Stoops, Cats Ignore Accolades, Keep Working Hard
From the time he arrived in Lexington, Kentucky football head coach Mark Stoops has been focused on building the program. Stoops has not been afraid of hard work or facing any challenges during his tenure at UK.
His plan, and his hard work, are paying off. Since going 2-10 in his first season at UK, Stoops has compiled a record of 42-34 over the past six seasons. The Cats have been to four straight bowl games, including the Citrus Bowl in 2018 and last season’s Belk Bowl, both of which resulted in Kentucky victories.
In addition, Stoops has produced multiple national award winners. Among those are Josh Allen, who won multiple national defensive player of the year award, Lynn Bowden Jr., who won the Paul Hornung Award and Max Duffy, who won the Ray Guy Award.
The college football media is noticing the success that Stoops and Kentucky are having. Recently, a pair of publications ranked Stoops among the best coaches in college football. Saturdays Down South ranked Stoops at No. 15 on its list, 24/4 Sports ranked him 25th, CBS Sports has him 22nd, while Bill Bender of the Sporting News ranks Stoops at No. 27.
Stoops has never been a person who worries about personal accolades. When asked about being ranked among the best coaches in college football, Stoops deferred and preferred to talk about the team and the program.
“You want your program to be recognized for the growth that you have and the improvement that you’ve made over the years,” Stoops said. “That’s what’s important, the brand and the national recognition of your program, not so much individually.”
Stoops knows that preseason predictions are just that, predictions.
“It’s just like the preseason rankings. If we listened to that, we wouldn’t have done the things we’ve been doing,” Stoops said. “We’re really concentrating on ourselves and trying to grow the program. And again, some of that helps from a program standpoint. The individual things, I don’t really put any stock in that whatsoever.”
The philosophy that Stoops, his staff and his team stick to is a simple one. It’s also been consistent from the time he first came to Lexington and still rings true.
“I just continue to put my head down and go to work and grow this program and get better each and every day,” Stoops said. “That really is the mentality. We always try to keep an even-keel perspective around here.”
The Cats had their second scrimmage on Saturday and Stoops felt like the team got better, with just three weeks until the season opener at Auburn.
“I felt like we improved over last week in certain areas. I feel like we’re getting closer, as we need to be,” Stoops said. “We’re inching closer and closer to the season. I felt like we improved, offensively in particular. I felt like we were a little more consistent moving the football. Still got to execute in the red zone and get the ball in the end zone but had some really good drives.”
The coaches and players will look at the tape from Saturday and continue to fine tune the areas that need improving. And the program philosophy of hard work and getting better every day will continue, just as it has since Stoops arrived.
