Louisville Football plays Kentucky on Saturday and it seems the only way Kentucky might continue their, sort of, winning ways in the coming years is to do something counterintuitive (well, fairly intuitive for Kentucky Football really).
Step into his New Balances. You are 51 year old Kentucky Head Football Coach, Mark Stoops and your team, after 6 long years, doesn’t suck anymore. You’re a Stoops, coaching royalty, and you’re in the prime of your career and on the up and up with a great season (by Kentucky standards at least). How likely are you to stay at Kentucky longer than you have to?
Surely you owe the university some loyalty right? They didn’t fire you when you lost 10 games, or 7….or 7 again. And your best season up until now has been 1 game over .500 (twice) in the division of the SEC that is distinctly an easier group of foes than the West, but you’re getting better!
So again…with your name on the rise, how do you stay?
You might be the coach of the year in the SEC and even your own fans never thought you could win 8 games in a season. A bigger, shinier (less Kentucky-ish) offer is sure to pop it’s ugly Benjamin Franklin laden, papier-mâché head around the corner and start jabbering incessantly about how “dominant the Big 12 is” or how “there are no fans more dedicated than those in the Big 10,” how “the PAC 12 has great weather and superior recruiting weight.”
It seems like Kentucky is destined to lose for winning. Success seems that it will surely manifest a setback, Mark Stoops would have to leave.
There is a way that Kentucky, as a football program, can win though…. They have to lose.
Kentucky finishes up its regular season against a historically bad Louisville team this Saturday. And a loss to Louisville would go a long way into cementing that the school down south gets to keep Bob’s baby brother, the whipping boy of the east, all to their self for a little longer. Louisville is having such a bad go of it this year, losing to them would be a huge black mark on a resumé that Mark burnt black in the Kroger Field furnace long ago.
Most major programs are not going to be quick to hire an average coach coming off a decent year who just lost to, perhaps, the worst team in power 5 football. This seemingly insignificant, non-conference, rivalry game could be the deciding moment for Kentucky football and the career of Mark Stoops alike.
I’m sure when Mitch Barnhart refused to let the UK v. UofL game start their season anymore a few years back, this situation didn’t seem probable. But it may end up costing them dearly.
UK had gotten so irritated with losing to UofL, Barnhart thought the best option would be to move the game to the end of the year. Maybe he thought they’d catch Louisville just banged up enough, personnel wise, that they could pull it out. Now a win in that instance, against the in state rival, will establish an upward trajectory for the hire-ability of perhaps the most average coach in major college football. If you can’t keep the guy with that title, who can you keep?
Odds are UK will win this Saturday, Stoops will consider his options and if there’s a suitable opening he’ll be gone. It’s hard to imagine a scenario where he’d stick around just to try and have another “miracle” 8 win season. Not that his efforts or talents deserve more than what he’s gotten but nonetheless he wagered the bet and beat the odds. So pay the man.
Kentucky can’t win…well they can but in the end they’ll lose all the same. Sometimes you have to take 1 step back to take 2 steps forward. Given the history of Kentucky football though the 1 step back would start an uncontrolled, backwards fall down the stairs. Good luck and please, for the love of everything good, just be Kentucky Football and do Kentucky Football things Saturday.
Go Cards. (And Cats)