Mark Stoops is Kirk Herbstreit's No. 1 college football coach of the week

In case you haven’t heard, the Kentucky Wildcats had one hell of a weekend, taking down the Florida Gators at home for the first time since 1986. As a result, Mark Stoops’ program is now 5-0 on the year and ranked No. 14 in the Coaches Poll and No. 16 in the AP.

With such a monumental win for the program comes strong accolades. Jacquez Jones was named SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Week and Walter Camp Defensive Player of the Week, while Josh Paschal won SEC Co-Special Teams Player of the Week and Reese’s Senior Bowl Defensive Player of the Week. Kentucky is even receiving New Year’s Six bowl buzz.

To put the icing on the cake, college football expert Kirk Herbstreit has named Stoops the top-performing coach in all of college football in week five. Stoops leads the likes of Jim Harbaugh (Michigan HC), Luke Fickell (Cincinnati HC), David Shaw (Stanford HC) and Phil Parker (Iowa DC), among others.

Herbstreit’s complete rankings

1. Mark Stoops (Kentucky head coach)
2. Jim Harbaugh (Michigan head coach)
3. Luke Fickell (Cincinnati head coach)
4. David Shaw (Stanford head coach)
5. Phil Parker (Iowa defensive coordinator)
6. Dan Lanning (Georgia defensive coordinator)
7. Pete Golding (Alabama defensive coordinator)
8. Jonathan Smith (Oregon State head coach)
9. Zac Hill (Arizona State offensive coordinator)
10. Rod Carey (Temple head coach)
11. Matt Wells (Texas Tech head coach)

My top performing COACHES WEEK 5:

Stoops @UKFootball
Harbaugh @UMichFootball 
Fickell @GoBearcatsFB 
Shaw @StanfordFball
Parker @HawkeyeFootball DC
Lanning @GeorgiaFootball DC
Golding @AlabamaFTBL DC
Smith @BeaverFootball
Hill @ASUFootball OC
Carey @Temple_FB
Wells @TexasTechFB pic.twitter.com/R4V1k9KClA

— Kirk Herbstreit (@KirkHerbstreit) October 4, 2021

To open the week, Stoops said he expects to win every week and hopes fans do the same. It’s a mindset and culture he has embraced from the time he first arrived in Lexington.

“I have said that and believed that since I walked in here,” Stoops said Monday. “That’s not lip service, when I sit up here and say we expect to win. That’s no discredit to anybody. … I promise you I’m going in the building yesterday morning to compete to win the football game. I don’t care who we are playing and that’s just the way we are going to go about our business.”

Let’s keep that rolling against LSU.