Mark Stoops is 50-50 in 100 games at Kentucky

Kentucky’s win over ULM ushered in a new era for the Wildcats’ offense with the debuts of Will Levis, Wan’Dale Robinson, and new coordinator Liam Coen, among others. The Levis-Robinson-Coen debut won over the fan base with a new-look, high-powered aerial attack in a convincing first game win, but the changing of the guard wasn’t the only milestone at Kroger Field on Saturday.

We’d be remiss in our postgame celebration to ignore Mark Stoops coached his 100th game at Kentucky, and in the process got to a .500 win percentage at 50-50 overall.

Stoops’ head coaching record by year is a steady climb, just as he predicted when he was hired in 2013.

2013: 2-10

2014: 5-7

2015: 5-7

2016: 7-6

2017: 7-6

2018: 10-3

2019: 8-5

2020: 5-6*

2021: 1-0

(*SEC-only regular season)

With a 2-10 record that first season after inheriting a roster not quite fit to win big, it’s pretty amazing Stoops built his way to a .500 record at the University of Kentucky with SEC opponents on eight of the Saturdays each fall.

Throw in last season when it was SEC games every week, plus the year he moved a wide receiver to quarterback, and it is a remarkable accomplishment to be sitting at 50-50 today, the start of Year 9 on the job.

With no plans to leave (we hope), Stoops is already second on the school’s all-time wins list and staring down Bear Bryant’s 60 wins at the top. The crazy optimist (me) isn’t giving up on Stoops surpassing the Bear in 2021. I still see 61-50 on the table in the regular season.

If you’re interested in more on Stoops’ record, Bryan The Intern ranked all 50 losses and all 49 wins before today.

Congrats to Stoops on his centennial game.