As Kentucky prepares to kick off the 2025 football season against Toledo, The Courier-Journal wonders if head coach Mark Stoops is on the hot seat.
Stoops, who makes an annual salary of $9 million, has an on-field record of 77-73 during his tenure in Lexington. Unfortunately, 10 victories were vacated due to NCAA violations, leaving his overall record at 67-73.
Here is an excerpt from The Courier-Journal article:
Reflecting on the last few years is a painful exercise for UK fans. The program failed to achieve bowl eligibility last season after winning just four games — one of which came against an SEC opponent (Ole Miss). Kentucky hasn’t had a .500 or better conference record in three years. And the 2025 campaign will pose plenty of challenges, with consecutive games against South Carolina (away), Georgia (away), Texas and Tennessee from weeks 4-7.
Additionally, Stoops lost a key piece of his staff this offseason. Associate head coach/tight ends coach/recruiting coordinator/NFL liaison Vince Marrow left Kentucky (where he’d been since 2012) to become Louisville football’s first general manager in June.
“It’s fair to say after coming off a season where we were not very pleased, failed to meet our expectations, our own expectations, and didn’t play at the level that we wanted to, that we have to have a heightened sense of awareness, and we’ve got to just have a greater sense of urgency,” Stoops said during a news conference July 28. “Take a good, hard look at all the systems and processes and things that we have in place and make sure we’re doing things right.”
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While I don’t think Stoops is on the so-called hot seat, I do believe he needs to have a successful season in 2025.
