Mark Stoops, in his 11th season, speaks to how rare longevity is in college football
By Keith Farner
Published:
Mark Stoops and longevity have become synonymous as the Kentucky coach enters his 11th season. He’s long been proud of being in Lexington for as long as he has, and of course last year passed Bear Bryant on UK’s all-time wins list.
Stoops is 66-50 at UK, and has had 6 seasons with at least 7 wins, including last season.
Stoops was asked on Wednesday’s SEC coaches media teleconference that he’s proud of that longevity because he knows how difficult it is to reach that point. But the work is not finished.
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“That’s a long time,” said Stoops, who added that he doesn’t have the capability to think ahead 11 years. “But it’s been a very good journey. It’s always super challenging, as you know, talking to as many different head coaches as you probably talk to with the change and the turnover and the competitive nature of our league. I feel very fortunate to be here 11 years, I think there’s been a lot of work by a lot of different people.”
Beyond the grind of SEC football, Stoops noted the extreme rarity that Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart and President Eli Capiluto have also been in Lexington for his tenure.
“I think says a lot about the stability of this place and there’s always going to be challenges and there’s always going to be ups and downs and you’ve just got to have the ability to persevere through it and adapt and change and try to put yourself in a position to be consistent and win every year,” Stoops said.
The Cats are consistently seen as an outside challenger to Georgia in the SEC East, and even Kirk Herbstreit has named UK his dark horse.
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“Listen, even though I’m proud of the work we’ve done, there’s still obviously quite a bit more to do and we all know how challenging that is to keep on climbing the ladder in this league because nobody’s interested in going backwards, everybody’s constantly pushing and pressing to get better and that’s what makes it so fun and also challenging,” he said.
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
