Kentucky is firing Mark Stoops after 13 seasons, following a second consecutive dropping marketing campaign for this system’s all-time wins chief, CBS Sports activities’ Matt Zenitz reviews. Per his contract, Stoops is owed his full $38 million buyout inside 60 days of termination, which may make it one of the crucial costly firings in faculty soccer historical past.
It is a steep value to pay for a Kentucky athletic division that’s all-in on males’s basketball and getting a late begin on a training carousel that has been spinning for 2 months. However amid lopsided season-ending losses to Vanderbilt and Louisville, Stoops misplaced the goodwill he briefly regained within the first half of November.
Following a season-ending 41-0 highway loss to the rival Cardinals, Stoops struck a defiant tone over whether or not he deliberate to return in 2026. He mentioned there was a “zero % probability” he would depart on his personal accord.
“I’ll be right here so far as I am involved,” he mentioned. “Now, I can not management what choices which might be made. However in case you’re asking me, I mentioned zero. Zero means zero.”
Following a 2-5 begin, the Wildcats reeled off three straight wins, together with victories over Auburn and Florida. These wins, mixed with the promising play of redshirt freshman quarterback Cutter Boley appeared to supply a path ahead for Stoops.
Then got here back-to-back listless efforts in opposition to Commodores and Cardinals, which ended UK’s bowl hopes and laid naked this system’s shortcomings.
At 9-15 (3-13 SEC) over the previous two seasons, Stoops was mired in his worst run since taking up the job from Joker Phillips after the 2012 season. His remaining document of 82-80 (38-68 SEC) is closely weighed down by a gradual starting and poor ending. In between got here a number of the program’s best moments.
It took 4 seasons for UK to achieve its first bowl underneath Stoops, however 2016 marked the primary of eight straight postseason journeys for the Wildcats. Stoops produced this system’s first 10-win season since 1977 in 2018 and did it once more in 2021.
After consecutive 7-6 showings in 2022-23, the underside fell out in 2024 with a 4-8 crew weighed down by an offense that completed 114th nationally in yards per sport. Even with Boley’s midseason emergence in 2025, the Wildcats failed to provide aggressive showings in opposition to Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Louisville — all essential regional foes.
SEC friends Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, LSU and Ole Miss have already made teaching hires this cycle. Most importantly, the Gators snagged beloved former UK linebacker and defensive coordinator Jon Sumrall — long-coveted by many Kentucky followers as a possible inheritor to Stoops — from Tulane. When UK employed Stoops, he was the defensive coordinator at Florida State and had by no means been a head coach. He’ll depart because the longest-tenured coach in program historical past.
