Mark Stoops is already thinking about which players are staying and leaving

When a season is crashing to the ground, and hope seems to be lost, it's hard not to be looking ahead to next year. Fans have been doing it since this slide began, and they've asked the necessary question: Should head coach Mark Stoops continue to be the next head coach? This is a normal course of a season as you near the end, and it happens faster for programs to flounder. The Kentucky Wildcats fit that bill as they are 3-6 overall and 1-6 in the SEC.

You can also see that Stoops is starting to think about which players will be around next season and which ones will not. In his weekly press conference, he was asked how important it is for quarterback Brock Vandagriff to finish strong. Stoops began to muse on how important it is for lots of players to finish strong, whether they are off to the NFL, transfer portal, or stick around.

"I think that's fair to say, finishing strong is important to a lot of our guys coming back. Where we are at, and it's important individually to those moving on." Stoops said, "If they are going to the NFL or trying in the NFL, transferring or anything. It's important to finish strong."

It is interesting to see a question about Vandagriff turn into a question about roster management and the entire team. While it was directed toward finishing strong for everyone, you can see that Stoops is already thinking about next season.

Coaches are always forced to think about those things the way the college rosters are constructed. Yet, it's another reminder of how this year has fallen apart. Hope for the future is going to be important, and Stoops will either need to step aside, move on himself, or provide some sort of hope. Especially as the year closes and we watch many players leave, and some of them will be the best players for the Wildcats. That will make this season feel even harder.