Mark Stoops breaks down how Kentucky can become a national championship contender

Kentucky is, traditionally, a basketball school having won the NCAA Tournament eight different times. However, the football team traditionally struggles, only having one claimed title in 1950. Still, head coach Mark Stoops has made Kentucky one of the SEC East’s top programs and believes that the team can contend for a national championship.

At SEC Media Days, Stoops broke down how Kentucky could become a national championship contender.

“I want to be efficient at what we are,” Mark Stoops said. “I think that we’ve never gotten away from that — I think sometimes we’ve been more successful than others, and I know you’re not gonna compete for a championship unless you’re that.”

With Liam Coen returning and the transfer of Devin Leary into the program, Stoops hopes that Kentucky can be consistently successful on offense.

The hope is then that Kentucky can put everything together. In the past, the Wildcats have had an NFL-caliber quarterback. They’ve also had great running games and defenses. However, they haven’t had those at the same time.

“But, then you’ve got to put all the other pieces together. So, when there’s times where we’ve been extremely physical, great at running the ball, great at defense, everything. Maybe not having the dynamic playmakers at quarterback or putting it all the pieces together. That’s what it takes to win at the highest level.”

Mark Stoops emphasized that to win in the SEC, you need to be an all around team because everyone is talented.

“In this league, you’re good. You’re great across the board. You know, you’ve got dynamic playmakers with strength and size on the perimeter, you’ve got your fronts are obviously dominant. So, you’re good top to bottom and I think all of us are always trying to strive for that.”

Octavious Oxendine weighs in on basketball school vs. football school debate at Kentucky

In recent years, the debate about whether Kentucky is a basketball or a football school has grown. In particular, Head basketball coach John Calipari argued last year that Kentucky is a “basketball school” when making a call for better facilities, which Mark Stoops wasn’t happy about.

Still, star football player Octavious Oxendine thinks Kentucky should be an all-around school.

“I feel there’s no type of rivalry there at all just because we always keep with the basketball guys. I was telling a reporter earlier today, those are my guys. Shout-out to my guys. Canada earlier at Jake’s house. They had fantastic time playing basketball up there. And our recruiting class we just got in basketball, like they’re the guys,” Oxendine said.

“We’re doing good on both sides right now. I feel like we’re an all-around good sports school. We’ve always been top 20 all around. Tennis, volleyball. Anything we do in sports at Kentucky, I feel like we’re the top of the line.”