Are we watching Mark Stoops repeat a John Calipari mistake?

By the end of John Calipari’s 15-year run as Kentucky men’s basketball coach, his “messaging” was no longer effectively shaping public opinion in the Big Blue Nation.

While the biggest issue that created the environment that led to Calipari self-exiling himself to “Hog-town” this spring was a lack of positive on-court results, a major secondary problem was that many UK fans had grown weary of the coach’s NBA-centric marketing messaging.

While the underlying topic is different, I can’t help but wonder if a similar disconnect between coach and fan base is gathering around Mark Stoops and the Kentucky football coach’s NIL commentary.

In a frank exchange with writer Darrell Bird of The Cats’ Pause last month, Stoops lamented the fund-raising burdens on him necessary for the UK football program to “make payroll” in the free-wheeling, current era of name, image and likeness funding for college players.

“I have 100 free agents every six months,” Stoops said. “You don’t think there’s pressure of raising money to keep them and to pay them what they deserve and to help them? And I’ve done this for two, three years completely alone. I get no help. None.”

Stoops went on to say, “My job has changed with name, image and likeness and the transfer portal. These issues, they consume me. I can’t coach the way I want to coach because all I do is raise money or try to raise money. I have to go meet somebody for a drink or meet somebody for a meeting or dinner or do something to raise money three-fourths of my life. It’s just reality.”

While I have empathy for someone whose job changes in ways they don’t particularly enjoy, NIL messaging is becoming self-defeating for Stoops.

After last season’s dispiriting Kentucky performance in a 51-13 loss at No. 1 Georgia, Stoops famously challenged a critical caller on his weekly coach’s radio show to “pony up” more NIL funding so UK could afford more of the kind of players Georgia has.

Suffice to say, the remark did not “play well.”

Stoops’ recent comments on the fund-raising burdens he carries did not seem to be greeted with great fan sympathy, either.

Two summers ago, Stoops was right to stand up to Calipari when the then-UK hoops head man declared Kentucky “a basketball school” while listing some of the Wildcats’ SEC competitors as authentic “football schools.”

Yet by airing his NIL frustrations this summer, Stoops himself sent the implied message that Kentucky’s football situation is not like other SEC schools.

In the public relations realm, that is an own goal.

When it comes to the big picture of his messaging to Kentucky fans, I am not sure Stoops has fully adjusted to the impact that the lucrative contract he signed during the 2022 season has had on how he is viewed.

Stoops may look in the mirror and see the guy who grew up sleeping in the same bedroom with his three brothers in hardscrabble Youngstown, Ohio.

As the all-time winningest coach at historically football-challenged Kentucky, he may still view himself as the conductor of the little engine that could.

Since the 2022 contract, however, at least some UK backers now see Stoops as a guy being paid like one of the nation’s elite coaches without the Sugar Bowl trips to back that up.

It is clear that some fans are weary of hearing about NIL problems from someone who will make more money in a year than they will in a lifetime.

For Stoops — or any other college coach — the correct messaging on NIL is two-fold.

Toward the athletes, you say “at our school, we want our players to benefit from every opportunity you can and we will work non-stop with you to develop those chances.”

For the fans you hope to convert to donors, you say “you are not obligated to do this, and we know that. But if you are looking for a way in which you can actually impact outcomes on Saturday, this is a path to doing that. So, if you can, please help us.”

Just for the record, as it regards Stoops and his ample salary, he is not overpaid by the parameters of his profession.

Consider:

▪ As the Kentucky head man himself correctly pointed out at SEC Media Days, UK has the fourth-most overall wins (47) among SEC teams (not including newcomers Oklahoma and Texas) since 2018.

At $9.013 million a year, Stoops will enter 2024 as the fifth-highest-paid head football coach in the Southeastern Conference.

▪ The six UK head men who immediately preceded Stoops combined for 10 total wins over AP Top 25 teams.

Stoops has 13 such victories himself — 11 of them since 2018.

▪ Starting in 1958 through 2010, the University of Kentucky had four football players who earned first team AP All-America honors.

Stoops has had five players earn that designation since 2018.

▪ In its entire football history, Kentucky has won as many as four SEC games in a season 17 times.

Stoops has produced five of those 17 seasons — more than any other UK coach — since 2016.

It would be a shame if Stoops’ messaging miscues around NIL came to obscure for Kentucky fans what has been a really good coaching run.

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