2020 could be Stoops’ best coaching job yet.
Yeah, I’m still very aware it’s only a couple of years removed from Kentucky going 10-3 and dishing out an impressive beat down on James Franklin‘s Penn State Football team. I’m also aware that finishing 5-6 doesn’t usually go hand in hand with the best coaching job either.
Hear me out though, it’s not always about wins and losses and it’s not always about just the game of football. It’s about life, and being a human being.
Let us rewind to this past summer, everybody knows what was going on in the world. Turmoil in the African American community, more issues of police brutality. Stoops is a football guy, he lives and breathes football. Often times he’s a guy who has kept his personal opinions that don’t involve football to himself.
This past summer the longtime coach called a meeting with all his players and met with them as a team and as individuals to hear their concerns. Stoops wanted his guys to know he could never understand what they go through because he doesn’t have the ability to walk in their shoes, but he wanted his players to know he wanted to help in any way he could.
Stoops spoke about what he said to his players.
"I can’t feel their pain, Stoops said. I’m a white person, obviously. What young black people go through, I feel for them, but I just wanted to listen to them and be there for them. I could just tell that it was a very difficult time for a lot of people, and it still is."
What Stoops and his team decided after speaking was that they would all march down to the courthouse in a peaceful protest as a symbol of solidarity and support of the change. Stoops has always been a player’s coach, but never to this extent, at least not publicly. Stoops let his players know he’s not just there for football, he’s there for life too.
Off the field, tragedies were no stranger to Stoops in 2020. Back in May linebacker Chris Oats was hospitalized and almost lost his life due to an undisclosed medical issue, and then offensive line coach John Schlarman lost his battle with cancer just days before the Vandy game.
Stoops’s displays of compassion could end up paying dividends in recruiting, guys just want to give Stoops everything they have on the field. Don’t blame them, I’ve sometimes listened to Stoops on video getting his guys ready just before a game and it gets me jacked up enough I want to snap up and go out there and hit somebody.
Stoops has no doubt been stubborn in his time at Kentucky. He has seen what works in his success and I believe he’s scared to try something else when it isn’t working. A strong running game milking the clock, and a top-notch defense has won Stoops a lot of games.
I believe he has come to the realization that football is evolving. Even Nick Saban who is at the forefront of everything has changed his gameplan. It was time for Stoops to do the same. Having a good defense is great, but if you can’t put up points at will, you’re going to be in trouble especially in the Southeastern Conference.
Stoops deciding to part ways with longtime friend and colleague Eddie Gran I believe is Stoops’s first step into changing his scheme. If Kentucky can go out and get the weapons at the skill positions of which new offensive coordinator Liam Coen will have a huge impact on the modernization of the offense. This truly is something that might as well be a foreign language to Stoops.
In what could amount to the most difficult season on the football field for a Stoops-led team, and tragedy lurking around every corner he was able to keep the wheels from falling off. Stoops was able to rally his players, and teach them that they’re not just football players, they’re all human beings worth something. For that Mark Stoops deserves an A+