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Kentucky Football was terrible in the transfer portal last season

Mark Stoops is dipping back in the portal but he struggled with it last year.

ByMark Knight|
Sep 28, 2024; Oxford, Mississippi, USA; Kentucky Wildcats offensive lineman Gerald Mincey (54) waits for the snap during the first half against the Mississippi Rebels at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images
Sep 28, 2024; Oxford, Mississippi, USA; Kentucky Wildcats offensive lineman Gerald Mincey (54) waits for the snap during the first half against the Mississippi Rebels at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images | Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

Kentucky head football coach Mark Stoops has promised that he can rebuild through the transfer portal this year and that they can be like South Carolina with a one-year turnaround. The problem with this narrative is that Stoops and Kentucky haven't proved they can recruit through the portal. The data suggests that he will recruit more players who don't contribute than those who do. That's what happened last season, check out the numbers:

This is an alarming sheet of stats for anyone buying the narrative that Stoops can rebuild through the portal. Basically, this chart is sorted by players who came into their new team via the transfer portal and contributed this season. As you can see from the post, "A 'contributor' played at least 200 snaps AND had a PFF grade of at least 59.5 this season." Kentucky is not quite the bottom, but it is very close to it.

They had five total contributors come in. Of those five players, only two were graded better than a 69.5. None were 79.5+, which lists those that are better than a quality starter. This is not a good track record from the portal last season. To make matters worse, there were 7 total transfers that were "non-factors."

Now, if you want to build a defense for Stoops, I'll give it to you. Stoops only brought in 12 players via the portal on this list, and of those 12, five were able to contribute. Sure, that's less than 50%, but it wasn't as bad as others, and he claims to have more resources now than he did a year ago. So maybe they weren't getting the best players because of NIL? That's the best defense I got, and it's not great.

The actual data says that if he wants to be like South Carolina and turn things around in a year, it'll take at least ten contributors (like the Gamecocks got last season). However, it is probably more than that, as Kentucky has lost a ton of contributors in the portal this season.

It's hard to trust Stoops in the portal when he failed in it last season, and so far, his strategy has been underwhelming.

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