As the Kentucky Wildcats prepare to battle the Georgia Bulldogs for the SEC East lead for the second time in four seasons, the national media has begun to notice the good work Mark Stoops has done to put historically football-challenged UK into title-contending position.
"Mark Stoops' stock is rising," Bruce Feldman of The Athletic Tweeted last week. "He also could fit in a lot (of coaching) places regionally."
After Kentucky upset then-No. 10 Florida two weeks ago, John Talty of AL.com wrote, "Stoops should be a popular name in the upcoming coaching cycle if he can keep this up. He's a proven program-builder, a characteristic that a lot of schools could use these days."
When the USC job opened two weeks into the season, J. Brady McCollough of The Los Angeles Times listed Stoops as one of 13 leading candidates to direct the Trojans. "There's no denying what (Stoops) has done at Kentucky, bringing life to the basketball powerhouse's football program," McCollough wrote.
Before the UK season even got rolling, Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports suggested Nebraska "go hire Mark Stoops. He's been about as good at Kentucky as you can be," Thamel said on a podcast.
With No. 11 UK (6-0, 4-0 SEC) preparing to face No. 1 Georgia (6-0, 4-0 SEC) on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. in a game so big it will 1.) be broadcast nationally on CBS; 2.) be the site of ESPN's "College GameDay;" and 3.) be the site of the SEC Network's "SEC Nation", it seems an appropriate time to point out a surprising fact.
Stoops, 54, does not have to leave Kentucky to hold a good football head coaching job — because he already has one.
From a historical perspective, that would, admittedly, seem a crackpot assertion.
Of the nine UK head football coaches who immediately proceeded Stoops (55-50 in his ninth season), five were fired; one resigned under pressure; one left after only two years for a lucrative new job; two retired honorably after fighting the good fight.
All nine departed Lexington with losing overall records as Kentucky coach.
Yet I contend that the fundamentals that underlie the Kentucky job are different — better — now for Stoops than the ones his immediate predecessors navigated.
— Facilities. In 2015, UK unveiled a $110 million renovation that thoroughly modernized the venue previously known as Commonwealth Stadium.
Stoops himself spearheaded a fundraising drive that raised $45 million for what became the state-of-the-art Joe Craft Football Training Facility.
None of that is to suggest that UK football is at a facilities advantage in the cutthroat SEC. Stoops this season has expressed a desire for a football fieldhouse that, unlike UK's current one, does not have a running track around it.
Still, maybe for the first time in its modern pigskin history, Kentucky is not at a substantial facilities disadvantage relative to other Southeastern Conference teams.
— Contract. Kentucky has given Stoops one of the most "coach-friendly" pacts in college football.
For last season, USA Today listed Stoops as the 15th-highest paid coach in the FBS at a cool $5 million a year.
According to his UK contract, Stoops' salary automatically escalates by $250,000 each season.
All that is before the bonuses kick in.
Stoops is contracted to reap $250,000 for each Kentucky win after the ninth of a season.
With the Wildcats already bowl-eligible, Stoops will receive a $100,000 bonus for a "regular" bowl appearance. He would get $200,000 if the Wildcats could earn a bid to a New Year's Six bowl.
— Recruiting. For decades, the perception has been that the lack of a consistently bountiful in-state recruiting base doomed UK football to mediocrity (or worse) in the SEC.
Yet with their roots in Youngstown, Ohio, Stoops and his ace recruiter, Vince Marrow, have essentially expanded Kentucky's "home" recruiting base into the Buckeye State.
With some success to sell, Stoops and staff have subsequently proven they can draw players that other Power Five conference schools want from gritty urban centers in the Midwest and rural, small towns in the Deep South.
Under Stoops, UK has access to more SEC-level football prospects than has consistently been the case in decades.
Of course, people weigh job switches for myriad reasons.
Stoops could be at a point in his life where a fresh start somewhere else has appeal.
A job with a clearer path toward a national championship (though, if the 12-team playoff ever gets adopted, Kentucky could aspire to that far more realistically than it can the current four-team format) could turn his head.
After starting 12-26 as UK head coach, Stoops has subsequently gone 43-24.
Since the start of 2016, Kentucky is 24-22 in SEC games.
On his present arc, Stoops could become UK's Frank Beamer or Barry Alvarez — the coaches who structurally altered the football fortunes of Virginia Tech and Wisconsin, respectively.
Mark Stoops does not have to leave Kentucky to hold "a good football job." He has already helped turn UK into one.
