Kentucky extends Mark Stoops' contract through 2027

[BowlBrother85]

The odd thing to me is Stoops finally found a decent QB and still lost to UT.

This post reminds me of how Kentucky fans acted after they signed Tim Couch in 1996. LOL. They were so sure they would beat us with Couch. It was 56-10, 59-31 and 59-21 during Couch's 3 seasons.

 

[PEPPERJAX]

This post reminds me of how Kentucky fans acted after they signed Tim Couch in 1996. LOL. They were so sure they would beat us with Couch. It was 56-10, 59-31 and 59-21 during Couch's 3 seasons.

1997 UK vs UT was one of the most enjoyable games I attended as a teenager. UK fans were talking hella smack before the game.

 

[90 Vol]

The logic was already applied. You are Missouri and South Carolina.

Missouri and South Carolina know they are Missouri and South Carolina. Tennessee thinks it is Alabama.

I don't need to apply anything to those schools. Kentucky knows it is Kentucky. There is a little bit of an identity crisis with Tennessee.

And Kentucky thinks it's on Tennessee's level...they're not and likely never will be. Kentucky football fans have the worst case of "little man" syndrome that I believe I've ever seen. LMAO!

 

[05_never_again]

And thats my point.

Kentucky fans don't expect to be winning 9, 10, 11 games a year. This isn't our expectation and we've never had a coach who could reach our expectations every single season and exceed them most seasons. So for us....no Mark Stoops isn't over paid. Most Kentucky fans want him to get paid more because we know that if he ever leaves we will struggle again. Think about this. If we had a 12 team playoff this year Kentucky would have been in the conversation most of the year to get one of those 12 spots. If they had won against either Miss St or Tennessee they'd be in the 12 team playoff. That's insane to us and we are excited about the future. Do you not find that insane? Thats why Mark Stoops isn't over paid. And at some point when the 12 team playoff is implemented Kentucky will have a year where they get into it. That would never even be a hope or a dream without Mark Stoops.

We're having different conversations. We agree that UT has badly underachieved over the last several years. We agree that Stoops has done a good job at UK.

The points I am trying to make are 1) Stoops is overpaid because he makes a top tier sum to coach Kentucky football, which is not a top tier program and does not achieve top tier results (I mean on an absolute, not relative basis). In my opinion, Stoops's salary is justified when he starts winning the East and makes runs at SEC titles, which UK has not even come close to doing. I'll even pick on my own school here to prove my point - Stoops is overpaid for the same reason Rick Barnes is overpaid. Barnes makes a top tier salary; UT is not a top tier basketball program and he has not achieved top tier results at UT. You said it best yourself - we're afraid we'll suck again if he ever left, and he showed interest in the UCLA job, so we pay him too much to avoid that risk.

2) Even though Stoops has done a good job overall at UK, a big blemish on his time there is his 2-7 record against UT, your biggest rival in football, who has been a complete dumpster fire for over a decade. Other programs, some worse than UK, have had more success over us than you have during this time.

 

[LouderVol]

Tennessee is 19th nationally in team talent composite and 7th in the SEC.
Kentucky is 31st nationally and 12th in the SEC.

I think you are undervaluing the fact that your team is still 2 deep with 4 star talent. So I ask...which coach is really underperforming? Because to me it seems like one coach turned a national doormat in terms of talent into a top 25 team and the other took a top 20 ranked team in terms of talent and flirted with .500

Two deep? We may have a four star in the two deep, but our starters werent all four stars.

Not at QB (no four stars)
Not at OL, we were starting a walk on
Not at TE (no four stars)
Not at RB, our one four star played 5 games and is transferring
Not at WR, depending on which starting line up, we either start a 2 or 3 star. Our most talented bunch.
Not at DT, our best player was Mathew Butler and he was a 3. Tremblay was the lowest 4 star in his class, garland a 3 as well.
Not at DE, one starter was a 4, the others are 3.
LB, Banks was a 4 star running back, mitchel transfer from texas was highly ranked but only played 5 games, roman harrison was a 4 star on one site, Beasley, page both 3 stars and they started or were second string.
CB, taylor was, burrell wasnt, george junior wasnt. Some of the transfers might have been.
Safety is the only spot where the starters were 4 stars, and one back up who played less than 20 snaps all year was a 4. But I am only seeing those 3 players on our entire roster as safeties.