Mark Stoops Doesn't Want Fans to Take Quotes Out of Context; Fans Immediately Take Quotes Out of Context

The Kentucky football fanbase is in a weird place. Mark Stoops is well aware of that. As he made his speaking rounds on Monday following the 28-point loss to Florida, he tried to put out a few fires, but he ended up pouring on more gasoline.

During his press conference with the media, the conversation turned toward officiating, more specifically, the challenge system currently in place for college football.

“I like working with you all. I think we have a good understanding,” he told the media. “We’ve been here for a long time going through this, but when I elaborate, somebody grabs something, and next thing you know I’m ‘complaining.’ I can’t be ‘Fun Mark’ today. You guys are professionals, and just some people don’t listen to the whole conversation. They just grab a piece and next thing it’s online, so I’m gonna make that very clear.”

It was an unusual press conference that led to an unusual Mark Stoops Show. He reiterated that point once more.

“There are a lot of areas we can control. We need to improve and we will. I mean, that’s it. I can’t say anything else Tom, you know what I mean? Anything I say gets picked apart, I’ll get annihilated,” he said. “Let’s just say I need to do a better job and leave it at that, and that’s because everything will get twisted and misconstrued. We just need to do better.”

Out of Context Mark Stoops: “You don’t know ball.”

It was odd for Stoops to break the fourth wall and say the quiet part out loud. He also wasn’t wrong. Most Kentucky fans online are mad and nothing he says can fix it. He also was correct. Kentucky fans took one line from his coach’s show and ran with it.

On my ‘For You’ page on Twitter, the following post was one of the first things I saw this morning. There was an accompanying thread on KSBoard on Tuesday morning that had 30+ replies and 500 views.

“If you just wanna look at the win loss column, you don’t know football.”

Ok.
•The win against Ole Miss means nothing. Win/loss doesn’t matter. We just played & had fun.
•Stoops isn’t the winningest coach in UK history. Win/Loss doesn’t matter. He’s just the highest paid. https://t.co/DOAMfJizsB pic.twitter.com/QZkyKNcPaG

— Chet Lemond (@ChetLemond) October 21, 2024

The quote was not about the Kentucky football team. He was talking about Auburn.

Auburn is 2-5 overall and winless in SEC play. Hugh Freeze has an explosive offense with future NFL wide receivers who have more receptions of 40+ yards than any team in all of college football. They can’t win games because they can’t get out of their own way. Only one FBS school has a worse turnover margin than the Tigers at -10.

Stoops was trying to prepare BBN for the challenge Kentucky faces on Saturday against Auburn. Instead, some fans think the head coach took a shot at them. “You really don’t know football.”

We’re in a bad place and the only thing that’s going to help is more Kentucky football wins.