Something Mark Stoops said is worth remembering throughout this offseason
Story time.
Last week, we had Kentucky coach Mark Stoops on The Saturday Down South Podcast.
Shameless plug time.
If you haven’t listened to the entire interview yet — it starts around the 39-minute mark — I won’t be mad if you take the next 25 minutes to do that. It was great. We discussed a bunch of important things with the Kentucky coach, such as his go-to Chick-fil-A order and his favorite Kash Daniel story. We even convinced Stoops to open a bank with fellow Youngstown, Ohio, native Bo Pelini.
By the time we were ready to sign off, I had a new appreciation for Stoops and his mindset. As we wrapped things up, he added one final, rather unprompted thought about his team’s 2019 outlook.
“What kills me now … here’s the beautiful thing this year that I love. Everybody’s doubting us now because ‘oh, we lost 16 players.’ I said, ‘A year ago, you didn’t talk about any of those guys. Nobody gave us any credit a year ago,’” Stoops told us. “So who’s the new 16 guys on this team that nobody knows or cares about or doubts?”
That 16 players Stoops referred to was the 16 seniors who left the 2018 team. That didn’t include 2-time first-team All-SEC tailback Benny Snell, who declared for the NFL Draft with a year of eligibility remaining. As a result, you won’t find anyone listing Kentucky as a preseason Top 25 team following the program’s best season in 41 years (the Cats were ranked No. 12 in the final Associated Press Top 25).
But man, Stoops has a point about his team’s preseason outlook.
The loss of Snell and likely top-5 pick Josh Allen will be seen as too devastating for Kentucky to repeat what it did last year. But last year clinched the program’s third consecutive season of 7-plus wins. The other SEC teams that accomplished that are Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, LSU and Texas A&M. In fact, look at this breakdown of total wins by SEC teams in the past 3 years:
- Alabama: 41
- Georgia: 32
- LSU: 27
- Auburn: 26
- Kentucky: 24
- Texas A&M: 24
- Florida: 23
- Mississippi State: 23
- South Carolina: 22
- Missouri: 19
- Tennessee: 18
- Vanderbilt: 17
- Ole Miss: 16
- Arkansas: 13
Those numbers might surprise a few people (the fact that Alabama averaged 3 more wins per season than the second-place SEC team is insane in itself).
How many people would have had Kentucky with more wins than Florida? Or as many as Texas A&M? Or with more wins than Stoops’ favorite team to get compared to, South Carolina?
Speaking of the Gamecocks, who Stoops has beaten 5 years in a row, the comment about his team’s 2019 preseason outlook seemed an awful lot like the postgame intensity he had after winning that 2017 matchup at South Carolina:
What did Mark Stoops think of being the underdog against South Carolina? pic.twitter.com/yL7bP8vntB
— Joe Mussatto (@joe_mussatto) September 17, 2017
Stoops also said that night “everybody for months talks about South Carolina but nobody talks about us. Well, that’s how we like it.”
You know what? He’s right. After a year in which he earned SEC Coach of the Year honors for leading a team of mostly 2- and 3-star recruits to 10 wins, the narrative about Kentucky isn’t “oh, well Stoops has earned the right to be penciled in for 8 wins, no matter how much talent he has to replace.”
And it isn’t just about not having Top 20 recruiting classes to step in. Coaches like Paul Chryst and Mike Leach get that sort of unconditional preseason love without blue-chip recruits.
If we’re being honest, though, Stoops probably should be given that kind of love. Nick Saban is the only SEC coach who’s been at his school longer than Stoops, and with good reason.
Stoops seems to have found a solid model to make Kentucky at least a decent Power 5 team on a yearly basis. He finds the Ohio guys like Snell and C.J. Conrad who weren’t offered by the in-state Buckeyes. Stoops then takes the lightly-recruited defensive players like Allen and Mike Edwards and turns them into stars. Perhaps of equal importance, Stoops has continuity on his staff that few in the SEC have.
Oh, and that other thing. He and his team feast on the yearly preseason doubt.
Confession time.
I can’t sit here today and pretend that I know who’s going to replace those 16 seniors (and Snell). Stoops probably has a good idea, but I bet even he doesn’t know exactly who those guys are going to be. That’s OK. He doesn’t have to.
One last confession. Heading into last year, I predicted that Kentucky would win 5 games. Even worse, I had the Cats losing to South Carolina … as well as Florida, Mississippi State and Mizzou, all of which were bowl teams Kentucky beat.
But I also added this note at the end of my preseason projection last year:
In many ways, this is a prime opportunity for Kentucky to cash in. Half of their SEC games are against coaches entering their first years at their respective programs. Compare that to Stoops, who was spooked to realize that he’s tied for the second-longest tenured coach in the conference.
If Stoops does get back 7 wins and proves me wrong in Year 6, I think that gives him the leash to make some history. No coach has ever lasted a full decade at Kentucky. Usually, there’s a rise and a fall.
Stoops proved me and everyone else wrong. Clearly, that wasn’t lost on him.
His parting words last week won’t be lost on me.
its surprising to me that a team hasn’t made run at stoops. he has proven what he can do. would be interesting to see what he could do with a bigger football power.
A lot of the credit goes to AD Barnhart who supported Stoopes during the first couple of seasons and gave Stoops enough time to build a respectable roster and support staff
The win totals over the past 3 years are interesting. Will also be interesting to see how Kentucky follows up their historic season.
Stoops better be careful what he wishes for. South Carolina didn’t get any massive preseason hype either until preseason 2014. And look what happen after that…
Looking at the 2019 schedule I think they should win 5 to 6 games with another 2 or so as toss ups. Not bad for what should be a rebuilding year.
This upcoming team has a lot more depth than years past. Plenty of veterans to help lead this team that will hopefully fill the void left behind by last years seniors. The big question mark will be in the secondary, where we were very good last year. Obviously Snell and Allen will be tough to replace, but there are some talented guys in place that will step up. Given our schedule, this team will definitely be bowling next. anywhere between 6 and 9 wins next year. AJ rose will emerge as solid premier running back. Go cats
I would agree that the secondary is the biggest concern, followed by receivers and defensive ends (can anyone come anywhere close to putting pressure on the QB like Allen). Schedule appears favorable for al least 6, maybe 7 wins if new guys are descent. If they are better than descent or the football bounces our way, 8 or 9 is possible. With all the new guys hitting the field I’ll be content with 7 and hope for better. Go CATS!!!
agreed. With that schedule anything less than 6 would be surprising given the schedule. Im thinking 7-5 as well, with a chance for an 8th in a bowl game. a couple of toss up games on the schedule does create the potential for another great year though. We will have to see who steps up.
I know I’m gonna piss off all 7 Ky football fans with this, but last year was miracle season for the Cats. The stars just so happened to align in a certain way in the cosmos that won’t happen again for another 41 years. My had a veteran defense and a one trick offense that pulled off a big upset against a self doubting laughably deplorable Fl team, and rode that 1 trick momentum all the way up to their beat down in K-town by them Vols. Am I the only guy who thought that video of Stoops team surfing was utterly ridiculous? I hope he was wearing a cup during his embarrassing ride. There’s nothing like a 60+ year old man crowd surfing on his stomach in a small room with a bunch of sweaty 300lb dudes trying not to touch your balls.
What a moron!
Are you from Scott County where the average income is under $25,000 per year?
Oh no! I’m a moron? Man that really hurts my feelings, I hate not being able to impress a fan from the same state as Turtleman. Ask your mom what county I live in, she’s always down for some “live action”.