A Mark Stoops Show Caller Tied the Past with Eddie Gran to the Future of Kentucky Football

It may have just been an innocent chat between a fan and the Kentucky head coach on his call-in show. Digging deeper, it feels like there are some serious dots connecting the past to the future during the conversation between Dennis and Mark Stoops.

Moved from Monday due to a couple of Kentucky basketball games, this iteration of The Mark Stoops Show was different, and not just because it was in the middle of a bye week following four consecutive losses. The Kentucky head coach was ready to engage with more callers longer than he had all year.

Dennis wasn’t the first or last caller, but Mark Stoops kept wanting to hear more from this Kentucky football fan who questioned if Stoops had been influenced in his decision-making by his critics. The particular situation the caller brought up was the decision to go for it on fourth and two deep in the Tennessee red zone at the end of the first Kentucky offensive possession.

“The old Coach Stoops would’ve took the points and kicked the field goal. The new one went for it,” the caller said.

“It’s a fair argument,” Stoops replied.

There was another thing the caller wondered about that many others have pondered recently, why did Stoops ever get rid of Eddie Gran? Would Kentucky be better off if they just stuck with Eddie? Did Stoops read too much of what the press was saying after the 2020 season?

“The part with Eddie Gran, I didn’t listen to anybody except Eddie and I. Actually, Eddie and I made that decision. Eddie is one of my best friends in the world. I’m still going to do what’s right for the University of Kentucky. Eddie and I made that decision, to be quite honest with you and I think that’s documented,” said Stoops.

“He and I mulled it, mulled it over, to be honest with you. I was trying to make it work. He came into my office and said, ‘Coach, you know you can’t.’ That’s how that went down and he’s one of my best friends in the world.”

Stoops was actually going to Gran’s house for dinner once the radio show concluded. Even though he was fired as the offensive coordinator, Gran returned in the middle of the following season to work on Stoops’ staff where he organizes the fundraising for Kentucky’s NIL efforts, among other tasks.

“He does so much work for me right now. He does the work of three people,” said the Kentucky head coach. “He’s a remarkable man and I’m lucky to have him on my staff and he was a great coach, but that influence — I’m going to do what I believe is right. Nobody talked me into that or any other decision.”

What the Gran Decision May Tell Us About the Future of Mark Stoops

During the Mark Stoops Show, KSR is providing play-by-play on KSBoard. Occasionally, a quote will really pop that’s worth sharing on social media. One of those really took off on Wednesday night.

Before heading to a commercial break, Stoops went back to that fourth down decision that the caller, Dennis, referred to a few minutes prior. Stoops admitted he leaned on the analytics when he made the decision. “But they’re not always right, those damn analytics.”

He continued, “I think if I’d have kicked the three, there’d be twice as many callers telling me that, but I don’t. No offense to any fans, listeners, people out there, I do really deeply care about how we play for the Blue and White.

“I love this place. It’s my home. I care deeply about this place but nobody, and I mean nobody, influences me one way or the another, except my players. When I look at my players’ faces and I talk to them and I have deep conversations with them, that’s what matters to me.”

The words in bold are the ones that got Adam Luckett a bunch of retweets. That’s not the message during this conversation that struck me. It was the line he shared earlier when discussing the difficult decision to part ways with Eddie Gran following the 2020 season.

“Eddie is one of my best friends in the world. I’m still going to do what’s right for the University of Kentucky.”

Mark Stoops still wants Eddie Gran around the program, but he was willing to fire his best friend to prevent the offense from getting stuck in a playmaking rut, unable to recruit quarterbacks and wide receivers in his run-heavy offense. Four years later, the Wildcats are in a similar offensive rut. If he is willing to do what is right for the University of Kentucky, what does that mean about the future of the program?

Maybe I’m just a guy who’s stuck in a similar rut trying to find Pepe Sylvia, but I don’t think I’m too crazy to say that Wednesday night’s conversation between Dennis and Mark Stoops speaks volumes about what’s next for the winningest coach in the history of the Kentucky football program.