How Kentucky's Auburn win affects Mark Stoops' hot seat

Saturday night in Auburn was the "Winner Has to Keep Their Coach Bowl" with two fanbases desperate for change. After Kentucky's 10-3 defensive slugfest of a win, their first SEC victory since September 2024, the question on every Kentucky fan's mind is a painful one: Did Mark Stoops just save his job?

This win was a brutal, old-school SEC rock fight, a game defined more by punts and sacks than by points and highlights. You don't see very many games like this, but when you do, you can bet Kentucky is involved in it. For a program and a coach drowning in criticism, any win is a good win. But for a fanbase desperate for meaningful change, this victory might feel like a setback, a delay of the inevitable reset many feel is necessary.

Kentucky football coaching hot seat update after Auburn win

Let's be clear: this was a hard-fought win on the road, something that should never be dismissed in the SEC. But the opponent matters, that's just the way it is. If it didn't every undefeated team in the country would be listed in the top 10. This Auburn team is horrific, sorry Tiger fans.

After the game, Auburn fans stayed to scream at their administration to fire Hugh Freeze, who admitted, "I wish I could ask for patience but that’s not really something that people want to give in this day and time."

This Auburn team (now 4-5, 1-5 SEC) was also staring down its own painful home losing streak. Beating an opponent as dysfunctional as your own team isn't a sign of a program turnaround; it's a sign you found someone having a worse night.

But optics matter, and the optics after the game told a powerful story. A visibly emotional Mark Stoops was embraced on the field by Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart. For Barnhart, who has been desperately looking for any reason to justify his loyalty and avoid a massive buyout (reportedly north of $36M), this win provides the perfect cover. He can now point to this road victory as "proof" that the players are still fighting for Stoops and that the "process" is working, even if the progress is invisible to the naked eye.

With this victory, Stoops (3-5, 1-5 SEC) now has a clear, achievable path to the 5-win mark that many believe is his "magic number" to ensure his return in 2026. Kentucky now faces a coach-less Florida at home and an FCS team in Tennessee Tech. Winning those two games is now a very real, and perhaps likely, possibility. A 5-7 (2-6 SEC) season will be spun by the administration as "progress" from last year's 4-8 disaster, a sign of "momentum" heading into the offseason.

So, how hot is Mark Stoops' seat today? It's certainly not as scorching as it was 24 hours ago. For fans hoping this season's failures would lead to a necessary program reset, Saturday's ugly win might have been the worst possible outcome. But a win is a win.

Drew Holbrook is an avid Kentucky fan who has been covering the Cats for over 10 years. In his free time he enjoys downtime with his family and Premier League soccer. You can find him on X here. Micah 7:7. #UptheAlbion