Mark Stoops on facing Georgia: 'That's not a hump, that's Mt. Everest'

Kentucky coach Mark Stoops turned some heads on Monday when he made a comment during his weekly call-in show that was picked up and spread nationally.

Essentially, he made a quip that the Georgia Bulldogs, who had just defeated his team soundly, had “bought some pretty good players.” Stoops made the comment in the context of trying to raise more NIL money for his program, but the message was clear.

And even as he backed away from the comments and said they were taken out of context on Wednesday during an SEC teleconference call, Stoops offered a glimpse at the heart of the issue.

“Basically one person was questioning me and the program and getting over the hump,” Stoops explained. “I really simply should have said, ‘Hey dude, I’ve gotten over a lot of humps. That’s not a hump, that’s Mt. Everest.'”

Georgia’s success on the recruiting trail under coach Kirby Smart has certainly been breath-taking. While the Bulldogs have had plenty of on-field success to sell, Smart has been refining his sales pitch for years.

NIL just enhanced it.

Stoops’ comments served to underscore that, however they were taken by fans or national media.

“I think people just want to take one little piece of it and blow it completely out of proportion,” Stoops said. “If you listen to the whole thing… I mean just listen to Kirby. He knows. He knows exactly what I was saying. We’re all in the same boat. Kirby’s probably happy. He’s probably trying to rally up more money too. We all need it. It’s just the way it is. I wasn’t taking any shots. I took full responsibility. We got our butts beat. We need to respond better and that’s it.”

Smart, for his part, didn’t engage whatsoever with Stoops’ comments.

He issued as cool a no-comment as possible.

“No reaction,” Smart said. “It’s much to do about nothing, really. Mark is trying to garner interest in money from his fan base for his collective. We’re all trying to do the same in terms of trying get money for our collective. Mark and I talked about NIL pregame and we talked about it in our meetings. I’m not biting on that.”

Mark Stoops pointed to his relationship with Smart as further illustration that there was no ill intent in his comment, that it was strictly trying to galvanize his own fanbase.

“Kirby and I are friends and colleagues,” Stoops said. “I respect every aspect of what he does and how he runs his program. To me I was responding to one person at a radio show, and that was one part that was taken completely out of context.”