Mark Stoops Admits Mistakes During Drastic College Football Changes

Even the folks living under rocks are well aware of the drastic changes that have occurred in college athletics over the last few years. Some college football programs have used the advent of the transfer portal and NIL to their advantage. Others have made mistakes and Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops is well aware of his recent shortcomings.

Sitting at 3-6 (1-6 in SEC play) during the second bye week of the season, the Kentucky head coach was asked on the SEC Teleconference how often he speaks with his peers about the changing dynamics around college football. Stoops said he spends 99% of his time focused on winning football games, but for that other 1% of the time, like during the bye week, he’s having conversations with other coaches about roster limits, NIL, and all of the other moving parts in the sport.

“We do want to be part of the solution and try to help. It seems like it’s completely out of our hands, but we do try to get involved and try to help, discuss it, and if nothing else, maybe vent to each other,” said Stoops.

“But again, I’ll keep that to ourselves, because I don’t want that to be any headline because everybody will say we make too much money to complain, and that’s true. But we are looking for solutions to just try to help the game, just get some common sense approaches to help the future of college football.”

Stoops: Player is Willing to Give the Money Back and “Go Old School”

Stoops did not divulge any specific details about those conversations: who he is having them with, what specific problems are occurring, or the potential solutions the coaches have in mind. He did say that NIL was a topic of conversation with one of his Kentucky football players this week.

“Heck, I had a long conversation with a player yesterday that is just a phenomenal young man and a great human being and is frustrated by the way things are. He wants them to go back. If you asked him, he’d give the money back and go back and just go old school and build the camaraderie and have a team and things of that nature,” said Stoops.

“So it’s not just us. It’s not just coaches. It’s not us coaches whining or crying like people are going to say, and I’m not doing that right now. It’s just a fact. There’s a lot of moving pieces that we all have to make sure we’re staying up with.”

The NIL embargo was lifted by the NCAA just a few months before the start of the 2021 season. The Wildcats won 10 games that fall. Since then they are 17-18 and 7-16 in SEC play. Stoops has tried to keep up with the Joneses, but he admitted that he has not done a good enough job.

“Clearly, there’s been a few things that I could identify that I didn’t do a very good job with in the past couple years,” said Stoops. “I don’t want to get into that and I’m not making an excuse, I just didn’t do a good enough job. I have to do better in certain areas. And I don’t want to say what that is, because I don’t want anybody to think it’s an excuse.”

The first step in addressing a problem is admitting you have one.