2025-12-01- KSR - Hour 1

Matt, Ryan, Drew, and Shannon talk Mark Stoops being fired and look back on his coaching career at Kentucky.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:26):
Com co off Broway.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
This is Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage. Now
here's Matt Jones.

Speaker 4 (00:36):
Welcome everyone, Kentucky Sports Radio. Monday, December one, historic day
in the University of Kentucky Athletics. You can give a
shout at Clark's Puppy Shop phone line eight five nine
two eight oh twenty two eighty seven. A Vision Auto
Glass text machine is seven seven two seven seven four
five two five four. This stition sponsored by the T. J.
Smithlaw Office called TJ He'll make them pay After a

(01:00):
memorable weekend including an embarrassing, embarrassing loss to Louisville on
the Road. Mark Stoops is no longer the head coach
at Kentucky. A result that would have seemed shocking even
two weeks ago has now taken place where with Ryan
Lemon Drew Franklin. So here's what I'm gonna do today.
I think this is the way to go. I think

(01:23):
we're gonna spend the first hour talking about sort of
the end of the Mark Stoops era, Okay, what happened,
how it took place, etc. And then the second hour
going all right, what's next, because I think that's the
way to go. Yep, I want to end this first
hour given Mark Stoops kind of some flowers, but let's

(01:43):
just talk a little bit of news here for a second.
What happened? Kentucky gets destroyed forty one to nothing. Ryan,
you and I were talking inside on our way walking in.
Do you think he gets fired if that game's close.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
No, I think they could even lose that game. But
if it's close, they chose some fight. He is our
coach today.

Speaker 4 (02:01):
You agree with that plea degree?

Speaker 5 (02:03):
Maybe if it just shows fighting either one of the
last two weeks, I think he's here.

Speaker 4 (02:06):
I agree. I think what is amazing is that this
and I mean I can say this with some certainty.
They went in to the Vandy game and everybody had
just said, I think we're good.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah, they're five and five.

Speaker 4 (02:21):
You know, we were going to hit that purgatory of
five and seven that I had talked about, but the
thirty seven million dollars was probably gonna save you. Yep.
And then they just couldn't have foreseen not just two blowouts,
but to quit because the team quit. I mean, you know,
the team quit, and then a series of events proceed

(02:45):
took place that were somewhat shocking. I mean, even as
they walked off the field, it started to think to me,
I started thinking, I talked about this in the postgame show.
I was walking around downtown going, I've got to say,
they need to replace him, but I kind of don't
think they're going to. And so I'm gonna have this
situation where I've called for his job, and then I'm

(03:05):
gonna have to see it like covering Yah. But I
was like, I still have to do it. But then
I started to hear that night a lot of people
talking about there's folks who just think it's time. And
I think one of the stories about Mark Going is
this is the rise of kind of a new generation

(03:26):
of decision making a UK that we haven't seen. Most
decisions in the last ten or fifteen years have been
mentioning Ei Capoluto right. Other people have chimed in, but
they did what they wanted to do. And I think
in this one, if it was just Mitching Capaluto, I
think he might still be the coach. But there's kind

(03:46):
of a new decision making body which includes this Board
of seven, includes the Board of Trustees who's always existed.
But I think some of those people kind of were like,
all right, got to make a move, and Mitch and
Capoluto were like, oh and stoops at that point. I'm
not saying Mitch and Capoluto wanted to fight for him,

(04:08):
but I think they were a little taken aback, and
then the discussions happened, and next thing you know, we
end up where we are. So Ryan. What's interesting is
the people who I think were the biggest part of
Kentucky Athletics decision making, Mitch Barnhard, you like Cappeluto, even
to some extent donors, the crafts, et cetera. I think

(04:28):
all of those people were not really what drove this.
I think it was a different group of folks who
kind of said we have to make a change, and.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
I guess to Mitch and Eli's the credit. They listened,
you know, they listened, and I think it came to
the point where, you know, we like Mark Stoops, he's
the best coach of our lifetimes, but the program needed
to change. A breath of fresh air. I think that's
what it came down to. And I'm finally convinced Mitch
and Eli, who's going to line up for season tickets
next year? They ran his back? Who's going to line

(04:58):
up to donate Innil money next year? If they ran
his back, I think they finally convinced him to the
better of the program, a change had to be made.

Speaker 4 (05:05):
It just had to happen. I think you got to
the point that, like I said on the postgame show,
it's just over. And I think there became a realization
in the athletic department, you know what, it's just over.

Speaker 5 (05:18):
There were some people maybe even still on the fence
the last two weeks, but when you lose like that
in those two games, with so much on the line,
you're playing for bo eligibility and Stoops's job really those
last two weeks and to get shut out against Louisville
and quit. And a lot of people try to downplay
Auburn because in Florida, because their coaches were out, teams
weren't good. I wouldn't listen to that. Auburn and Florida,

(05:39):
those are big wins. Louisville truly had a JV roster
out there that was kicking your tail. Not to take
away from the kid from Ashland that won the award,
but a true freshman walk on should not be running
it down your throat and you're thirteen as a head coach,
as an SEC school.

Speaker 4 (05:53):
And that was probably part of it too. It wasn't
Louisville the way Louisville was when they beat Miami, right right.
This was a Louisville team that was playing a guy
who last year was running against high schools. They were
supposed to be the team to quit. Yeah, they and
I and and maybe there's a world where they would have,
But we did it first, you know, So then the

(06:14):
process get started. And Sunday, I think UK basically was
meeting all day. You knew, you said, you knew something
was up when he didn't. When Mitch didn't show up
to the volleyball.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
When I saw your tweet they said Mitch was not
at the volleyball selection show. That told me, right there,
something's going down. That's a too important event because me are.

Speaker 4 (06:33):
Invited to that. Yeah, right right, so media invited to that,
and he didn't want to be there, you know, he
didn't want somebody to go, what's I mean, I was
gonna have to call Phoenix Stevens and go, Phoenix, go
up to I mean like, I mean, we were gonna
have and like. So he didn't want to be there,
So that was a that was a sign. But they
they started meeting, uh, eli Cappeluto. I think calls went

(06:54):
on all day and then Elik Putcapoluto and Mitch started meeting.
I think late afternoon. It went into I don't think
it ended until a few minutes before that story broke
last night. So you're talking about a five hour meeting.
First was trying to convince whether or not they were
going to do it, and I think they went into
that meeting not sure, but slowly it became Okay, we're

(07:15):
going to do this. But then it was how do
we get the money. I think it had been made
clear that the donors weren't paying for this one, right,
that's the problem. The donors are not paying for this one.
So then it became okay, how do you raise this
money in a very short turnaround. The university is allowed
to loan money to the athletics department, but you can't

(07:37):
just do that overnight. There has to be as a process,
It has to be approved. They also knew a Board
of trustees meeting was today, so I think there was
a long talk about how how do we get this
money if we're going to do it, and they talked
to mitche ex me, to Mark's agent, to all these people,

(07:58):
and then, in what I think needs to be celebrated, genuinely,
Stoops agreed to take the money. Over a period of
years now, we have not heard that he agreed to
take more money. I kind of think he probably I
don't know if he did or not, but he still
agreed to do that, and Drew he didn't have to

(08:19):
do that. Brian Kelly didn't do that at LSU, and
he did, and to me, I think that's a big
step in him preserving his legacy here. I agree.

Speaker 5 (08:30):
And even before he did it, I wrote on our
website and I've said on the show many times, I
wouldn't have done it. You sat down at the table
with me, we signed the same sheet of paper. I'm
not budgeting because you didn't like the deal you gave
me on down the road. So I think it took
a lot for Stoops to be able to do that,
because he had every right to sit there and say, no,
this was our agreement, this is how it's going to
play out. And I think a lot of people listening

(08:51):
would have been the same way.

Speaker 4 (08:52):
Do you agree that I wrote on social media? This
could allow Mark to have a Tubby Askue future with
the fan base where when he gets over you know
it took Tubby a few years to get it did,
when he gets over it, he can come back and
be beloved here. He could even live here if he wanted.
I'm not saying he'd want to, but that kind of
thing and for.

Speaker 2 (09:13):
Me, also completely changed my attitude about Mark Stoops. The
fact that he decided to spread that out over a
number of years shows that he's doing us and Olive
Branch and we're gonna maybe walk off in sunset holding
hands a little bit, and.

Speaker 4 (09:25):
That different or extended. You don't throw the Olive brand.
I think he threw it.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
It was so important he picked it up and threw
it all right.

Speaker 5 (09:36):
I think he saw we all saw it. I don't
remember the exact game, but this season they had the homecoming,
one of the last home games whatever. Rich Brooks was
getting the whole treatment. I mean, he was being paraded
around all week. Former players are there. He's getting hugs
at every turn. I wonder if Stoop saw a little
bit bit of that and thought, hey, I kind of
want that one.

Speaker 4 (09:53):
It's my turn. Do you think Mark gets that.

Speaker 2 (09:55):
I think he does now. Like you said, it may
take a couple of years, but I think he's the
best coach of our lifetimes.

Speaker 4 (10:01):
Yes, you know. Well, And I want to talk about
that in a little bit because I do think that's
worth noting because but do you think Mitch wanted to
do it?

Speaker 2 (10:12):
I think going into that Louisville game, Mitch did not
want to fire him. I think was after the Louisville game,
it became just evidently clear he had to fire. I
don't know if he wanted to, but he had to.

Speaker 4 (10:21):
Yeah, I don't think he wanted to. But I also
think I will say I think he knew again he's
in an isolated bubble. Only a few people get to him,
and I think what changed is some of these people
that were in his bubble actually got to him.

Speaker 6 (10:35):
You know.

Speaker 4 (10:36):
It's one of those things. When I did that postgame show,
I knew, Okay, this UK will hear this and then,
but they can always just write off us is like
haters exactly, ok as are but that's then one step
of fans yelling at the Louisville game. Okay, I think

(10:57):
there were a couple of important people at the louis
game that said something to Mitch there and then it
kind of snowballed and all of a sudden he was like, WHOA,
you know I didn't and then I think he rose
he had to do it.

Speaker 5 (11:10):
Yeah, And there's been Cali Perry comparisons the last couple
of years, which I get, but I've always said it
will never be the same because of how the sports
are lined up. Cal had a if there's a tournament
format where you can lose in the first round, football
just doesn't present that. So it's gonna be harder to
make a call because you have your SEC games and
your cupcakes and a bowl game. You gotta make a
decision of what was good and what wasn't With a
small sample sign yes, and that just the nature of

(11:32):
the sports doesn't give you That moment that we had
with cal was obvious. But then Luvis in forty one
to Louisville, that was Oakland, It really was, It wasn't.
That was Oakland, Saint Peter's everyone there, Everyone at home
looked drownds like, we cannot run this back.

Speaker 4 (11:44):
Yeah, But then I was thinking about how after the
Oakland game you could just tell everybody knew we can't
do this. But then they brought him back. He ended
up getting we ended up getting bailed out, but they
were going to bring him back. So I was wondering,
are we just gonna have this? They sit there on
on BBN tonight and and and smile because unlike cow

(12:05):
they didn't hate each other. Stoops and Barnart like each other.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
Remember that show we had after they had they did
that TV show We're all thinking about fans were not
gonna get behind this. We were almost had that same
conversation today.

Speaker 4 (12:17):
Oh, this would have been the same com Saturday was terrible. Yeah,
so they do it.

Speaker 2 (12:24):
It's kind of sad really to me?

Speaker 4 (12:27):
Is it sad?

Speaker 2 (12:27):
It is a little bit the fact that he was
you know, he was my coach, and they had the
best coach I've ever seen been around. Good guy. You
were about the same age. He had great success here.
It kind of sad to see it.

Speaker 4 (12:39):
By the way, I think people need to know. If
they didn't listen to the end of the postgame show,
mister I'm keeping him no matter what. You at the
end of the postgame show called in and said, you
flipped based on Saturday. I mean literally, it might be
people like you flipping. That was the difference.

Speaker 2 (12:55):
I told the story that, you know, my dad was
a coach and he got fired one time. So I
fully admit my lease is probably longer than most people's leashes.
I'm willing to give the coach a little extra benefit
of the doubt. But at the end of the Loville game,
it was just plain obvious for the betterment of the program,
you had to make a change. So I did flip.

Speaker 4 (13:13):
I had a conversation with somebody last night, drew somebody
who was, let's say, on the fence towards leaning towards
wanting him to stay that is involved in some of
this stuff, And I said to him and they were like,
this just doesn't feel right. And they said in a

(13:33):
nice way, but they were like, you have always he's
liked you, and you like him. And I said, you know,
I do like him, and he has been good to me,
But the ultimate thing is not about me, and it's
not about if he's nice to like. Ultimately, you hold

(13:55):
a responsibility to an institution and it's not about it's
almost not about personal relationships. It's about can you succeed?
And we didn't think going forward he could succeed. Right.

Speaker 5 (14:11):
Yeah, the records too damning. I mean, my mother could
be the coach UK football if she lost eleven straight
home games. I'll be like, Mom's time to get home.
We did a great job. I still love you, but wo,
Kentucky football needs to win games. Voting'll be like three
and fifteen against Power four teams in the last couple
of years. I mean, no one, even people that wanted
to keep him, cannot make a case for a reason
have optimism. Optimism with I can't talk today moving forward.

(14:35):
So yes, I like Stoops too. I wish him the best.
I'm not really sad like ron Is and he didn't die.
I mean he's he's gonna be all right. It's a
good run. I'm not taking joy that it's over, but
Kentucky's gotta win football games, and he wasn't getting it done.

Speaker 7 (14:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (14:45):
I don't really think sad's not the word to me.
I actually am kind of relieved because I think it
needed to happen, and it happened. It's like it's like
a couple got divorced at the perfect time where they
can still spin their kids birthdays together without hating each other, right,
Like they can still go to graduation and your child

(15:06):
doesn't have to go to two different parts. I think
they broke up. We broke up at the exact right time.

Speaker 2 (15:12):
Do you feel the way you feel is because Stoops
gave him that extension on the back.

Speaker 4 (15:17):
I think I would have felt that way either way,
would you? But I feel more like that because he
did that, Because I think if Stoops hadn't done that,
then I think it says he's walking away bitter angry.
He clearly has to have walked away with some goodwill
to have done this. Huh, Right, So I think that's good.

Speaker 8 (15:33):
Eight.

Speaker 4 (15:33):
I'm nine two eight twenty two eighty seve. We're gonna
open up phones a little bit. I want to talk
about kind of Stoop's time here, and again second hour
we'll talk about who's next. This is KSR. Welcome back
Kentucky Sports Radio. All right, so let's talk just second
about Stoops's Stoops's time here. I think it's important to
say I think he's the best coach. He's certainly the
best coach in my lifetime. I think he's probably the

(15:54):
best coach Kentucky's ever had. He took Kentucky at his
lowest point when they were two and ten, and he
up through about two years ago had an amazing run
of six Yes, he did really ten win seasons. I
never thought i'd see that, being able to recruit top talent.
I'd never thought i'd see that. He put more people

(16:14):
in the NFL in his ten years than the thirty
five years prior, combined, combined, combined. There were times he
put I think if you look at the most players
drafted in the NFL draft from Kentucky in a seven
round format, because I think they used to have like
a thirty round format, but if it was a seven
round format, players drafted he has like four of the

(16:37):
top five most times Kentucky players have gotten drafted, okay,
I mean it's just crazy. And these are not just
dudes in the NFL. These are dudes that really play
and are good, okay, including Josh Allen, one of the
best players in the league. So and we have amazing wins, right,
we have New Year's Day Bowls back when that meant something.

(16:59):
And he also, you know, Daniel Hager put out the
video of the best Stoops moments and I was sitting
there's just a lot of great moments. I mean, there's
just a lot of great times where it was fun
to be a Kentucky football fan. I don't like how
it ended at all, but he leaves this program is
a lot more attractive as a job now than it

(17:21):
was when he got here. This was one of the
worst jobs in the country when he got here, and
I don't think that's true now. And it's been frustrating
the last couple of years. But he's also I think
a good guy, a flawed person, but a good person
who I'm very happy Drew was the football coach for

(17:45):
this amount of time.

Speaker 5 (17:46):
Definitely, the last few years were disappointing and that's how
it got to this point. But That's not how I
would remember Mark Stoops for ten years now, five years
from now. Heck, maybe next month when you're asking me
about Sooops time here, I'm gonna be talking about punching
the ceiling out at Missouri. Yep, I'm gonna be talking
about the Louisville game when Lamar fumbled, not just the
Lamar fumble that pregame locker room video. I watched it

(18:06):
again last night. It's one of my favorite Stoops things. Ever.
He gets on the chair to talk and the whole
team is like wrapping meek Mill and he just gets
off the chair and walks out silently, and they follow
him and they go and beat Loulvill's twenty six and
a half point hundred ducks. That's all the stuff I'll
think about with Mark Soops. I'll forget that they lost
forty one to nothing. I will think finally of his time,
even though that time needed to end.

Speaker 4 (18:24):
Yeah, we don't think about Tubby's last two or three
years where they lost in the second round, the Connecticut
and Kansas. We think about the good moments, right. We
think about ninety eight, We think about ninety nine, We
think about the three team that was so good. We
don't think about the end. I think that'll be like
that with this too.

Speaker 2 (18:39):
I think he totally changed the culture of UK football.
Like you said, during the Joker years, we were laughingstock.
He brought it back to a tough when you play
Kentucky you were hurting the next day, Tough guys that
hit you, not afraid to bring it, compete in the SEC,
win SEC games. He just did a lot of things
I think most fans didn't think could be done here

(19:00):
did it on a continuous, continually based some new.

Speaker 5 (19:02):
Dad is biggest I meant to work this in. I
thought I was gonna die in eighty year old man.
Never see his beat Florida. Total Not only did he
beat Florida, we kind of had their number the last
five six years.

Speaker 4 (19:11):
And that's kind of we have. That's his biggest win,
that win in the swamp YEP where we ended it
with the you know, the Johnson catch and the game
that that was it. Stephen Johnson played or Terry Wilson.
I can't remember who was the quarterback then. But let's
let's just talk about some of the really good stoops
moments for a minute. You mentioned the Lamar fumble that

(19:31):
Louisville game I think is way up here.

Speaker 5 (19:33):
That was honestly one of my favorite UK moments. I know,
we're all basketball Final four is National Championships. That game
is right up there with any I think the Tennessee
win with John Schlarman in the locker room is one.

Speaker 4 (19:44):
Yes, it was is one. I definitely think about the
Austin McGinnis kick against Mississippi State that ensures our first
bowling forever, right, I mean that's the loudest maybe Commonwealth
Stadium has ever been. The Bud Dupree interception against uh again,
South Carolina. I mean that that may be the loudest
that stadium has ever gotten ever. You talk about the

(20:07):
Lynn Boden years, Yes, creating an offense out of a
dude that doesn't even play quarterback and guys and that
he just can't be stopped. Right, Benny Snell followed by
Chris Rodriguez followed by Ray Davis will never have a
better seven years of running backs than that.

Speaker 6 (20:25):
Right.

Speaker 4 (20:25):
The Penn State Bowl Game where we go and win,
including a Lynn Bowden punk return. I mean that that
Penn State Bowl game is kind of the best of
a Mark Stoops team. You have a Josh Allen superstar,
you have a crazy good athlete. You have you break
the rushing record in that game. You break the rushing
record in that game. And then you have a quarterback
and Terry Wilson, who kind of embodies Stoops is like,

(20:49):
what's he doing out there? And it's working in an
offensive line that dominates.

Speaker 5 (20:53):
And in that game, I'll for remember this when he
walked out and yelled, bring it on to James Franklin
five minutes into the Game's I knew it.

Speaker 4 (21:00):
Wait a minute. We are an actual trashed to Franklin.
Even last year winning that old miss a game that
no one thought we had any business winning, and we
won like those and we you know, Louisville beat us Saturday.
It's first time they beat us there since twenty fourteen. Yeah,
which kind of is an amazing thing.

Speaker 2 (21:21):
When he beat him at our place and everybody stormed
the field. We beat Florida Final for the first time
at home, went an sec home win.

Speaker 4 (21:26):
Trevin Wallace running back that block kick against Florida that time,
right when we beat LSU the year at home, which
was a mad house of a win. Yep, with I
think basically got Orderer on fire. Think about how many
coaches he's gotten fired over the years. It's a big graveyard,
including two of them.

Speaker 2 (21:42):
Mission you know, he beat Louisville five times in a
row until the last two years.

Speaker 5 (21:48):
Yes, and think about God just where they'd fire their
coach after they played Katucky.

Speaker 4 (21:52):
I mean, think about how many dudes he's gotten fired
over the years he made I mean, I'm sure there
are others, but those all kind of come to my mind. Oh,
first time they won a road game at South Carolina,
Remember when they stopped the two point conversion and ran
it back Denzel where? I think, did that? The Chris
Westy game? The Chris what exactly? They're just a lot

(22:12):
that Joe Joe camp against South Carolina, just running it
over and over and over and over at the Wildcat
and they can't stop them.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
I'm glad we're giving him these flowers and last.

Speaker 4 (22:20):
Time here Will Levis, who had an awesome two years.

Speaker 2 (22:25):
He deserves the moment to get his flowers. I'm glad
we're giving him this moment here, even though we were
saying goodbye today. He is he he is a guy
that it's gonna be tough to replace. What he did
here on personal note too. When he would come on
this show, he was a different person. He was fun
like I looked forward to those interviews because you know,
when we get him in a press conference, back to work,
back to work. But it was always fun talking to
him on here. He'd let loose.

Speaker 4 (22:45):
Yep, all right, we'll open up the phones. What do
you think about the stoops air? And we'll talk about
the rest of it after and the decision to fire
him A five nine, two eighty seven channel. Open it
up right for this. TJ Smith, personal injury attorney called TJ.
He'll make them.

Speaker 3 (23:00):
Hey, now more of Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage.

Speaker 4 (23:04):
Here's Matt Jones. Welcome back, Tukey Sports Radio. Text machine
seven seven two seven seven four five two five four.
Before I go to it, Chin, you haven't gotten to
say anything. What were your thoughts on this?

Speaker 3 (23:13):
Well, I mean, the good thing is losing a combined
eighty six to seventeen in your last two games of
the year makes it obvious what you need to do.
I think the worst case scenario would have been going
five and seven and then being competitive in those two
games and really not knowing what to do in dividing
the fan base. So if you're looking for a silver lining,
getting beat forty one to nothing at Lovell made it
clear there had to be a change.

Speaker 4 (23:32):
Yeah, we might have to thank Louisville for that. Yeah,
I mean I didn't want it to happen, but since
it did, You're right, I think it made it easier.
One person says, Matt, do you think Mark Soups knew
it was coming?

Speaker 6 (23:43):
No?

Speaker 4 (23:44):
I mean I think he knew yesterday. But when he
got up in the press conference said there's a zero
point zero percent chance I'm leaving, I don't think he
thought it. And then I wonder what happened between that
and when he talked to Tom. Did you notice the
difference in the language. Absolutely, he said I have bosses.
He said, well, there's chance I'm leaving, but I do

(24:05):
have bosses. And it was like, I don't know if
somebody said something or on his walk from the from
the press conference to talking to Tom, he was like, well,
wait a minute, I guess it's not my only choice.

Speaker 5 (24:21):
It makes you wondering how some people to just give
you a little cold shoulder, you know, like wait a minute,
comes and talks to me after the game and he's
not here.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
Stoops also backed off the cutter bully comments. He screwed
that up, Yeah he did.

Speaker 3 (24:36):
He screwed up the uncomfortable laugh too. When he was
asked about it in the press conference, you know, he.

Speaker 2 (24:42):
Was like, zero percent chance, I'll leave it.

Speaker 4 (24:44):
I'm getting all that money. Yeah, it wasn't just the
zero percent for me either.

Speaker 5 (24:51):
He had a moment to kind of explain the loss
and give him a chance to inject some incitement moving forward.

Speaker 4 (24:55):
And he was like, well, you know me, we're going
back to work. And I was like, well that's your problem.
His keep saying going back to work. Everybody said, do
you have a message, and his message was just like,
well keep working.

Speaker 5 (25:07):
Like he's like he kind of had a chance there
to maybe win a few people over here.

Speaker 4 (25:11):
It's like you're like standing there on the final battle
field before you're taking on the enemy, and you've lost
the last battle and you're like, all right, guys, let's
battle and you're like, no, we want to be we
want to be pumped up.

Speaker 2 (25:24):
And his solution was he's gonna go get ju junior
college players, which which is not gonna be a good idea.
I don't think that's a good idea, so uh yeah, it.

Speaker 4 (25:32):
Ended up actually kind of working out. By the way,
UK just put out a graphic that was very nice saying,
we think thank you for all you've done, Mark Stude,
like they're clearly trying to make this a positive transition.

Speaker 2 (25:44):
I think you're right. After a couple of years, you
can bring him back, introduce him at the stadium. We'll
give him a great round of applause. And that's not
gonna happen next year, but maybe in a couple of
years down the road.

Speaker 4 (25:52):
I think we will. All right, let's go through here
real quick. Let's doing good, gentlemen.

Speaker 6 (25:58):
I'm doing good with sure it's doing better, but uh
I called in right before the Auburny of the Florida
game and I was a all right, doing good.

Speaker 4 (26:09):
We gotta you gotta be more into it, and you
gotta get like we can't just be sad.

Speaker 6 (26:14):
Go sorry, I'm a bit sick today. Anyway. I love
having Mark Soups as the coach. He's been my favorite
coach of my lifetime. And I go back to Kersey
that I can remember in place. But I love the
University of Kentucky Moore after that lost to Louisville, I
think it was obvious we needed to go a different direction.
I was not looking forward to next year. You guys

(26:37):
touched on it, but I think he did probably the
classiest move that I don't think I would have done
in that situation was letting us do a buy out
over a certain amount of time that did not cripple
the university going forward. So I hope as we look
back on this time that we are very grateful.

Speaker 4 (26:55):
So, yeah, I appreciate the call he did. You know,
think about how Lane Kiffin left. Blane Kiffin left with
people standing at the airport flipping him off. Yeah, that
was wild. Not a couple of people. I mean, let's
just say that the Lane kiffaninie was wild.

Speaker 2 (27:14):
Should we expect anything less from that guy?

Speaker 4 (27:16):
I mean, well, they just did a documentary about what
a good duty was changed.

Speaker 5 (27:21):
Oxford had changed his lof his daughter made a PowerPoint
to convince him to stay.

Speaker 4 (27:24):
Remember, I mean that was crazy.

Speaker 3 (27:28):
Putting his clothes out in the streets the.

Speaker 2 (27:33):
Kind of applaud that I like it.

Speaker 4 (27:35):
You know, you can get out of here.

Speaker 3 (27:37):
Yeah, it's over. They put his clothes in the street,
should put a yard cell sign next to it.

Speaker 4 (27:43):
Sounded like the players didn't like it either.

Speaker 5 (27:46):
You know, Lsu plays in Oxford next years, Like everyone
has to wow, I mean that will be Remember when
he went back to Tennessee, they threw mustard at him
and that was like five years late.

Speaker 4 (27:58):
Uh huh. I'm good.

Speaker 5 (28:01):
He didn't help his cause when he tried to poach
the entire staff and like get on this plane, or.

Speaker 4 (28:06):
You don't have a job. I mean, so much happened
in that Sunday, the whole like if you don't come
with me now, you don't have a job before we
have a bowl game. And one guy went Charlie weis junior,
and pretty much everybody else stayed.

Speaker 2 (28:19):
May have a game that's a playoff game. It's a
huge game.

Speaker 4 (28:23):
It's crazy. David, go ahead, David that hey, go ahead, Yes,
go ahead, David.

Speaker 9 (28:31):
First of all, I want to thank coach Stoops for
his thirteen years at Kentucky in and I want to
thank him for being Florida the past five years. I
remember the first game and gets Florida when we started
that fumble and I hug my dad and I was
at the I was at the blockfield goal game in

(28:53):
twenty twenty one, and that was an epic.

Speaker 4 (28:57):
We did kind of own Florida. Not only the games
we won, we should have won two more. There was
the one where the play clock went out and the
holding Callum Bunchie stallings like we probably should have won,
probably should have won like nine of eleven or something
against him. But we still, I mean, we had a
winning record against Florida and most which is kind of crazy.
But what anything else.

Speaker 9 (29:18):
Yes, I hope the next coach is Will Steine and
that that's my pick.

Speaker 4 (29:23):
We're going to do that in the second hour though.
I appreciate it, David, but Lucas go ahead, and Lucas.

Speaker 8 (29:33):
Hi there, Hey, Yeah, I really just appreciate, you know,
kind of what Stoops has done with the program. And
I remember back in your South Carolina in the Stoops
troops there, and I'm hoping that, you know, moving forward
with a new head coach, that's something that we can
kind of attend as a fan base since it wasn't
such a tough breakup, and I'm looking forward to that.

Speaker 4 (29:55):
I think it's been interesting. I appreciate the call about
the former players because former players have weighed in most
of them and said how much they love Stoops, but
they also haven't like taken shots, you know what I mean,
Like I think the former players, a lot of them
kind of thought, you know, I get it right, even

(30:15):
though they loved him. And I do think the former
players love him. I think a lot of them Drew
kind of got it that, Okay, probably need to do
something else. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (30:25):
I follow a lot of them on social media, like
a lot of our listeners do, and kind of to
your what you're saying, they love Stoops, but you could
just tell their tone of how things change. I mean,
even like Cash and guys we've had on the show
mentioned that the locker room isn't what it was in
their time just because the sports changed so much, and
kind of wondered if that's the right you know, this
is the right time to have Stoops. But there's no
question they all love him. I mean, we have a

(30:46):
recap of players reactions and there's so many it's hard
to track them all down.

Speaker 4 (30:51):
What do you think, if you're looking back, was the check?
What do you think was the change? Like? Why did
it end beyond just you lost?

Speaker 2 (31:01):
You know, the smart Stoops that came on this show
and said, we're just getting started.

Speaker 7 (31:05):
Bro.

Speaker 4 (31:06):
That that's a blue collar I forget that one. That
was awesome. We're just getting started, bro.

Speaker 2 (31:10):
Yeah, that blue collar attitude is what made him who
he was. And I feel like he just lost his
fastball a little bit the past couple of seasons. Maybe
got it back up a little bit this year, but
like the twenty two to twenty three, twenty four seasons,
I feel like he lost his fastball a little bit.
And I don't know why. I don't know if he
just got the rest of these laurels a little bit.
You know, I've taken this program as far as I
can take it, and I'm a superstar here.

Speaker 10 (31:33):
There it is.

Speaker 4 (31:34):
Yes, I mean John cal Perry said about the basketball job,
it was a ten year job. Maybe all these jobs
are ten year jobs because we start to see we
started to see cows fall at ten years, and I
think we kind of started to see marks at ten years. Yeah. True,
Maybe these guys have like ten years of fire in them.

(31:55):
And then that's kind of it, because really it started
then and it was it was not just winning and losing.
It was the locker room. It was him. He wasn't
the same person. Whereas col became kind of prickly and ornery,
Stoop's just kind of seemed down for the last three years.
He just wasn't his self, I think in a lot

(32:18):
of ways, and when you were around him, it wasn't
the same energy. If you talk to people that love him,
including people like Vince and Cash and all these former players,
they'd all go, yeah, it's just not what it was.
And maybe this thrugh is just a ten year job
and you do it and then you gotta hand it
to somebody else.

Speaker 5 (32:38):
I agree that it's ten years is about right. You
just need new juice with everything. But also don't think
it's a coincidence both of them fell off around the
same time when Nil got here, both for different formulas.
They were both great with what they brought. Like when
Stoop said in his first interview, I'm sitting on g
and need an oh he had a plan. He's gonna
go to Ohio recruit develop. I mean, you think of
Josh Allen, a two star that he turned into something,

(33:00):
Letting Bowden kind of a player. He took a gamble
on We know what he became when the era changed
and we fell way behind on Nil everything. The Stoop's
formula didn't work anymore. The sport evolved all around him,
and what he was doing just didn't stick with you.

Speaker 4 (33:15):
Take you're exactly right, recruit, develop, bring guys in that
are and build them up. That maybe isn't the way,
And then I think some of this goes on the
athletic department. Mitch took too long for Nil, put him
in a two year behind. He became bitter about that.
It led him to do things like pony up and
next thing you know, it kind of slipped away. I

(33:37):
think he lost that connection for a variety of reasons.
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(33:58):
visit court dot com. That's ko rt dot com. We'll
take a break. One more segment on stoops and then
we look to the future. Who's going to be the
next guy that's here on Execkuy Sports Radio. I don't
think that's exactly what he said. I think he would
like to have staid no, no.

Speaker 3 (34:14):
Johnny Paycheck said that, Mark, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (34:15):
I understand that. I just didn't know if that was
uh opropos of here a couple of people talking about
kind of the way it fell apart, and it is
worth noting. I think you would be if you're really trying,
you'd be reminiscent. Not to say, he had a lot
of changes in his personal life too during that period. Yes,
and I think that matters. I think it would be
incorrect to say that that it doesn't. But I do

(34:39):
think there's a bigger thing of you want to leave anything,
George Costanzas said on Steinfeld, leave them want more, right,
like get one good joke and get out. And I
think I don't think he left people wanted more. But
I think he left before it started to really get stale.
And it's a good lesson for life, like don't stayed

(35:01):
on the last minute. Make people go, man, I wish
they'd come back rather than will you just go away?

Speaker 3 (35:09):
Like the people at the party that just stay.

Speaker 4 (35:11):
All night yeah, a little bit too.

Speaker 3 (35:14):
Yeah, you gotta leave the party, leave earlier than you will.

Speaker 4 (35:18):
You think I felt that one, that one at home.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
How many times did we hear him in the last
couple of years, you know, somebody would be he'd hear
some criticism and say, well, yeah.

Speaker 4 (35:28):
But he's a big yeah, but guy, uh huh, I
mean and he The other thing is he felt people's criticism. Yeah,
he felt it. And by the end he was almost
expecting your criticism before he talked. Remember his last interview
when he came in the studio and before everything, he'd
be like, no, I don't want to you know, I
know everybody's gonna say and I just wanted to be like,
just say, you don't have to be on rebutdal to

(35:50):
start just sad talk. And he just never felt comfortable
in those last couple of years kind of in his
own skin like he did the years before.

Speaker 5 (36:00):
Heard every word he has said for several years, including
the last two, and there was a lot of well
I don't want to make a headline. Well I don't
want this getting out there. Well I don't want to.
You know, it's like that's your point, Just say it
and we'll do it out. Well, I don't want to
answer that.

Speaker 4 (36:12):
It'll be a headline. Yeah, Dustin, go ahead, Dustin. I
want to get these folks on here, so let's go quick.
Just make your point and go Dustin, go ahead, all right,
out of the game quick. He was right, That's true.
He was quick. Did you hear the guy in the
post game show, Carl who called? He did like five

(36:33):
seconds with stumbling over his words, and he just went, ah, yeah,
I gave Carl cranted.

Speaker 2 (36:41):
He was like, ah, somebody so mad and frustrated. You
couldn't even get his words out.

Speaker 4 (36:44):
Go ahead, just justin, Hey.

Speaker 8 (36:48):
Man, what's up guys? Hey?

Speaker 4 (36:49):
Real quick.

Speaker 9 (36:50):
I don't know if anbody's asked this question or touck
on this.

Speaker 10 (36:53):
Where do you think?

Speaker 8 (36:54):
Where do you think he lands? So?

Speaker 9 (36:56):
Does he take some time.

Speaker 5 (36:57):
Off from coaching?

Speaker 10 (36:57):
Does he maybe go back to a coordinator position?

Speaker 8 (37:01):
Does he try to go coach? Maybe a head coach
at a lesser school. I think maybe as a head coach.

Speaker 9 (37:06):
Probably when you coach that long as a head coach,
you probably want to be a head coach.

Speaker 8 (37:09):
Right the next stop. I don't think he's done coaching,
so just curious where maybe you.

Speaker 4 (37:13):
Think that's same time. I think most likely, yeah, appreciate
the call time off followed by coach at a G five.
That's my I think the most likely scenario. I could
see him being a coordinator, but he likes to be
in charge now, and I think that's hard. I don't
think he's one of these people that's desperate to coach

(37:33):
that like is like, I gotta have a job next year.
But I think I think he goes and he'll end
up getting like a G five. Who knows, maybe he
gets one this year. A lot of these jobs, like
in the American Conference have all come open South Florida,
so h but I do think that's probably his likely future.

Speaker 2 (37:49):
I think, you know, maybe end up someplace like Youngstown
or Toledo or.

Speaker 4 (37:52):
He ain't not going down. I ain't not going that low. No,
I don't even think he needs to go to Toledo.
I think he can get a job two lane or sound.
I don't know if he will, but I think he can,
don't you definitely yeah his first towns division two? Yeah, No,
he should not do that.

Speaker 5 (38:10):
If I were setting nods, one would be going enjoy
life for a little bit. I mean, he probably he'll
take Tom off since he was in take a year off. Yeah,
he got money. You know, we've talked about family. You
know he's got his boys getting about college. A's they've
been away from him. I would say the favorite would
be taking a little tome off. Second, I would watch
the the Kirby Smart Rehab analyst thing, kind of what

(38:31):
people do with Sabing. Yeah, I'll come give you a
job for a year till you figured out. Mark and
Kirby are very close. So I could see, like the
analyst at Georgia Defensive Analysts for a year, as many
people did under saving at Alabama.

Speaker 4 (38:43):
He will get a job. He'll get a job. He
succeeded here, He'll get a job. He might even get
a job at a school like Kentucky at another conference.
You know you can see, Ah, I don't know, a
Minnesota or something like that. Hire Jerry, go ahead, Jerry, Hey, Matt.

Speaker 10 (39:05):
First off, even though you know I felt a need
for a change for a while, I want to thank
Mark suscret he did here because he did do a
lot of good things here and wishing the best new
feature going forward. This kind of down how the phrase
was going to happen is that Barney was going to
wring his hands about kind of gun not going forward.

Speaker 4 (39:23):
J Jerry, We're not going forward. That's out too, all right,
I'm gonna go to James. I was very clear, appreciate
the call. It was very clear that we were doing this. Uh,
we were doing Stoops. James, go ahead, James.

Speaker 7 (39:36):
Yes, sir, the first time in a long time. My
question is, oh, you said yourself that Stoops pulled a
lot of good investors into the into the program.

Speaker 10 (39:47):
Correct.

Speaker 7 (39:47):
What happens to all these what happens to all these
guys once he leaves? Are they still on board or
the coach?

Speaker 4 (39:53):
It's a great question. It's a great question. It's gonna
be up to the new coach. The new coach is
gonna have to get him. I told this story on
on you Tube last night, but I watched Drew Franklin
and I set twelve years ago, thirteen years ago at
a table at Dudley's. At a table at Dudley's, it

(40:17):
was me, Drew, Joe Craft, and Mark Stoops and one
other person who I want forced to be on the air.
And I watched Mark Stoops sell Joe Craft on investing
in UK football. I don't know why Drew and I
were there, but we were still tell that story and

(40:38):
it was a lot of fun. And we closed the
restaurant down and Mark Stoops sold one. Joe Craft over
that he became the leading change in the renovations of
Croger Field. Oh yes, and and even have a football

(41:01):
team if it was I mean, we wouldn't even been
able to get on the field these last few years.
And we watched it happen and that was the moment
I went, Okay, maybe this guy and he didn't just
do it with Joe, that's the one we saw. He
did it with a lot of people sure that weren't
maybe as big a donors, but that were successful. And

(41:21):
the new coach now has got to go do that.
Would you agree? It was one of their most important jobs,
to be honest with you, get the.

Speaker 2 (41:33):
Steps was so good at getting the guys that would
just invest in basketball to also invest in football.

Speaker 4 (41:38):
And he said a line which I'll never be able
to say, but which has become legendary amongst me and
my friends. And it was the line he looked at
he looked at Joe and said, and then Drew and
I were like, Okay, maybe this is the dude. I
think I joked on my food when he said what
he say, Well, so did Joe. No one saw it
coming and I was like, oh, maybe Mark Stoops is

(42:04):
gonna get this done. So I give a salute to it. Amen,
I really do. He made football a sport that matters
at this school, and now somebody else takes that mantle
to the next level. And that's what we'll do. In
the second hour. Who's Next On Kentucky Sports Radio.