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The predicament Mark Stoops finds himself in as Kentucky flounders this season should be familiar.
Though Kentucky basketball is in a different universe than Kentucky football, Stoops should have learned a lesson from his frenemy, John Calipari. And the lesson is this: If a coach stays anywhere long enough, the fan base will almost certainly grow tired of you.
Calipari found that out in Year 15. He took the Kentucky job intending to stay a decade. In retrospect, it would have been better off had he stuck to that timeline and found somewhere else to go. The last few years of Calipari’s tenure in Lexington were highly uncomfortable before he took the Arkansas job last April.
Stoops, much like Calipari, has stayed in at Kentucky longer than anyone thought. He makes $9 million a year and is among the 10 highest-paid coaches in the country, largely because he’s turned down multiple opportunities to leave. You’d probably stay too for that kind of contract, the theory being that life will be good if you win seven or eight games. Unlike most fan bases in the SEC, Kentucky fans are never going to expect a national championship in football.
But after 12 years, has it grown stale? Should Stoops have said goodbye before Kentucky fans turn on him the way they did Calipari?
It’s a legitimate question after Kentucky dropped to 3-5 with a decisive 24-10 loss at home to Auburn, which was previously winless in the SEC. Unless the Wildcats pull a big upset somewhere down the stretch, they will miss a bowl game for the first time since 2015.
Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops looks on against Auburn during the second quarter at Kroger Field.
Kentucky administrators will argue that even if Stoops never comes close to an SEC title, he’s worth the money because they remember how bad the football program was before he arrived.
That’s…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/mark-stoops-dilemma-kentucky-leading-110306778.html
Author : USA TODAY Sports
Publish date : 2024-10-27 11:03:06
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