Mark Stoops' unconscionable decision to punt at the end of Kentucky's loss to Georgia was a loser's mentality

Kentucky coach Mark Stoops met with the media Monday morning ready to defend himself after blowing the opportunity of a lifetime. 

Stoops came rested and ready to that news conference, knowing full well he’d have to discuss, again, the unconscionable decision to punt the ball away late in Kentucky’s heartbreaking 13-12 loss to Georgia at home Saturday evening. 

In case you missed it, here’s a quick rundown: Kentucky was down by a point to the biggest powerhouse in the sport. The game was on its home field. There were roughly three minutes remaining in the game. The Wildcats faced 4th-and-8 from the UGA 48 yard-line, 15 yards away from a makeable game-winning field goal attempt. 

Punt. Punt! PUNT!

Stoops actually punted the ball. When he sent that punt team out onto the field, I screamed at my iPad in a small AirBnb in Oregon, Wisconsin. I legitimately couldn’t believe what I was watching.

How? How could he possibly do this to himself and his team?

Kentucky, predictably, lost. It got the ball back with nine seconds left.

Stoops showed up Monday with his defense mounted. He had his book of stats and old-school coaching views ready to fire off, fighting like hell to distract us from the reality that he shrunk in one of the biggest moments of his coaching career. 

It doesn’t really matter what his explanation is. Three timeouts, two-minute warning, field position, whatever. You probably could guess what he was going to say before he said it, anyway. But, to be fair, I’ll present the attempt he made to distract us from the fact he approached this game, that moment, with a loser mentality. 

“I don’t take offense to the criticism of not going for it or whatever,” Stoops said. “I told the coaches on the headset on first down I had every intention of going for it. I wish we would have gained some yards and had a manageable third down, manageable fourth down. But you gotta realize, in that same zone on the plus-48, we had two sack fumbles, one sack, and then the next one went back from plus (territory). Think about if we get three there. 

“Think about if Coach Stoops goes conservative and we just run it three plays in a row and kick the field goal there, right? I mean, again, if you’re gonna report this, report the whole damn thing. People are saying, ‘Hey, Coach Stoops, you’re dumb. We had the ball on the plus 47. Why didn’t you just pound it three more times?’ 

“We’re moving the ball well against a good defense. What if we got those three instead of getting sacked, instead of gotten sack fumbled, and went all the way back to the 22 on the other side? Think about that swing. Nobody talks about that, do they? When I had the ball three times around the same zone and went negative, negative and on second down damn near had a fumble. Third down damn near had a fumble. We got to that point by playing field position and playing defense. We had a chance to win that game just the way we played it. We came up a play or two short. I stand by that.”

That’s a lot of words.

Here’s a quick translation: I was scared. 

Listen, I know I’m going at Stoops pretty hard right now. The reality is, I think his results as Kentucky’s coach have been amongst some of the most impressive of any coach in college football. There is a lot to respect about what he has built there and I can’t compliment him enough for the job he has done. There is a reason his name pops up every time a big job opens. He earned that respect.

That’s what makes this so hard. He has convinced me Kentucky is one of the best jobs in America because he is paid a ton of money, doesn’t have to fear getting fired every day when he wakes up and the expectations aren’t nearly as high or unreasonable as other SEC programs. 

But Stoops flirted with the Texas A&M job last year. The message there is that even though he has Kentucky hovering around its program ceiling, he has bigger hopes and aspirations in this business. He wants to win titles and he wants to coach in those high-leverage moments.

This was one of those moments. Why was he scared? Why was he thinking about all the things that could go wrong? Why isn’t he dreaming of knocking off Georgia by going out and taking it?

Stoops hasn’t had very many moments like that at Kentucky, though there are certainly more now than before his arrival. Those are the moments he has to seize if he’s the head coach at a place like Texas A&M or any other place wanting to compete for national championships. You put the ball in your players’ hands and trust them to go out and make a play.

If the players come up short, he can look them in the eye and say he believed in them. That would have been a much better outcome than what transpired on that field Saturday night.

There is nothing anyone can say to defend punting the ball there. There isn’t an analytic, statistic, historical anecdote, nothing, that can excuse it. Stoops’ team fought tooth and nail the entire game to be in that position, and when the biggest moment of the game arose, he didn’t swing for the fences. He left the bat on his shoulder.

Kentucky was a week removed from being embarrassed by South Carolina. Some Kentucky fans resent his flirtation with Texas A&M. Vibes were low heading into this game and Stoops had a chance to take his season back, to bring Kentucky to a moment it hasn’t been under his leadership.

Instead, Stoops sent his punt unit out and, for all intents and purposes, conceded the game. And that’s a shame.