Kirk Herbstreit surprises Mark Stoops on radio: "I love watching your team play."

“Kirk from Ohio, you’re on with Mark Stoops.”

The Kentucky head football coach hears from fans every Monday evening throughout the season during his call-in radio show, and tonight was no different. This time, though, it was ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit calling in to congratulate his longtime friend on defeating Florida on the road to become the program’s all-time winningest coach.

Herbstreit, a native of Centerville, OH, wanted to publicly give Stoops his flowers for building a tough, winning culture in Lexington. For that, he says, Big Blue Nation should be grateful.

“I just wanted to congratulate you, man,” Herbstreit said. “I love watching your team play, I have since you got there. You’ve just built a culture where you guys were able to go on the road in those kinds of environments — which, anybody who’s an SEC fan knows that’s tough to do. You’ve got a gritty team, man. Those kinds of wins, as you know, early in the year, they can do so much for you. So I just wanted to congratulate you. I know that’s just a small stepping stone to the next game, but congrats.

“Does Lexington understand what they have in their head coach?”

The show’s host, Tom Leach, jumped in to point out that Herbstreit was one of the first national analysts to vouch for Stoops as a head coach and publicly urged Kentucky to hire the Youngstown native.

Herbstreit was proud to be right on that call.

“Of course. It’s because I knew that he needed an opportunity to become a head coach,” Herbstreit said. “He had done everything you really can do as a coordinator, and before that, a position coach. He had been around a lot of great people and coached a lot of great players, not to mention his bloodlines and where he grew up, his dad as a coach and his brothers and just — it’s in his DNA, which I love. He’s a Youngstown guy, got a little chip on his shoulder and I think that’s beautiful. I think his team takes on that personality.”

Here are my top performing coaches from Week 2! 🏈

1. Mark Stoops, @UKFootball
2. Clay Helton, @GSAthletics_FB
3. Kalani Sitake, @BYUfootball
4. Jake Dickert, @WSUCougarFB
5. Joey McGuire, @TexasTechFB
6. Mike Elko, @DukeFOOTBALL
7. Charles Huff, @HerdFB pic.twitter.com/GNX96YwJQ5

— Kirk Herbstreit (@KirkHerbstreit) September 12, 2022

The College GameDay analyst joked that now, all of the praise will be raining down on Stoops and the Wildcats after their big win over the Gators. No eating the rat poison.

After all, Stoops’ teams perform better when they’re motivated.

“The challenge for him is after a big win, everybody is patting him on the back — Coach (Nick) Saban calls that rat poison. You’ve got to keep your edge,” Herbstreit said. “If you’re Kentucky and you’re playing Georgia and you’re playing Tennessee, playing all these guys, you’d rather have everybody patting them on the back and not you because that’s a slippery slope.

“I just wanted to congratulate you again and I look forward to watching you guys coming up in the next few weeks. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to see you this year.”

Stoops was quick to return the praise, first on hitting the nail on the head with his current message to the team. He didn’t think the Wildcats played with an edge against Miami (OH) to open the season and that’d have to change if they wanted to leave The Swamp with a win.

Now, they’ll have to keep that same edge this weekend against Youngstown State — and every game, for that matter.

“I’ve got to give you a shoutout,” Stoops responded. “Two things: number one, you’re exactly right, and I talked to the team about it today. About a week ago I was in that meeting room and challenging them to pick it up some notches with their intensity. Just that, I talked about people patting them on the back. I said if — I don’t know, I’m not in Florida’s locker room — but if that affected them a week ago, that’s their problem, right?

“Everybody was patting them on the back after week one and if they fell into that, that’s on them. I just used it as a learning experience because we cannot let that happen to us. We can’t play that way.”

Stoops also praised Herbstreit for picking the Wildcats on College GameDay, the only analyst to do so. As the rest of the college football world drooled over the Gators, Herbstreit went with Kentucky.

“I have to read this about Herbie because he said it before anybody did, when the whole nation was talking about Florida and talking about us and not having a chance, the whole deal,” Stoops said. “This is a quote from Kirk Herbstreit: “This is a game built for Mark Stoops. Chip on their shoulder, don’t feel the respect. They win outright in the swamp.” Kirk Herbstreit, thank you.”

Herbstreit’s response? Stoops is forcing people to take notice. The way he coaches his team and the culture he’s established in Lexington, it’s impossible to not appreciate it.

“Hey, man, I’m doing my part to make sure those players don’t get too confident,” Herbstreit said. “Because on one hand — don’t tell them, but I said something earlier in the show, ‘They’re not tough enough to go into The Swamp and win.’ I’m doing everything I can to try to help along [laughs].

“But man, congrats. I know it’s just one hurdle and you’ve got so many more to go, but everyone’s watching the Cats play football. Nothing like it. You guys keep going. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to call one of your games this year and see you soon.”

Nothing like it, indeed.

See you and the College GameDay crew soon, Kirk.