.

To make matters worse, Stoops, on his third offensive coordinator in 3 seasons, had another problem. Four-star QB Drew Barker, around whom the offense was designed, was hurt and hurt bad. Nobody knew it at the time, but backup QB Stephen Johnson, added before the 2016 season as a near-afterthought, would have to lead the offense. A true freshman running back named Benny Snell had impressed in practice and was about to see his first action. And after wandering in a football wilderness for most of the past 60 years, things were changing at Kentucky.

Since then, Stoops has gone 42-24. Kentucky has made 5 straight bowl games, and after Saturday’s win over Florida, is all but guaranteed a 6th, which will be a program record. They took down Louisville and Lamar Jackson, they won in The Swamp. They beat Penn State, Virginia Tech and NC State in consecutive bowl games. Stoops’ career 54-50 mark is breathing down the neck of Bryant’s 60 wins for UK’s all-time record. In his 9th season, Stoops is the 2nd-longest tenured coach in the SEC, trailing only Nick Saban. He already has claimed UK’s record for most home wins (37), most SEC wins (27), and most games coached (104). Beating Florida marks the 8th time Stoops has beaten an AP Top 25 foe, 1 game behind the totals of Bryant and Curci.

Building a culture on a hard-hitting defense and a ground-churning offense that is still working on adding some big-play passing attributes, Stoops has turned the SEC tide. Long regarded as one of the SEC East’s two doormats, Kentucky has won 7 of its past 8 games against South Carolina, 6 of its past 7 against Vanderbilt and Missouri, and has now split the past 4 games with Tennessee and Florida. Kentucky might not exactly be sexy in the SEC culture, but they are certainly relevant. It’s been a long time coming.

A couple of years ago, UK added a statute of 4 African-American trailblazers to their football program — Nat Northington, the first African-American player in the SEC, along with Greg Page, Houston Hogg and Wilbur Hackett. It’s a beautiful statute and a reminder that Kentucky took the initiative in integrating SEC football. It needs company.

Kentucky would do well to honor recently deceased offensive line coach John Schlarman, a ferocious player and an even better coach, gone too soon to cancer. They should honor a pair of astonishing defensive standouts who led 10-win seasons, Art Still and Josh Allen. They could honor a group of legendary quarterbacks, from Babe Parilli who led the SEC in passing twice under Bryant, to charismatic Tim Couch from tiny Hyden, Kentucky to massive talent and personality Jared Lorenzen and rifle-armed Andre Woodson. Maybe include legendary Afro-topped back Sonny Collins and Stoops’ chip-on-the-shoulder star Benny Snell. All great talents, all impactful players, all part of a history that’s more interesting than many realize.

But don’t forget the coaches.

Will all apologies to Curci, who was masterful in that late ’70s run, and Brooks, who pulled UK out of a graveyard and made them competitive in the 2000s, start with two. Start with the young coach who had only 1 year of head coaching experience and built the personality that would change the sport forever in Lexington. Don’t give him a houndstooth hat, but honor Bear Bryant. And then honor Mark Stoops. Put the ever-present coffee cup in his hand, even depict him giving an official a hundred-yard stare. But build the statue. Appreciate what you’ve got, appreciate where it came from, and appreciate a bright future that few would have been audacious enough to imagine.