Mark Stoops explodes on officiating crew after questionable intentional grounding call

Mark Stoops unleashed his fury on the officials during the Kentucky-Georgia game with his team driving against No. 1 Georgia in the 4th quarter.

The Wildcats faced a 3rd-and-13 at the Georgia 20 with less than 4-and-a-half minutes left in regulation, well positioned to at least kick a field goal and make it a 1-possession game. Will Levis, though, fired a pass out of bounds with the Bulldogs’ defense bearing down on him.

However, the officials whistled Levis for an intentional grounding call, claiming that Levis was inside the tackle box as he threw the ball to unfairly evade a sack. That equaled a loss of down, the ball to be placed at the spot of the foul (at the 30, making a field goal that much tougher), and an absolutely irate Stoops:

Another epic meltdown after an awful call – this time Kentucky’s Mark Stoops. pic.twitter.com/Ud0CdrfQCc

— Andrew Perloff (@andrewperloff) November 19, 2022

Eventually, after discussion, the flag was picked up as it was ruled that a Georgia defender had tipped the ball as it sailed out of bounds, and the ball remained at the 20. But Matt Ruffalo shanked a 38-yard field goal as the Wildcats’ drive came up empty.

Kentucky did get the ball back with just over 2-and-a-half minutes remaining but saw a last-gasp attempt go for naught, and Georgia escaped to improve to 11-0.

Sydney Hunte

Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.