The messaging coming out of the athletic department of the University of Kentucky all week has been about how "Mark Stoops can fix this." We have heard it from athletic director Mitch Barnhart, and Stoops is ramping up that narrative. Yet, it feels a bit like gaslighting because the problem is Stoops. He created the problem, he built the problem, and now he is expected to solve the problem. It seems like a big stretch.
Now, let's be clear: Mark Stoops has done what no coach has done in forever for Kentucky, which has brought them to a place where they consistently have winning seasons and go to bowl games eight years in a row. However, the program has been regressing, and there's tons of proof for that, and now it's at an all-time low. We also were told that this season would be better, that he got the right offensive coordinator, the right quarterback, the right running back, and that the defense would be elite.
Yet, here the Wildcats are, sitting at 4-8 overall and 1-7 in the SEC. Now, the narrative is that he just needs better players, and they have the resources to do it. This can't be true since his roster this season was loaded with "high-caliber" transfers, most of which were wasted or injured. He couldn't have done anything about Chip Trayanum or even Gerald Mincey, but he absolutely wasted the talent of Jamori Maclin.
What about the offensive scheme this year with a former 5-star quarterback followed by two former 4-star quarterbacks with 4-star runningbacks and plenty of elite receivers gave you the sense that it would be better with more talent. Don't get it twisted; the players needed to play better, especially on the offensive line, but schemes, development, and discipline are non-existent on this team. You know who's fault that is? The head coach. Do not let Mitch Barnhart gaslight you into thinking Mark Stoops can fix this simply because his buyout is too massive to pay. I doubt Barnhart believes this - there's nothing that Stoops has done to prove that he is capable of fixing it.