Mark Stoops Show: After Recruiting Delay, UK Coach Focused on Solutions

Tom Leach had to do a little extra heavy lifting on Monday night. Not only was the Voice of the Wildcats double-dipping with the debut of the Mark Pope Show, Leach had to filibuster for a few minutes to give Mark Stoops a little extra time to seal the deal on a coveted recruit.

The Kentucky head football coach apologized after arriving about five minutes late to his weekly radio show.

“Thought it was going to be a five, 10-minute commitment. We had already been in discussions this week, and I thought it was going to be a quick call. It turned into a longer call,” said Stoops. “But it’s all good. We’ll keep on grinding away.”

Who do we think Mark Stoops was on the phone with? I got a pretty good guess.

The Wildcats have targetted wide receiver Dejerrian “DJ” Miller for quite some time. The three-star talent from East St. Louis has kept things close to the vest. For a time, it looked like Ole Miss was in the driver’s seat. Tennessee also hosted Miller for an official visit, yet it was hard to get a read on the 6-foot-3 pass-catcher. That’s why they pay me the big bucks.

Miller shared that he will announce his decision on Tuesday. I have logged an RPM pick for the Wildcats to secure his services. If Stoops did in fact seal the deal, it would give the Wildcats’ 2025 high school recruiting class 21 commitments and fill a void at receiver left by Ja’Kayden Ferguson.

Recruiting was just a small bit of what Mark Stoops discussed on Monday night’s call-in show.

Kentucky Needs a Center

Eli Cox will play in his final game as a Kentucky Wildcat on Saturday. The Kentucky native has logged a ton of snaps throughout his tenure and replacing that is no small task. Mark Stoops said he feels good about the offensive guards returning to the Big Blue Wall, but they need experienced tackles and an experienced center who’s capable of stepping in and playing right away.

Kentucky has already scouted over 300 offensive linemen who could potentially enter the transfer portal when it opens Dec. 9. It takes some serious heavy lifting to be prepared when the free agency floodgates open. There’s already one player in the portal who could fill that need for Kentucky.

Stoops Focused on Solutions, not Problems

Let’s be candid, most of Stoops’ conversations in public over the last few months have been filled with gripes and complaints about the current state of college football, one that completely wrecked his “recruit and develop” mantra. The complaining got old. Today Stoops made it clear that he’s turning the page.

There was no “whining or crying.” There was no, “I don’t want to make a headline.” He’s moving forward to make serious repairs to the Kentucky football program.

“We know we fell short in certain areas and didn’t live up to our own standards and I gotta get that fixed. That also is extremely motivating and energizes you to get some things fixed. None of us want to live in this world that we’ve lived in all year this year. We have to get to work,” said Stoops.

“There’s a variety of things and reasons and those are past. I don’t even want to talk about ’em anymore. Let’s just get ’em fixed. Let’s be solution-based-minded. That’s what I need to be and our staff. We need to find solutions. We understand why we got caught in this position and it’s not fun and I don’t ever want to be here again.”