Mark Stoops says hazing is not permissible at Kentucky

Right now, one of the major topics buzzing around college football and college sports is hazing. While hazing is a frowned upon, Northwestern University came under fire after reports of rampant hazing within their football team, among other programs. That has caused multiple coaches throughout the college football landscape to address the topic head-on, such as Kentucky Wildcats head coach Mark Stoops.

Recently, Stoops addressed hazing and whether or not he’s had any issues with it while at Kentucky. He also revealed why the practice is personally frowned upon in his eyes.

“Hazing is not permissible. You used the word hazing; that’s 100 percent not permitted within our program,” said Stoops. “There’s probably different definitions on that, but I’ve always been that way. Because I just believe players are different. I’ve always prided myself on relationships with players. People come from all different areas, all different backgrounds; the comfort, how comfortable they are within this situation. I just believe in taking care of young people.

“I’m not alluding to any other situation because I have a lot of respect for the persons going through that. But with us, to my knowledge, it’s never been an issue. I know going forward it never will be because it won’t be tolerated.”

Stoops was careful not to speak directly about the happenings at Northwestern. But the Kentucky headman made sure to outline his stance on hazing. While it is something that should not happen at any level, Stoops takes exception to it as he values and appreciates the different walks of life his players hail from.

Stoops says Kentucky’s health is in good shape 

The Wildcats are at fall camp right now, gearing up for the 2023 season. At these fall camps, the level of competition ratchets up as the start of the football years around the corner. And that can cause some unfortunate injuries to occur.

Fortunately for Kentucky, according to their headman, the team’s overall health is in good shape.

“Yeah, we’re in pretty good shape. You’ll see a guy or two out there today that just got a little nagging injury yesterday that they’re going to miss out there in practice today,” said Stoops. “(It) won’t take you long to figure it out. But he shouldn’t be out but 2-3 days, hopefully; little soft tissue injury. 

“One thing about our strength and conditioning team; they’re amazing and I wouldn’t change them for anybody, but we push it pretty hard through the summer. I can’t blame this one on them, but we had a couple of soft tissue injuries late in the summer. Our guys work exceptionally hard at speed development and pushing it to that limit. Not training or overtraining them, but pushing their mobility and their speed development.”