Matt Jones says it’s time for Kentucky to move on from Mark Stoops & Mitch Barnhart

KSR Host Matt Jones went on his postgame show following Kentucky’s 41-0 loss to the Louisville Cardinals (FORTY-ONE! THEY LOST BY FORTY-FREAKING-ONE!!!) to say that Kentucky needs to move on from Mark Stoops and Mitch Barnhart.

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I’m not going to go into detail on it. We got destroyed 41 to nothing. That means in the last two years, we’ve lost to Louisville 82-7. 82-7 against two Louisville teams that towards the end of the season for both of those years had were on a downward trend. They still found a way in consecutive years to not just beat us, but humiliate us. Today is the most humiliating. Today is probably the most humiliating Kentucky Louisville game of the Stoops era. Not necessarily because of the margin, although it’s an insane margin. I’ll note it’s one point more than the Joker Phillips loss to Vandy that basically ended his time here. But also because of by game time, I think we were the favorite. I think it flipped right at game time and we were the one and a half point favorite. This was a Louisville team that had lost three straight games that was without their top four running backs. They started a running back who was a walk-on freshman from Ashlin, Kentucky that at this week last year played against Corbin High School and had 61 yards rushing and we gave up 113 yards. We gave up 52 more yards than Corbin did last year. That’s what happened today. It’s a humiliating loss and it was a game that was never close. The moment they blocked that punt, our team, it was over. And in terms of in terms of all of you watching, you never thought we had a chance to win after that. And then they quit for the second straight week. they quit, which is in some ways even more embarrassing than the final result that you quit against Vandy and Louisville in back-to-back weeks. When winning any of the games would have gotten you a bowl birth, you not only got humiliated in both of them, you quit. So, it’s a terrible loss and there’s no hiding it. It’s awful. But, it’s also not worth breaking down because the team on the field is not going to be on the field next year. Probably the most interesting thing coming out of the game is that Vince Mero tweeted at KSR from the sidelines with six minutes to go. Billy, with six minutes to go, he was tweeting about Nick Roush. Incredible. That is I mean I that is incredible. And it’s very Vince Barrow. Vince, I’m sure you’re listening right now. Congrats. But six minutes to go, that’s that’s insane. So ultimately talking about the game is a waste of time. What matters is the future and what matters is what needs to happen going forward. And those of you that have listened to this show for a long time know that I I am much more of an incrementalist than most people are. Most people sort of ride the emotions of the moment. They’re up, they’re down. I I’m like that during a game, but then I try to sit back and go, okay, this is probably the lawyer in me. What is the argument on either side for things? So, I have been with Mark Stops going back to the beginning of the season thinking, okay, how is it to figure out what we should do with Mark Stops? And you may remember I said if he wins four games, you got to make a change. And if he wins six games, you’re going to bring him back. But five wins would be the worst scenario. I was wrong about that. Five wins was not the worst scenario. Five wins with two humiliations to end the season is the worst scenario. Five wins with Indiana going undefeated. Vandy having a shot if they win today to being 10-2 and losing to Louisville 41 to nothing. That is probably the worst scenario. After the game’s over, Mark Stops says basically, actually, let me read the quote because I want to get it exactly right. Mark Stops asked about his future twice. He was asked in the press conference and then he was asked um by Tom Leachch. In the press conference, he said, “You think I’m going to walk away? Are you kidding me? There’s 0% chance I’ll walk away. I’m going to be here as far as I’m concerned.” Zero means zero. 0% chance I walk. It’s pretty definitive, Billy, right? He said zero one, two, three, four times. So, you know his take on it. Well, this is my take. Kentucky football and really even broader than that, Kentucky athletics. It’s time for a change and it is time for a separation between UK football and Mark Stubs. And that’s hard to say in some ways because I feel like we’re where we were two years ago with John Caliperry. Let’s talk about because I think it’s important to know what Stoops has done. Stoops has been the best coach at Kentucky of my lifetime for the majority of his career. When he came here, this program was abysmal. It had two wins. The fans were not only defeated, they had basically stopped caring. and he did something I did not think you could do during that era, which is recruit at Kentucky and bring in players that could make you competitive in the SEC on a consistent basis. I didn’t think you could do that here back then. I didn’t think you could recruit. He made Ohio his base and he created a program that you could actually be proud of. Not only did they have two nine- win seasons, they had multiple sixes and sevens. They had a they were but more importantly, you went into games almost all of them thinking, you have a shot here. And think about all the NFL players he produced. At one point, one season of our offensive line had more players who went to the NFL than the 25 years prior combined. That’s a pretty amazing thing and he should be given all the credit in the world for doing that. But ultimately, if you want to have a successful program, a successful business, a successful life, you cannot focus on the past. You have to focus on the future. And the reality is that going forward I cannot see a scenario where it is going to work if Stoops is back. I just can’t. And there are a number of reasons for that. One is I don’t think this regime is adapting to the modern era of college football. I don’t think they know what kind of player they want to recruit. They had a history of success by recruiting guys, developing them, and watching them come up the system. That’s what he was good at. Then the portal started and they combined a handful of those guys with the people they had and it worked. But now it’s a different system. Now the system is lots of portal, handful of recruited guys pay money. And so far they have not shown an ability to be good at that. They’ve picked the wrong quarterbacks at least two years in a row, depending on what you think of Devin Liry three. They have brought in players that not only have not necessarily helped, they’ve brought in culture issues to the program. And I think it’s pretty clear even looking at this year’s team that the vast majority of guys that had success were who? Guys that they had recruited out of high school who played as freshman or sophomores and did better than we thought. But who have been the disappointments? The people in the portal. And there’s no way you can win in 2025 without crushing the portal. And it’s clear they don’t know how to do it. Last year, Stoops blamed that on not having enough money. I think he had a little bit of a point. Well, this year, they spent a lot of money, and I think the team is a little bit better, but they only had one more win. And they actually lost to Louisville by more than they did last year. And they lost to Vanderbilt by more than they did last year. And they lost to Tennessee by more than they did last year. So, did it matter? I don’t really think it did. But beyond the on the- field product, it’s clear from Mark’s comments, he’s not going to change. Tom Leech asked him, I thought, as nice as you could ask him, what do you think you’re are you going to be in the seat next year, and what are you going to do? And his answer was basically like, well, we’re going to recruit and develop. It’s the same answer that he’s given for 15 years and an answer that’s just not going to work in 2025. He said, “We’re going to work like we always do. We’re going to try to build this roster. You know, we’ve been in tough spots before and we’re going to continue to improve.” Is that an inspiring message? Is that a message that makes you think, “Let’s go.” It’s not for me. This college football is a completely different sport than it was four years ago. You can now win at places like Kentucky. I don’t know if that was true 15 years ago, but you can you can spend money. You can do it intelligently. You can coach at a high level and you can have success. And there’s nothing to me that says going forward that that can happen here. I wish it did. I like Mark. I sat here and thought I didn’t even watch the second half of this game. I just kind of walked around downtown Lexington trying to think about what I was going to say because I I mean I knew the game was over. So if it happened the second half, I didn’t even see it because I knew what was going to happen. And as I walked around, the people I saw or who screamed at me out of their car were all saying the same thing. Fire stoops. You got to get rid of stoops. This fan base is for the most part, I don’t think it’s completely, but for the most part out. They just are. I’m a hockey fan now because of my Carolina Hurricanes. And every year before the hockey season starts, The Athletic does something where they rank the 32 teams by how much hope their fan base has. I always like to read it because you can kind of see like where are the fans on their team. I have a question for you, Billy. If they did an SEC hope rankings with the fan base next year, if we bring Stoops back, what place are we going to be in? I’m going to say dead last. We’re going to be in 16th because the teams that had less hope than us, what did they do? They’re switching coaches. Hired a coach. Yeah. Arkansas, Florida, Auburn, the teams that used to be on our level, Vandy, Missouri are excited about their futures. We would be last. And it I don’t I think we would be last and it wouldn’t even be close. this fan base is just kind of over it. And the reality is two weeks ago he had a chance. We were five and five with two games where it was programs that you should be competitive with. And we went out and got destroyed both times. Destroyed. That flips it for me. I was on the edge before, but that flips it for me. He knew what was at stake in those games. The team knew. And not only did we not win, we got destroyed and we quit in both games. How in the world am I going to see that and then assume that next year is going to be better? What is it there that gives me hope? A big part of football, a big part of life, a big part of sports is you hope for the future. I don’t know what the hope is. I just don’t. And I want Mark to succeed, but I just don’t think the likelihood is high. We were talking the other day and Ryan wanted to bring him back and Drew said there should be a separation. Shannon and I were kind of in the middle, but then Drew asked a question I thought was a very good question. whether you bring him back or not, do you think next year it’ll work? And I realized later that my answer to that question was no. So if I don’t think it’s going to work, why am I doing it again? What’s the point? I don’t want to act like Mark Subs has been a disaster. I think he’s been like a really good coach here, but when it’s over, it’s over. Some people know they’ve been in relationships and it can have been great, but for people who’ve ended them, they know sometimes there’s a moment when it’s just over. And when it’s over, it’s over. And you can put it off until your kids graduate high school. And you can put it off until you pay off your house. And you can put off for a million reasons. But when it’s over, it’s over. And I just think this is over. It’s just over. So, how do you get there? That’s been my question to people. I don’t think there’s an easy answer. But you know what? I’ve become convinced in the last couple weeks. I think you just have to do it. You have to find a way to get the money and you got to make the change. Let’s say you bring him back. You owe him $37 million. Let’s say you bring him back and next year doesn’t work. I would ask you, how many of you all think it’s going to work next year? All right. Let’s say it doesn’t work next year. You know what you owe him, Billy? What? $26 million. So, you’re still going to owe him a lot of money. The problem was the contract, which brings me to my second point. The best athletic director in the history of Kentucky is Mitch Barnham. If you look at it, the success he’s had here is unbelievable. He has taken a school that was basically a basketball only school and for most of his tenure he’s had a competitive football program, a competitive women’s basketball program, won a national championship in volleyball, went to the world series in baseball and softball and produced Olympic world record holding track stars and for much of that time been really good at basketball including winning a title. He’s been here 23 years. I think his record is really good. But I also have to say it’s time to move on. It’s time for Mitch to do what I think he’ll do anyway, but hand it off to somebody else. UK athletics is behind. And as good as he’s done in the things that matter now, we’re way behind. and we screwed up our NIL system. Mitch waited two years too long and we’re behind. Luckily, in today’s world, you can still catch up, but we are behind and it’s because of his personal aversion to it. That’s a massive mistake in the realm of being a CEO. It’s an almost unforgivable unforgivable mistake. You took the future of your product and you refused to adapt and you caused your company to be behind. That’s number one. Number two, in an almost unprecedented way from any other athletic director in the country, you gave two of the worst contracts that have ever been given to coaches. Not because you gave them, but because you let the agents put in a provision that required you to pay them immediately. No other coach except Jimbo Fischer has ever gotten a deal like that. And what happened to the AD that gave Jimbo Fischer that deal? He got fired. You got bailed out because one coach left, but you were going to keep him. You did the video with him. You got bailed out. But as Stoop’s postgame comments make clear, you’re not getting bailed out of this one. You made a unforgivable in the business term mistake. You made a contract where not only do we owe the money, we have to pay it in 60 days. I think if that 60-day provision wasn’t there, he’d be let go. But if he’s not let go, it will be because of your decision. And you did it not once, you did it twice. Behind on NIL, way behind. Two contracts that I think are egregious. And then a future that I would say is at best a little tenuous. The new JMI NIL deal. I don’t know about that. I was told it was the future and the whole country was going to follow and so far no one has. We’re still the only one doing it like that. And I got to tell you, at least looking at trying to lock up these top basketball recruits, I’m a little bit worried about how that’s going to work. So, 23 years of success. 23 years is a long time. And sometimes you can have people who are legends in their jobs and have unprecedented success and there comes a time where you just need to move on. And there comes a time for everybody that you just need to have a change. There’s a song I really like by one of my two or three favorite artists, Tom Petty, and it’s called It’s Time to Move On. And he has this the chorus is like, “It’s time to move on. It’s time to get going. What lies ahead, I have no way of knowing. But under my feet, grass is growing. It’s time to move on. It’s time to get going. That’s how I feel about UK football. And that’s how I feel about UK athletics. The two people in those positions have done an amazing job. But under our feet in both levels, grass is growing and it’s time for UK football and UK athletics to get Boy.