Mark Stoops addresses coaches being fired in college football, added pressure

Just five weeks into the 2022 season there have been some significant changes, not the least of which is what’s happening off the field. With five coaches fired, college football’s coaching carousel seems to be spinning up as violently and as quickly as ever.

Colorado‘s Karl Dorrell and Wisconsin‘s Paul Chryst were the latest victims, with both coaches fired on Sunday following lackluster starts to the season at their respective programs. Naturally, coaches who remain employed are being asked this week for their thoughts on the seeming cut-throat nature of the industry. Especially now that the axe seems to be falling more swiftly.

“I don’t know, other than just maybe just, I don’t know. I can’t get in other peoples’ heads,” said Kentucky coach Mark Stoops, trying to gather his thoughts. “I do know I think the social media presence that’s real now is great on some people. That definitely, I think, is real and it takes its toll. It takes its toll on decision-makers. It takes its toll on people in leadership positions. It can, let’s put it that way.”

No doubt the proliferation of hot takes and the instant gratification demanded by many social media users is part of it.

Still, the decision-makers at these programs ultimately make the call. How much the influence of social sentiment weighs on those decisions is fairly subjective. Stoops, for his part, doesn’t necessarily think it’s a major factor.

“I don’t think they’re on higher alert. I think everybody knows,” he said of the administrators deciding coaches’ futures. “Be careful when people pat you on the back and don’t worry about it when they’re talking negative. No offense. I’ve said that in here before. I hope y’all aren’t saying bad stuff, I mean, because I don’t read your stuff, but if you do you better bring it to me so I know. So I know who I take questions from and who I don’t.”

Pressure part of the gig for coaches fired in college football

As salaries have skyrocketed in recent years in college football, the pressure has ratcheted up.

You don’t often get a long time to turn programs around, not like you might have in the days before just about every game was televised and TV money was aplenty. With the coffers full, the trigger seems to be pulled quicker on coaches fired in college football.

But that’s part of what you agree to when you take a job at a major program.

“No, it’s hard on all of us. We all feel the pressure,” Stoops said. “Again, there’s no amount of pressure that anybody can say or write or do that we don’t feel. I mean we live this. For coaches, it’s hard. Yesterday, I mean, flying back, Saturday, Sunday for me, those are long. Sometimes you like the early games when you win. You hate them when you lose. You’ve got to sit there all day and feel like that. It’s tough.”

Stoops, of course, can speak pretty candidly about the issue. He’s the longest-tenured coach and the winningest coach in Kentucky football history.

Even he seems to recognize the mercurial nature of being in the head coach’s seat, though.

“It’s tough,” he said. “As coaches, I think all the pressure, you invest so much for your program, for your players. So I think nobody can add to that for us.”