Punt? Not this time. Stoops "wanted to go win" on 4th down throw to Barion Brown

Mark Stoops heard the criticism. He received the feedback, read the comments, and got the message: many fans think he is too conservative. The fan/coach divide in philosophy blew up two weeks ago when Stoops punted away to No. 1 Georgia late in a one-point game rather than trying to keep a potential game-winning drive alive on 4th-and-8 at the UGA 47. The Bulldogs picked up two quick first downs, and Kentucky never got another realistic shot to win the game.

Stoops’ critics, including some national college football pundits, crushed the decision to give the ball back to Georgia. “A loser’s mentality,” wrote On3’s Ari Wasserman. Still, Stoops stood by his decision to play field position football, even with the No. 1 team against the ropes, trusting his coaching philosophy over analytics or outside opinions.

A week later, Stoops’ in-game coaching came under fire again when Kentucky failed to come away with points before halftime against Ohio, this time being too aggressive. In his halftime interview, Stoops explained that he listened to too many people around him when he opted not to kick a field goal on third down with under 20 seconds left. Instead of taking the points, Kentucky ran another play, resulting in a sack and an expired clock. A disaster in clock management, Stoops told the UK Sports Network that he should’ve “gone with his gut.”

Stoops’ gut found its redemption in Oxford on Saturday. With Kentucky trailing Ole Miss by three, Stoops faced another tough decision on 4th-and-7 at UK’s own 20-yard-line with under four minutes to go. With the way Kentucky played defense all day, the numbers and many of Stoops’ critics would’ve said to punt the ball away. After all, the last two Ole Miss drives went three-and-out.

But Stoops’ gut felt like gambling.

“We wanted to go win.”

Down by four with 80 yards to go, Brock Vandagriff and Kentucky’s offense stayed on the field on fourth down. This time, Stoops rolled the dice, seeing a matchup he liked and thought UK could exploit.

He made the correct call. Vandagriff connected with Barion Brown for a 63-yard gain, setting up the go-ahead, game-winning touchdown.

ABSOLUTE MADMAN WHAT A THROW pic.twitter.com/igvK1y7G1x

— KSR (@KSRonX) September 28, 2024

“It was the gut,” Stoops explained after the game. “It was the gut. I understand the position I was in a couple weeks ago. I clearly do. But I also, you know, was going to have great field position there, pin them, and we had been playing so well. I also know what this offense is capable of. Analytics will tell you on 4th-and-6 or less to go for it. We were on 4th-and-8, but I felt good about the matchup.”

The matchup was the one-on-one with Brown, who caught Vandagriff’s 30-plus-yard pass over tight man coverage, made a cut, then ran another 30 yards into the red zone. Stoops said he knew Ole Miss would play aggressively and leave Brown in single coverage.

“I felt like we were going to get a one-on-one, you know, and we did. To me, that’s 50/50, and we wanted to go win; we wanted to go put it away.”

In the plan to steal a possession

Stoops didn’t know Saturday’s game would come down to a 4th-and-8 decision 80 yards from the end zone. He did, however, know that Kentucky couldn’t beat Ole Miss without gambling, so he flew into Oxford with a plan to be aggressive.

“I had it in the game plan all week,” Stoops told Tom Leach after the win. “I knew I had to steal a possession or two.”

Kentucky converted two other fourth-down tries in the game, going a perfect 3-for-3 against Ole Miss in the win. It takes conversions like those to upset the sixth-ranked team on the road, especially a team like Ole Miss.

Stoops explained, “They don’t turn it over much, and they can move the ball so fast. Believe it or not, this style is a harder matchup, even than maybe Georgia, sometimes. Does that make sense? Because they score so fast, and then they spread you out. They just go so fast. So, in the game plan, I told Bush all week we had to have critical third downs and we had to have critical fourth downs ready to play today. So we went into the week preparing for fourth downs.”

He added, “You’re a genius if it works. I would’ve been second-guessed forever if we didn’t convert that.”

[Hear Mark Stoops’ postgame press conference.]