Kentucky football fans hoping for accountability after last season’s disastrous 4-8 campaign won’t find much comfort in athletic director Mitch Barnhart’s recent comments. Despite the program’s clear regression, Barnhart remains adamant that Mark Stoops is still the right man for the job—even as the Wildcats slide back into irrelevance.
For those expecting an honest evaluation of Stoops' performance, Barnhart’s interview with the Lexington Herald-Leader offered little more than excuses and deflections. Instead of acknowledging a disturbing pattern of decline, he insisted that last year was just a “blip.”
“A one-year blip is not what I would call ‘not sustaining it.’ Now, if we go two or three more, a couple more years, and we’re still not back where we want to be, sure, then you have to have a conversation about, what are we trying to get to here?” Barnhart said.
A couple more years? Kentucky has already gone 7-6 in back-to-back seasons before bottoming out at 4-8. The Wildcats have won just one SEC home game in the last two seasons. They went winless in conference play at Kroger Field last year, extending a streak that now sees both Vanderbilt and South Carolina with more wins in Lexington than Kentucky over the past three years. But to Barnhart, that doesn’t warrant immediate concern.
Stoops’ Salary vs. Performance: A Laughable Disparity
Mark Stoops is the highest-paid state employee in Kentucky, making over $9 million a year—or, more accurately, $2.25 million per win last season. That’s right. Each time Stoops managed to scrape out a victory, Kentucky’s athletic department shelled out more money than some Group of Five head coaches make in an entire season.
And what did fans get in return? One of the worst offensive seasons in modern UK history:
- 18.1 points per game (124th nationally)
- 307.5 yards per game (124th nationally)
- 33.59% third-down conversion rate (119th nationally)
- 51.97% completion percentage (128th nationally)
- 5.38% interception rate (worst in the country, 131st nationally)
If you thought Stoops' plan for 2025 would involve modernizing the offense, think again. Instead of adapting, he’s doubling down on a “ground-and-pound” approach, shifting away from any attempt at a dynamic, up-tempo scheme.
This is the same Stoops who, over the last three years, has run through offensive coordinators like they’re disposable—each one bringing in a “new system” that never sticks. First, it was Liam Coen (2021 who left after 1 year), then Rich Scangarello (2022, was actualy better than 2024), then Coen again (2023, a step up but not near the 2021 levels and rumors of clashes with Stoops). Now year 2 under Bush Hamdan? A return to the kind of conservative, run-heavy playcalling that had Kentucky stuck in mediocrity for years before this downward spiral.
It’s no surprise that nearly the entire wide receiver core bolted in the transfer portal. Players know what’s coming, and it isn’t an offense designed to win in today’s SEC.
Kentucky’s transfer portal situation this offseason should have been a wake-up call. Instead, Barnhart and Stoops brushed it off as routine roster turnover. But let’s look at the numbers:
- 21 scholarship players left via the portal including hometown star Dane Key, who grew up wanting to be a Wildcat
- Two underclassmen declared for the NFL Draft
- 11 contributors graduated
- Starting quarterback Brock Vandagriff retired from football 6 months after saying how much he loved it.
Where does Kentucky football go from here?
That’s not just a reset. That’s a mass exodus. Yet Barnhart somehow walked away from his visits to the facility impressed.
“I think in the new world that we’re in, it changes so rapidly that you can stumble, but you can also recover,” Barnhart said. “And I think that’s sort of where we are as we stumbled and did not have the year we wanted to have.”
The problem? Kentucky has been stumbling for three straight seasons.
Barnhart made it clear that Stoops isn’t going anywhere—at least not yet.
The numbers don’t lie. The results don’t lie. And the product on the field certainly doesn’t lie. Kentucky football is not experiencing a “blip.” It’s experiencing a full-fledged collapse, and the people in charge either don’t see it—or worse, refuse to admit it.
At this point, the fans can see it. The players can see it. But Barnhart and Stoops? They seem perfectly content watching Kentucky drift back to the bottom of the SEC while collecting massive paychecks. Those massive paychecks Stoops cashes, thanks to a sweetheart deal from Barnhart, could be the only reason he is still on the sidelines.