After a disappointing 4-8 UK football season, here’s what I would do if I was Mark Stoops

If I’m Mark Stoops, I’m laying low for awhile.

If I’m Mark Stoops, I’m letting Big Blue Nation enjoy Mark Pope. I’m letting BBN bask in the glow of a refreshing new coach and a veteran basketball team that knows how to play the game. I allow roundball to dominate the headlines.

If I’m Mark Stoops, I know that nothing I say in the next few days or weeks is going to draw people back on the football bandwagon. Not after a 4-8 season. Not after a 1-7 record in SEC play. And especially after Saturday’s 41-14 blowout loss to archrival Louisville.

If I’m Mark Stoops, I rise and grind. I figure out why, after eight straight bowl appearances, including a pair of 10-win seasons, my Big Blue express ran out of steam. How much steam? How about 14 losses in the last 20 games, including 12 in the last 14 SEC games?

If I’m Mark Stoops, I stick with Bush Hamdan as offensive coordinator. Kentucky’s offense was no juggernaut in Hamdan’s first season as play-caller. In fact, it was statistically among the nation’s worst. Kentucky was the only SEC team not to score more than 20 points in a conference game. Ouch. But Hamdan is a smart coach with a solid background. And after five years of five different offensive coordinators, Kentucky’s most pressing need is continuity.

If I’m Mark Stoops, I build my offense around Cutter Boley at quarterback. To say the true freshman had a rough first go as a college starter Saturday would be an understatement. As expected, veteran Louisville defensive coordinator Ron English had a few tricks up his sleeve. And UK’s new QB got tricked. The former Lexington Christian Academy star will learn from the hard knock, however. He has the traits, as they say. He’s going to be good.

If I’m Mark Stoops, I make sure Bush and Boley have the proper support. Despite Jamarion Wilcox’s two fumbles Saturday, I make sure the talented running back remains in the fold. Same for freshman wide receiver Hardley Gilmore, freshman tight end Willie Rodriguez and other talented upperclassmen, should they stay. And I ramp up the rebuilding job that has been the offensive line. Kentucky’s offensive improvement must begin up front.

If I’m Mark Stoops, I do what I can to keep defensive coordinator Brad White. That might be an impossible job. UK’s defensive play-caller has been linked to job openings in other places, specifically Florida State. After six years running Kentucky’s defense, White might think it’s time for a change. If so, that’ll be UK’s loss. And it’ll leave Stoops with an important hole to fill.

If I’m Mark Stoops, I focus on doing a better job in the transfer portal. There has been a lot of talk recently about the difficulty of establishing or keeping a program’s culture in the transfer portal era. Yet UK’s 2018 team that finished 10-3 was led by a pair of transfers — quarterback Will Levis and wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson. Linebacker Jacquez Jones, an Ole Miss transfer, was an important piece of Kentucky’s 2021 team that also went 10-3. It can be done.

If I’m Mark Stoops, I make sure the resources are there to accomplish all of the above. The coach says he has already done much of that work. He says a plan is in place. Without revealing specifics, he says he feels good about the plan. In the current chaotic landscape, you better have a plan. And a good one.

And if I’m Mark Stoops, I have the inner confidence that I can turn the ship back in the right direction. He did it before. Back in 2013, when he first took over a program that had gone 2-10, it was lacking in size, talent and facilities. That turnaround was tougher, Stoops said Saturday. You couldn’t revamp a roster then the way you can now.

And yet, if I’m Mark Stoops, I know it won’t be easy. This is Kentucky football, after all. And for Kentucky football, nothing has ever been easy.

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