Mark Stoops fired! What’s Next? | Rapid Reaction

Matt Jones, Nick Roush, Drew Franklin, Tyler Thompson, & Jeff Drummond breakdown the breaking news of Mark Stoops being fired as the head football coach.

All right. Are we on? You’re rolling. I believe we’re live. Let’s do this. Uh, okay. So, obviously everybody knows the news now. I’ve got the whole KSR team here assembled that does football. And we also brought in uh a face that a lot of people may not know because they only have seen his name and Twitter handle for years, but he was the first person to put his name out there and say it was going to happen using a computer that seems to be in the middle of a fog storm. Jeff Drummond. Uh so you uh you were the first one. I What uh how did you find out? Well, I got a call at about nine o’clock tonight uh from somebody who has given me some excellent scoop over the years and who I trust completely. Uh so when he came to me with this, I was like, I’m 99.9% sure. But there’s always that 0.1 where you’re like, my goodness, please let this not be the top. Yeah. You know, I I I know what that’s like. I I did that with Mark Stops when he got hired. You remember there was like two hours nobody else confirmed it and I was pacing going I it may be over for me if this doesn’t happen. Uh but people are kind of edgy right now if you haven’t noticed. Heck yeah they are. That’s right. All right. So let’s start with this. I want to kind of go I want to go through and talk about like five different things, but let’s start with this. your initial reaction when you realized it was going to happen. I’m just going to go in the order I can see people. So, Nick, go first. Uh, I kind of happy, not going to lie. For two, Vince Marrow and uh and calling this firing. Well, some of it is the fade. I’m typically wrong about a lot of things, so some of it’s the fade. Um, but I yeah, I’m just I I can’t believe it’s actually happening because we got to a point where it was like how do you trying to put the pieces back together felt impossible. So, I’m happy that at least like cuz basically last year was doing everything that a new coach does with the same old coach. So, how do you how do you do that again? Um, all right. Now, we got a new coach. We know how this can work. A rebuild can work. And I’m glad it’ll be a normal rebuild to get Kentucky football back on stable footing. Drew, you were the most adamant of everyone. A change had to be made. What’ you think? Honestly didn’t think Mitch had it in him. Um, you know, change was needed. And it’s not just just cuz Mark Stoops hadn’t been getting it done. There was just going to be no life in that program if they brought him back. I mean, a month ago, you still had some people on board. I mean, it would have been down next year, but life would have gone on. There was just no way people were going to get excited to go next year if you brought him back. I don’t care if he had a whole new staff. I don’t care if he had cuttery and he got Jeremiah Smith from Ohio State. Fans were just done with him and that was going to be that a message was going to be sent in the off seasonason. And I think I know we all know how expensive it was to do the buyout. They just had to come up with that because there’s no way they could have run it back and had any form of excitement. We would have just been doing this next year kicking it down the road. Uh Jeff, a lot of mixed emotions uh initially. I kind of prepared myself for the fact that it was going to happen. Uh but I also had this part of me that was kind of sad about the whole thing because I think Mark Stoops was probably the perfect hire at the perfect time uh when he came in. And I’m not sure that there are too many other coaches who could have come in in 2013 and did the things that that he did over the course course of his career at UK. I I’ve been following UK for ever when he got here. I didn’t think these things were possible. I didn’t think I’d live to see a 10- win season at Kentucky. Yeah, I didn’t either. I think I I Well, I’ll I’ll finish when I It’s my turn. Adam, go ahead, Adam. Yeah, it was just it was time like for for all parties involved, fans, administration, Mark Stoops, it just needed to everyone needed to go their separate ways. It was time. We were I think we were at uncomfortable levels this season. It was going to reach an untenable I think situation if you brought everyone back. I think it would have you would have everyone would have been forced to maybe do something they didn’t want to do that would have made it even more uncomfortable. So I think from that aspect it was it was just the only move for Kentucky. You just had to get this across the finish line. Um tonight people are saying Roush you and Adam need to turn your mics down. I don’t know if that means that you guys are just too forceful. It doesn’t sound bad to me but I guess some people uh Tyler. Yeah it’s been a big day for both of them. They’re they’re hyped. Um, I just to echo what Drew said, happy that Mitch made this call. I know it wasn’t just his call, but the entire day and the entire night I’ve been worried that it wouldn’t happen. I was worried that he was going to kind of kick the can down the road and it would be easy to kick the can down the road with that big a buyout. But, um, I don’t think you can do that anymore. And I’m just really happy. It seems like there’s a new direction coming. There’s new change coming. So, yeah, happy to look forward. Yeah, I’m I’m a little I’m I’m a little surprised he pulled the trigger. I am. I mean, I I started thinking this around 1 or 2 o’clock he was going to do it, but I think I said earlier even on Matt Myron when when I got asked is it going to happen? I kind of was like, I just don’t know, man. It’s so easy. But I think what happened I think at at its core and I’m fairly confident about this. I think there was finally. Okay, so earlier today I said I wasn’t thrilled about the new JMI thing. I’m still not. But I will say this probably happened because the new board of seven and board of trustees made voices other than Mitch Barnharts and Eli Capaludo in the room. My reasoning for always thinking this was unlikely to happen is that Mitch wouldn’t want to do it. Eli wouldn’t want to do it and the crafts were not gonna push him. And so if that were the case, Mitch doesn’t listen to anybody else. So who in the world’s and he doesn’t know what’s going on. He doesn’t listen to social. How are how’s he even going to know? So like part of the reason I was trying to figure out if I was going to say something on the postgame show is I like well I know he’ll hear that because people will tell him. But then I think he started hearing I think these other voices that board of seven and some board of trustee people and maybe even at least one political figure uh said something. And I I think at that point it they still left it up to Mitch, but he realized, “Oh, wait a minute. It’s not just crazy fans out there saying it. There are actually people that matter saying it.” And then you ended up in this process. I’ve heard Mitch has played hard ball. That’s why I I didn’t put it out from 5:30 on because I still think they don’t have a deal. But I also think they realize that they’re like, “We can’t keep these Kentucky fans up all night. They’re going to go crazy.” Um, and so that’s how we got here. But I still don’t think they have a deal. And I don’t think Mark’s moving an inch. So I And I don’t think And I don’t think the booster is going to pay for it. I think they’re going to have to get maybe a loan from the university, which is a whole another set of of things. So anybody have any thoughts on any of that? I I’ll add a detail that Chris Low had. He said that Stoop said he would be willing to negotiate an agreement that would allow Kentucky to spread out the payments over a number of years. Okay, that’s I have not heard that. So is that that’s good. If that’s true, that’s uh that’s really that had to happen. They they weren’t going to be able to do that. They weren’t going to be able to do it. And so I I that I don’t I can tell you that by like 7:00 that wasn’t their position. So maybe I’m just guessing somebody who Stoops really cares for talked him into that. That’s that’s going to be my that’s gonna be my guess. Adam, you were going to say something. Yeah. I just think we’ve compared this to Cal a lot. And what we just said with you saying about the board, it sounds like the stuff at the SEC tournament where some important people, I I believe it’s been reported that got up, you know, got upset and started voicing their frustration. And that’s really kind of when Mitch was kind of like, “Oh, hey, you know, maybe I need to.” I don’t think he knew. I I don’t think he realized it. I think he has taken the view that people who criticize him are crazy. I think he’s had that view for a while. And I don’t know what it is about these new voices, but somehow he realized that there were other thoughts. Tyler, yeah, I’m looking at my feed. I have my Twitter feed going up and I just have players, former players, former staff members kind of weighing in. Limb Bowden just, you know, tweeted out a broken heart emoji. It It’s going to be interesting to see the response to this um from all sides. I think everybody has, you know, a a respect for what Mark Stops has done at Kentucky, but I think we all can acknowledge that it was time. And if there’s anything that has kind of nailed that down, it’s been the past two games. I mean, two teams that you were used to beating throughout the Sups era, Vanderbilt and Louisville, just whooped you. So, I feel like even if there was, you know, everybody agreed Sups was going to come back, we wanted to pay out the spy out, I feel like the change had to come. Drew, I just want you for a second to uh say to talk about I mean, you you’ve been very talk about Mitch. I’ll talk about Mitch. Yeah, you’ve been very adamant about this. Talk, you know, for people there going to be people who see this who are kind of like, oh, why did it have to happen in your mind? I mean, the experience of Kentucky football is not good. I mean, it’s not just winning games and losing games. They’re like 16th out of 16 in just about every measurement I can come up with. I love volleyball. I watched the selection show. That was fun. But football and basketball are in a pretty big rut right here. and he got bailed out by Caliperry uh just a year ago and he had us pretty stuck here. I’m glad it’s all getting worked out. But we’re gonna go back next year. There’s going to be a new coach and there’s going to be excitement and we’re going to get in that stadium and I expect it’s going to be the same people asking for Wi-Fi. Doom is Walker. All roads lead to Lexington. Nothing’s going to change because he’s still operating like it’s 10 years ago. I’m I’m glad he did what it took to to make the move on Mark Stoops. That needed to happen. But that’s one of many things that needs to get fixed even before the spring when they’re trying to generate excitement. Whoever they go get, I hope it’s a good hire. We’ll see. There’s some great names out there that I’m rooting for. They will naturally bring juice. Hopefully, if it’s the right guy, they’ll bring their own players. That’ll bring excitement. But UK athletics as a whole needs to amp it up. Yeah. To have the Let’s not fire someone else tonight. Although I don’t disagree with you, but let’s let’s let’s deal with this one first. The Chris Low thing is huge, Nick. I I I didn’t He reported that I guess since the show started. So I didn’t I didn’t realize that. That’s a massive thing and that was not his position earlier. So someone Huh? 0% zero. Yeah. So someone got him there. Jeff, I’m going to guess that’s boosters that he’s friends with. That’s gonna That’s my guess. I don’t know that. I haven’t talked to anyone, but that’s a big deal. And I’m gonna give him credit. He didn’t have to do that. And I actually think that’s a goodwill gesture on the way out, Jeff. Yeah, that’s the way I I’ve read it, too. I I think it was it had to be people that were close to him, who cared about him, and they know that his legacy is important to him here. It is. Yes. He doesn’t want to leave this in the ditch uh when it eventually came to an end. And I think between that, you know, passion to to leave on those terms and the friends around him saying, “Hey, there’s a way to do this to where, you know, you could still be really wellliked and respected by the fan base. And I think he he will be if this, you know, plays out like it does and he allows them to, you know, reach this settlement of a long-term buyout.” And Tyler Mitch gets bailed out again. I mean, he gets bailed out on that contract again. Like, I mean, Cal, it was the Arkansas boosters and now Stoops, it looks like, and again, we’ll f we’ll probably find out over the next couple days how he got there. But Stoops agreeing to that because here was the thing. I don’t think they were they were not going to get the money initially. And I think it was, you know, there’s some government things you have to do to get a university loan that probably was going to take some time. And so Tyler, somebody got him there and Stoops gets bailed out again or excuse me, pitch. We didn’t even have to have an awkward sit down on BBN tonight. I mean, this is pretty incredible. I I like all the references to the government here. I think you may know something that Well, I don’t want to I don’t want to get into that. I just I uh I But no, I I I’m very grateful that we’re not having to have the ultimately uncomfortable conversation that Kucky’s not going to pay Mark Soup’s buyout because they have found a solution and thank goodness I think everyone is grateful for that. But go ahead, Adam. I just think there were people who there were more people who felt the way Frank Franklin did. Yeah. And and I I mean there were a lot of people like in the BBN that felt that way, but I think there were more people in in positions that were a little higher than than than people thought and some of them expressed their voice Saturday night. You know, some of them are texting me right now. Yeah, exactly. I think that I think that was it was I I think it took people by surprise. To me, Matt, I think some of the die hards and some of the people that follow recruiting daytoday, people that are on our message board, good fans like that are into it and support the program, they’ve been very vocal about this trending the wrong way really since 23. And I think last year was a final straw for those folks. But I think more the Gen Pop fans wanted Snoops to succeed. The radio show fans turned on him this year. They wanted him to succeed and I think the Tennessee game to me was almost the final straw. I think they like beating Florida like he did I think got some people back but that Tennessee game was kind of the to me the after the Texas game where you mess it up on the go go go to go and that was that was the straw to me that broke the camel’s back at that point and I don’t think there was really any coming back from that even if they I don’t know how many of y’all think this I think if he doesn’t get blown out by Vandy in Louisville he has a job I agree with that I think going into next year the fan base I don’t know you were getting him back that’s I mean I don’t know Drew Jeff, then you you two and Nick like I think that’s very clear by how long it took them to do anything today. What would you say? I think that’s very clear because it’s obvious there was no plan for this. The fact that it’s 10:30 and we’re just now having this conversation. A competent AD would have had a plan two months ago of what he would have done today if we got to this point. But Mitch woke up today probably went and sang his church songs and went home was like, “All right, let’s figure this out.” Geez. Wow. Jeff, do you think today? What? I’m getting roasted for my hairline. So, look what I brought back. Yeah, you have a great hairline. Don’t let him listen to you. Jeff, uh Jeff, do you think if we lost that game yesterday, 28-24, Mark Stops is still the coach? Uh, not if it was paired with the Vandy blowout. Okay, let’s say they were both 28-24. Yes. I I I think there’s a pretty good chance he’d be back. I do too. I do too. Can I I I would like to just note that the canary in the coal mine is one of the loudest canaries. And Vince Marrow leaving in June last year. I mean, and it wasn’t just like something that happened overnight. I mentioned it on the board back in this time a year ago that that was a possibility. They quelled it off for a while. But like Vince saw the writing on the wall. I mean, he did. And he was Stoops’s longest ally. He was the most outspoken proponent of the program. When you lose that guy, I mean, it’s it’s kind of hard to to be able to put the the holes, you know, the gum over the the holes in the dam. No, I’m going to give the 30 second timeline of how I think it he fell apart and then Tyler, we’ll rotate around. You all add anything to it you want. I think things have been difficult for Mark for about two or three years just in general. He’s just he’s just had a difficult time. I think it started to slip. There became kind of an old boy network like with Stoops or excuse me with Cal where it was the same people around him, nothing new hiring his brother like it’s just the same people, right? things start to slip. He lost the locker room last year. Lost it. He instead of like trying to bring in new blood, kind of went to the same old stuff. Um, especially Eddie Grant, etc. Vince didn’t like that. He kind of pushed Vince to the side. Eddie was his guy. Eddie and Brad White. He then gets insulated. They kind of think they turn it around this year and then it just doesn’t work and they get more and more desperate and things fall apart and like with Cal, he gets more and more isolated. The only difference was Stoops wasn’t an like Cal was in his last year or two uh to people in the program. Go around. Start with you Tyler. Anything you would add to that sequence? Um so over the off season 55 newcomers via recruiting or transfer portal. transfer portal evaluation not there. I mean, it was in some ways, it wasn’t in others. My only other point, I know Drew will hit on this, too. Marketing and messaging has just been non-existent for the past year and a half, probably two years. They have just kind of like stuffed everything under the couch, pretended there wasn’t a football program to promote. It’s impossible to get forward momentum when you do that. So, those are my two things. Adam, I know you’ll have a lot to say about the transfer portal. I go back even the Cohen just dipsydoo multiple times. Really Stoops did not know. I can tell you for a fact. I’ll just tell you now that this is over. 10 minutes before Stoops took the or Cohen took the job at uh at at Jacksonville or excuse me at Tampa, I got a call from Stoops yelling at me for saying Cohen was thinking about leaving. He had no idea he was going to go. None. Like none. He had been interviewing for all those jobs and acted like he was surprised and Stoops like come on. And by the way, Cohen lied to Stoops. Cohen said he hadn’t interviewed with there and he had and but the fact but anyway, go ahead, Adam. Oh, we could we could we could sell some Cohen stories if we wanted to. Yeah, I got time. I got time. But I think that they just had both times it just really set them back. It set them back twice really. And then I think that had a not everything, but it had a decent amount to do with them losing the locker room um in 2024. And then I think they tried to do this portal thing and rebuild it. And I don’t think they had the pieces in place and how to build a roster where they I don’t think they did a great job with how they kind of did it. They mis evaluated guys. I think they kind of got saved by high school recruiting class. Um and so that’s how that’s how I thought he lost it. And then like the Jo plan that they were presenting here in the last few weeks was just that wasn’t going to work. It was a disaster. Like that is like what are we doing? That would that had the potential to set the program up for I think long-term problems um for the next coach if you went down that road a year or two. And so but I go back to the Cohen stuff. I think that was really the kind of the two big body blows to the soups era was losing the Cohen. We we could do our own podcast on the Cohen thing. I remember where I was in New York City when Liam Cohen said, “You’re crazy if you think that I’m taking the Tampa job.” And the Tampa reporter uh like an hour later said he was coming. Jeff, go ahead. Can I Can I just piggy back off that? Your turn, Nick. Let’s let Jeff real quick. I won’t steal from you, Nick, because I Tyler and Adam threw out some some great examples, but for me, I think especially in the fans eyes, it had to do a lot with some little things that never changed. The time management, uh, the end of second quarters, I mean, even in the good years, that was going wrong. And I think it just really stuck with a lot of fans towards the end of this that said, I I don’t see a whole lot of hope for things changing. Drew, that’s a good point about some of the common mistakes. And you know, he had 12 football games this season. I can count of at least three where when the broadcast went to halftime, people were laughing at Kentucky football. It just happened with Jimbo, who he knows very well. It happened on ABC in the Old Miss game. And there was one maybe South Carolina where the they Georgia they literally go to the halftime crew and they’re firing off jokes about Kentucky football. This isn’t some new coach. It was your 13. We have the longest tenure AD and the longest tenur coach or did have and we’re talking about basic things that haven’t been fixed or corrected in over a decade. Nick, now go over what you’re going to say and then keep going. If you I wrote all about it, too. You can, it’s like a bunch of words, but Stoops kind of had 2022 teed up to leave. Similar to this year, all the coaches were on expired deals. Jim Harbaugh’s the favorite to take the Vikings job and then something happens when he goes on that visit. They hire Kevin Oonnell who leaves the Rams and that’s when McVey calls Liam. I think they just had everything teed up for 22 and Stoops was ready to leave after then. That would have been year 11, right? I think 11 senior year. Yeah. You you had Chris Rodriguez’s senior year. Like everything was kind of teed up to have success. You had a great schedule. You’re seventh in the country. Go down to Old Miss and then it goes to hell in a hand basket there. And then shortly after that, that’s the one the biggest thing he missed on fans was the pony up thing. Like that that was That’s huge. That’s huge. I’m glad you said that. That’s huge. That was the first time that this millionaire didn’t feel like he was one of us, right? That’s what people people love the Youngstown stuff got. Well, then it got turned on his head. It’s like, are Youngstown tough or is the millionaire crying from the yacht? So, I I thought that and then that&m stuff just a few months later. Like, that was just a lot of people were done with him after that. Yeah, that’s huge. You you I’m glad you said that. Well, first of all, go back even the football basketball school divide. Oh, god. Right. Because while most people I think sided with him on that, there were some that didn’t and then they decided they hated him. Like didn’t just dislike him, hated him. So the same way that some fans decided they hated Cal, that ended up being a lose-lose for both those guys. They both came out worse from that fight. And I think that was big. And then the pony up was huge because it also showed that he started he was starting just like Cal to look at the fans as the enemy instead of which is always stupid. And then uh and then I think you’re exactly right with the&m thing. The&m thing was bad. You know, Jeff, I I was with Vince Mero as it was going down and his staff did not know what was going on and he called his entire staff and said, “Who’s ready to go to&m?” And they all were like, “Not me.” And then he was really surprised and it fell apart. Yeah, I’d heard those stories before and it, you know, one of them his his defensive coordinator who who was highly soughta at that time said, “No, I’m I’m not going to Texas A&M uh like it around Lexington quite a bit.” So, nobody was going. Nobody was going. And I think that shocked him. The the other part with the pony up stuff is like Stoops is Mr. recruit and develop and he just sucked at NIL in the transfer portal. And some of that is probably on his boss, right, for not for being behind in NIL at Kentucky. But the other part, too, is I mean, a big reason why he lost the locker room last year is because he invested in the wrong players. He were good at it at first. I mean, the first couple years they actually were pretty good with Levis and what was the guy from Old Miss, the linebacker, Darqu. Yeah. I mean, they they actually did all right at the beginning, but then it got bad and then, but they were they were only taking five guys then. Yeah. Then it became 12 to 15 and then 25 this offseason, which I think this year they did a better job I think implementing those guys into the culture. And I don’t think they had a bad culture this year, but last year’s team was on paper was a really talented football team. Was one of their more talented teams they’ve had and they just couldn’t figure out how to balance that. And it was clear that there was a divide between I think the high school players from high school recruiting and the portal players on the team last year. And it ended up being poor leadership and they just um we talked about teams quitting but that team absolutely I mean it it quit as hard as any teams quit here um there the last half of the season and it was a disaster and then it on it kind of created a hole that was insurmount or uns insurmountable to get out of. Drew, I think you made a really good point about how you got blown out cuz cuz like we didn’t used to get like Mark that was the thing about we were always competitive and then we weren’t. Jeff, you talk to a lot of older fans. That’s like you kind of have a connection to fans that maybe most like you and Ryan Lim are the two people that kind of talked to that part of the fan base. Tell me what how their reactions changed about Stoops over the last couple years. Well, it it started out with a lot of them, you know, frustration and and a little bit of anger here and there. Not quite as angry as the younger crowd. I I think it was always, you know, on social media and that type of thing. That anger seems to come through a lot louder with them. Um, but it it turned this past season to, you know, the the thing we talk about being worse than that and and that was apathy and and and no hope moving forward. All right, I want go I want to go Tyler then Drew and then we’ll talk to the uh nerds of Adam and Nick and for a second. Tyler, Drew, I decide you get to hire the coach. What’s your first inclination? Will Stein’s a great name. Like forwardinking, exciting, offensiveminded. Kentucky connections. Brian Hartline also exciting. But if I had to go with one now, I go Will Stein. Will Stein Drew? Yeah, I kind of joined the consensus that those two are on a tear by themselves. I know there are a lot of other names being thrown around. I know earlier when you had um uh Justin Roland and you did that other YouTube he named I don’t know what he was talking about or was that was that Triple H? I thought that was Triple H you had on there for a little while. Uh I didn’t agree with some of those but uh Stein and Heartline are on a tear by themselves. Lean Stein and it’s more just the he grew up a fan, he’s down the road, but I will say Heartline is one of the hottest names in the sport. If he can bring some Ohio State talent because they love him there, I would lean him. But I just don’t know what receivers would would follow him. But if he can bring some Buckeyes with him, he’s a lot more proven. Uh but I would be absolutely thrilled with either either one of those two. Louisville, I have one thing. I’m gonna y can we get a general manager? Well, I think that’s football and basketball. That’s gonna happen. The thing with Wait a minute. Before we get I want you two to break these guys down for just a second. But Louisville fans really don’t want us to get Will. All right. Now, get a reason to get You two are way too smart about this stuff. So, I want I’m going to limit you both to 30 seconds. Yeah. But for a lot of people who don’t follow this, they don’t know anything about Will Stein and Brian Hartline except their names. So, I’ll tell you what, I’m going to give uh Nick, you Will Stein, Adam, you Brian Hartline. Tell people what they need to know since I do think those are two of probably the three or four biggest candidates. Nick. So, as Tyler alluded to, Stein played at Louisville, but his dad is a former cat. Believe he’s still a season ticket holder. There was some interest gauged early on. Uh I forget his exact first coaching job, but UTSA, the Road Runners, when they had their first big pop when they started playing at the Alamo Dome. He was the guy who was calling the shots on the offense for UTSA. Jeff Trailer, the head coach, became this big coaching commodity. Well, since Stein’s left, he’s not as popular anymore because they aren’t scoring as many points. The offense isn’t as crazy. Stein’s been in Oregon now for what, two and a half, three years now. He He recruited the guy Matt Ponatski, who is committed to Kentucky. He tried to get him in Oregon. So, but like what kind of offense uh spread to what? It’s kind of a it’s a mix of pro style and spread. He’s had a top 10 offense every year at Oregon, Matt, with a different quarterback. Three different quarterbacks he’s went out and had to adjust his offense to. It’s been a top 10 offense. Um I would say just it’s more modern um than kind of what Kentucky has kind of run and they they’ve been able to balance it. Good run game, explosive pass game. Um and everyone that talks to him comes away really really impressed. All right. So, Brian Hart, Brian Hartline, one of the best recruiters in college football. He’s known as getting the best guys at at receiver. He became a receiver coach right when right right when he retired. Ryan Day has promoted him twice, the offensive coordinator. Last time, Day called the plays. This year, Heartline’s calling the plays undefeated. Ohio State Julian saying their quarterback might win or it’s in in the running for the Heisman Trophy. Jeremiah Smith, a guy he recruited, is maybe the best player in college football. Um, he he’s known as an ace recruiter. He’s showing he can he has some play calling chops this year. And I think for him, Ohio State has the best GM front office situation in college athletics. So, if you bring him in, he knows how to work with a with a structure like that, which moving forward I think is really important from a player acquisition, talent acquisition, recruiting ceiling, he’s the highest of any candidate Kentucky has. and he can probably build the best staff where with Stein that is a big question mark for him moving into this role. Jeff, you uh you’re kind of connected with some of the folks who are involved in the donor decisionmaking class. Uh I I believe Mitch Barnhart will not be the AD next season. Uh do you agree with that? I I’ve kind of been getting that feeling. Uh just a a gut feeling that that does not come from anyone telling me that. Okay. At all. But based on some of the things you’ve heard, I’ve I’ve heard you talk about it and and just some of the things I’ve I’ve noticed, I think we’re getting to that point, whether it’s at the end of this athletic year or the next. So that gets to this point, which Jeeoff, I’ll let you go to first. Who makes this decision? Who’s deciding who this coach is? I mean, I know it’s Mitch, but like I don’t think anybody’s given him the ability to do whatever he wants. And even last time when he hired Stoops, he had a committee. So, but they don’t have time for that. Like they’ve got they got to get somebody like real quick. Who is it going to be? I think it it may not be a committee, but I think it’ll be like a small gang, maybe two or three people putting their heads together on on the best way to go. And now, I’ve heard from the same source that I had earlier tonight that Stein has been high on their list uh contingency plan for a long time. I think that’s true. I I think he I would actually say Mitch Barnhard’s little top five list that I’ve always talked about how he always has. Uh I think Will Stein was in the top two or three on that. Drew, do you trust Mitch Barnhart to make the hire? You see have been a big fan. Come on. Come on. What are we doing? I still can’t believe he gets 800,000 when he retires because that just tells me that we’re just going to get Mitch Barnhart 2.0. So, he’ll probably make the decision with whoever he already knows he’s handing it off to. I I will say I did not expect he’d even get this far. So, I have to commend him that he at least ripped the band-aid off and figured this out. A little behind schedule in my eyes, but at least he did it. And uh as you all mentioned, you know, Stein has a contingency plan. He’s number one on my list. If if Mitch were to make that happen, I would have to pat him on the back for that. But that’s about the extent of my pat on the back there. All right, nine minutes. Let’s go to questions um from the from the forum that because we’ve got a really good diverse group of people here in terms of what they know about UK sports and who they’re connected to and all that to uh to ask questions. So Stephen pop of them any of them up here. Will the new coach have the power to bring their own staff Eddie Gran GM type of role? Adam, I think pretty much every coach is given the power to do their own staff. I would think that would be the case here too. Onfield coaches, yes. What’s going to be interesting to see is like how does UK admin want to set up this GM structure because there’s a lot of different ways to do it and they are UK admin Tyler my and my biggest criticism is it’s the most insular no change group of people in 20 years right same faces we’ve been seeing forever this is going to be someone that’s got to be outside of that structure and I do wonder will they do that I think that’s a fair questioned that. That’s a bigger question than we have than just Mark Stops leaving. I think that’s that’s going to be big. But but other schools are doing it. Vanderbilt did it. Vanderbilt’s doing it. They revamped the whole athletic department. Kentucky has to be forward thinking when they make this higher and it goes beyond the football program. So please, I guess Brian Hartline will or will Stein is going to demand that if he’s going to come, I would think so. And and when talking about Brian Hartline, we have to mention Mike Hartline, who’s currently on UK staff working with Cutter Bully. I don’t know if that connection would mean a ton, but it is worth noting. And Heartline 2 has he hasn’t been the play like Will Stein his reputation is as a play caller. Part of Heartline’s the big part is recruiting obviously, but the other part is they kind of have almost been grooming him to replace Ryan Day. um like if things went wrong last year, that was kind of how from like an organizational standpoint, kind of the way they were leaning there, which is not a bad thing. If they are thinking that that he’s an ascending coach that could be the head football coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes, we’ll let him come on down here to Lex Games and then he can go to then we had a lot of success. I agree. All right, what’s next? I do think part of the equation is important there with Stein. I think the thinking is you may have a guy who could be here for a while. That’s true. Mitch values that. Mitch values that. Whether he should or not is a different question, but he does. Thoughts on cutter moving forward, staying or going? Who amongst you knows the cutter people the best? It’s not me. Nick, go. I I I think that they were preparing for this possibility. And u there was even a time this year where I thought he was only leaving if Stops wasn’t leaving. So So I I think I I I think Cutter’s probably staying here and this might have actually done more to keep him here than Stoops returning. And here’s the thing with Cutter. I think this hire almost you don’t want to seclude candidates off but QB development play calling is very very important to those are two boxes I think you have to check and I think for Cutter Bolley I think the NIL package Kentucky can is going to present him is going to be better than he’s going to get elsewhere. I agree. And then you combine that with what’s probably going to be an offensiveminded coach with a QB development background. I think those two things I think you it’s a safe bet that Cutter Bully is week one starting quarterback at Kentucky next year. I also want to say this, you’re going to see a lot of national media criticize Kentucky for this move. And Jeff, I think they’re honestly I think they’re idiots. Like they’re going to sit there and go, “What do you want to do at Kentucky?” Like they don’t know. Like they don’t know. One of the things I’ve learned being a national media person myself, I’m asked to talk about programs and y’all that listen to me know I don’t know anything. They don’t know. So they’re going to say all this, but they’re not here. Like they’re not here on a day-to-day basis and Jeff, they don’t know how it is. So like I expect criticism, but no offense. I don’t care to be honest. There will be some for sure. and they’ll they’ll be quick to point out the 10 win uh seasons, the uh eight bowl trips in nine seasons, which shouldn’t be glossed over. That’s something I didn’t see at Kentucky either. But an objective person who’s been around here, you know, paying attention for the last four years can can say that there’s been a a decline and that things have dropped off a lot from where, you know, those other stats were. Let’s do three more and then a little everybody go to bed because we got all day tomorrow to do this too. What’s next? Pick. Well, Stephen, could we have gotten some raw? Love it. Drew, what do you think? Yes. Yes, we could have over Florida. Whether people like to admit it or not, there is back channeling going on and some raw probably had talks with Auburn and Florida a long time ago and I doubt we had even the smallest, hey, are you interested before today? So, you think we would have picked Kentucky over Florida? I think we would have had a good shot. I think we would had a great shot. Well, but I mean, as I said, that could be on Mitch if if he ends up going to Florida and being successful and whoever we hire isn’t. Some knows those expectations at Florida. Some just saw what they did to Billy Napier, who kind of came from the same path. He probably saw the reaction online the last 24 hours. This is home. Lexington’s a great place to live with lower expectations. Former player, he’s coached here. We all know the whole drill. I don’t know that we would have won in the end, but I know that waiting till 10:30 p.m. on Sunday night certainly isn’t going to get him. I agree. How many people think that he would have picked Kentucky over Florida? I’ll say it. I I don’t think so. I I I would like to think so, but I think Florida is giving him what, seven and a half million a year, plus whatever resources he wants for NIL. I just don’t think that Kentucky was set up and ready enough to make that happen. And I don’t fault John for that at all. Like he’s gonna have a cushy spot at Florida and Florida wanted him and Florida went after him. So good for him. But it really did hurt my heart when I saw that today because it’s like, oh, because there was this glimmer of hope when all this stuff started yesterday. It was like, oh, we could still get summer. He hasn’t gone to Auburn. He hasn’t gone here. He hasn’t gone there. And I I I don’t blame him. It’s It’s gonna be tough to face him next year. Also to the national media, we had 10,000 people watching live on our afternoon thing. I don’t know what we have now, but it’s 11 o’clock at night. It’s 12 right now and it’s 12,000 people. So, people who don’t think Kentucky fans care or it’s only care about basketball. Those people don’t know. Again, think about all the names I mispronounce of coaches across the country like and they put me on. So, that should tell you how much they know about Kentucky. What’s next? I want to I want to add one thing about the national media. I’ve said for years that this is much harder than basketball because we don’t have a moment where you just know. Like you don’t get an Oakland or a St. Peters. There’s not a tournament. You don’t get a 16 seed. You play your three cupcakes. You play the SEC and you get bowl games. So you never really have a it’s obvious. Well, he made it pretty damn obvious on Saturday. I’ve always said that opportunity would never come. But losing 41 nothing to Louisville, that was your St. Peters and Oakland’s. And I hope the national media recognizes just how bad that’s why I don’t think it happens, Jeff, without those two games for that exact reason Drew just talked about. Yeah, it was it was really hammered through on on Saturday. And a few of those shots of him on the sidelines made me think, too. I was like, I think he knows. And his attitude didn’t help. That 0.0%. I was standing with Mitch Barnhartt the moment Billy Gillespie said I was not hired to be uh an ambassador or whatever or you know and I heard with my ears Mitch Barnhart say to no one in particular well that’s it and walks out and I was like well I guess that’s it. That’s sort of like he doesn’t like comments like that. So, I got to think that didn’t rub him. Uh, right. What’s next? How quick can a new coach turn us around? Great question. Uh, Adam, you go first on that. Very, very quickly. Now, there there are situations where if you have a massive roster situation where you have to turn over 50 players, it can make it difficult, but Kentucky kind of did that last year. So, I think they’re going to have a chance to keep these guys in place um this year. And if you hit on the quarterback and the play caller and maybe the schedule’s a little lighter than projected, you can have a good season. Yeah. Well, you know, if you catch a team right and a team couple teams have down years and you do have Oklahoma, LSU, Alabama, and Texas A&M next year in Tennessee. Yeah. We’re probably not going to find Signetti, but he just took his whole James Madison team to Indiana that first year and had a good season. So if you have a candidate that can bring a successful team with them and that helps. I I you get one you get one year but year two in this new era it’s like okay it’s time to go. I agree. Year two the the one thing that’s noteworthy um we you know our guys at rivals had a quote from Ponitaskki that the the star quarterback in the high school class. He said he was never going to sign in on Wednesday because he’s a he’s playing baseball. He’s not enrolling early. U but the high school matters less. It’s more about the portal with new coaches. Well, the portal doesn’t open till January 2nd. So, you have It’s not like Kentucky has to make a hire in two days. You You have a week to get this figured out at least before you start working back channels to build. And they only And they only had what 12 high school commitments or whatever anyway. So, yeah. 13 and 13 high school commits, one Jo. Yeah. All right. Uh let’s do one more as we wait for Stephen’s magical question picker. I keep waiting. Come on, Stephen. Here we go. He combined questions. Okay, gotcha. Well, what is it? There we go. Combining questions. What is the chance Steiner Heartline turn us down? Uh, and if they do, what is the next tier? All right, let’s just I think I’m fairly confident. I want to save the next tier for Adam and Nick. Tyler, I I’m fairly confident one of those guys would say yes. Do you agree? If they’ve already vetted Stein and kind of reached out to him in back channels, I would think that he’s more likely than not to say yes. I mean, not see seeing what they’re offering him, but Heartline 2 has been waiting for this opportunity. I would think one of the two would say yes, depending on the offer, Drew, I would think so. I mean, this is I know we’re down. This is a good job. I will be, if they’re truly interested in those two, I would be surprised, Stein, especially if you couldn’t end up with him. Jeff. Uh, not to scare people too much, but two words or two names, Hurley and Drew from Yeah, but those were two guys who had played and won national championships. I don’t think this is they’re head coaches. These are assistant. Yeah, I mean, Jeff, don’t you think that’s a little different? But we, you know, I think maybe we got fooled a little bit into the power of Kentucky basketball. Surely one of those two is gonna take this opportunity. So, I’ve I’ve learned you you better have a few more names, although we all agree that those are two good places to start. I never thought Hurley would. I did think Drew might, but I never thought uh uh Hurley would. All right, Nick Adam. Great question about Let’s just assume it’s not those guys and then let’s assume it’s not Dan Mullen because I think that is a name that whether people Look at that cat on Jeff’s head. That is uh is that a bad omen? Well, first of all, do you all think Dan Mullen will be a candidate? And then give us one or two other names besides Will Stein and Heartline Nick? I think Mullen would be a candidate because of the SEC experience. He got some time away now. He’s doing well at UNLV. Um all that comes down to would Scott Strickland tell Mitch that like, okay, this guy’s good to work with. Uh and I think that would that would play a significant role in it. Um, I mentioned earlier on the earlier show Kane WAC, the def defensive coordinator at Alabama, who’s been a head coach at South Alabama previously, worked with Dbor at Indiana. I think he’d be in the mix. And then I I’ll save the other ones for Lucky because I know he’s got them fired up, ready to roll. I want to say this first with both Heartline and Stein, those are teams in the playoff. If you make the Final Four, you’re playing after the day the portal starts. So, if you’re Mitch and you’re UK, that’s something you really have to think hard about. Ohio State will be there. Oregon’s a little We’ll see. But they could definitely get there. And how you manage that is something you have to take into consideration. But people have done that before. I mean, that’s been done. Mhm. Yeah. But but it’s still it’s still a tricky Yeah, it’s tricky. And so and then the other name I would say is uh Bob Chzn, James Madison. Um he’s kind of been in the mix for Penn State. We don’t really know what’s going on there. He’s at the mix at UCLA. Um he’s been like a D3 coach, D2 coach, FCS coach, and now he’s been good at James Madison. He’s one I would watch. Jared Parker is a Kentucky alum. Troy’s playing for a Sunb Belt title this weekend. He’s yet another Kentucky guy who went to Troy. He’s having success. He would be to me like the Mark Pope in this situation. Like if you did miss on a couple candidates, you know, Jared Parker’s not going to say no. Hey Jeff, when they hired Mark Stoops, it was uh it was Dwayne Peavey, uh Mitch Barnhartt, and he brought one outside person, and that was Tim Couch. You think it would be Jacob Tammy this time? That’s a probably a pretty good place to start. Yeah, I would I would guess if I were to guess the committee, it would be Mitch Barnhart, Mark Hill, and Jacob Tammy. And that’s just a complete and total guess. But forunately right now they have a lot more options in that regard than they did, you know, in December 2012. Yeah, but Tammy’s on that board, you know, he’s on that that that board and I have to think that he’s, by the way, I expect Brad White to become the defensive coordinator at Florida for whatever it’s worth. Uh, I think that probably happens tomorrow and probably would have happened whether this happened or not. Um, so well, guys, any last words from anybody? I I just want to echo what Jeff said earlier because uh man it’s been hell I was just an intern when I started doing this when the stoops thing first started happening and I didn’t think I would be watching Josh Allen win college defensive player of the year seeing a walk-off win at Missouri watching the Bowden ball experience I mean he took a freaking receiver and made him quarterback and they just ran all over the SEC like what Mark Stoops did was awesome and as Jeff that he was the right man at the right time for the job, but the job changed and he spent the whole last year complaining about it and not necessarily 25, but all 24 he complained about it. It’s clear that just it it wasn’t going to work out. They gave it another go. It didn’t work out. It’s time to move on. Thanks for everything, Stubs. Anybody else? I would say this is going to move very quickly because it has to. So, just get ready. It’s going to be a turbo search. And so Frank, I feel like you have to say something. Do you want me to be Frank or be Drew? Because I I you know, I am want to be whatever you are. Well, people have enjoyed Frank lately, but I don’t love that. I mean, the Stoops time ended, but I I do feel bad that it ends this way because I thoroughly enjoyed the Stoops era as many people did. It has not worked lately. As Nick just said, the sport has completely changed and he was better off than it was. But um you know I have my moments here with my rants but I I I do I I I do think fondly of Mark Stops overall and how it went like I I’m not just like yeah get him out here fire Stops. Hate him. That no part of me feels that way. I Stoops gave it a great run here. People joke about the statue. I still think we should have something recognize him when that day comes. I mean those 10 win seasons were incredible. So uh it is I I I am getting a little fired up here and there and I was 100% on on the change but it’s not just pure joy. I I really loved what Stoops did in his time here up until the very end. Jeff, yeah, I I agree with everything that that Drew had to say there. And I think uh the timing of when he came in and from his first press conference, he came in and said, “We are going to be great on the offensive line and defensive line.” And I said, “Sold. I’ll take it right now.” And I think that’s exactly what Kentucky needed at that time. It wasn’t the most popular hire at at the time. Uh, but I love the way he pitched that Kentucky could compete in the trenches. Kentucky could go compete in recruiting battles uh with bigger schools and he deserves a lot of credit for for what they did during his time here. Yeah, I’m going to talk about this more extensively tomorrow, but I because I do think he deserves a lot of kudos. I mean, he won here at a level that I didn’t think anybody could win here. He changed the idea of Kentucky as like a laughable football destination to where he leaves here and this is a place where we can actually talk about getting good coaches and get one. And he was a big part of that. He sort of changed the perception. He brought money into the program. Drew and I were at I guess we I don’t know if we’ve said it before, but Drew and I sat at the dinner where he sold Mark or sold Joe Craft on becoming a donor to UK. It was me, Joe Craft, uh, Mark Stoops, and Drew. I don’t know how that happened, but it did. And I watched him do it. And it was brilliant. It really was. It was brilliant. And he b he created a friendship there that I think lasted for 12 years and that basically created a football program. And I and I watched it happen and I and I like and I I fell for the guy and I still I I still think he’s a really good man. You know, he’s had difficulties, but like we’re all human. We all make mistakes. And he provided like a lot of joy. And I hate that it happened like this, but at the same time, it did. and he should be in the Ring of Honor one day and he will be and he should come back one day and the stadium should go crazy and it will and I think this is a good way for it to end to where he somebody said legacy it is very important to him to be like loved and to be a part of a legacy and this was the way it could happen and so while I’m sad about it I’m glad it happened like this because I do think there’s a still a way to make him get the flowers he does deserve. So, with that, Jeff, thank you very much uh for joining us tonight. And uh we’re gonna we’re gonna invest with this new partnership in getting you a new camera because that that’s a that that’s a that’s a bad camera and his cat. Yeah. Shout out to I’m not gonna get you a new cat. You can have your cat. I would just add one thing, Matt, because I I I think it’s important to note that Stups has affection for this fan base, and you could hear it as recently as the win over Florida. He really does love the Kentucky fan base. And I think that one thing that maybe separates this separation from the one with Caliperry is Caliperry cared about Kentucky fans, sure, but you could really feel it with Mark Soups whenever he talked about this fan base. So, I do think that’s something important to keep in mind as we’re going through the next coming days. Well, all right. Thank you guys. Uh, tomorrow 10:00 a.m. KSR. What time are y’all doing the football podcast? Two. Is that live? 2:30. Yeah. Yeah. So, that’ll be live on YouTube. KSR is on its regular stuff. See you later. All right. Thank you guys. [Music]