Barring an unforeseen cataclysm, Mark Stoops will make University of Kentucky sports history in 2022. When UK kicks off its season Sept. 3 at 7 p.m. vs. Miami (Ohio) at Kroger Field, Stoops will set a new longevity record for a Kentucky head football coach by commencing a 10th season on the Wildcats sideline.
Whenever Kentucky gives its head man (59-53 since 2013) his second victory of 2022, it will move Stoops past Paul “Bear” Bryant (60-23-5 from 1946 through 1953) as UK’s all-time wins leader.
“The 10 years in Lexington is something that I am proud of, because I know how difficult it is,” Stoops said last month at SEC Football Media Days in Atlanta. “I know how difficult it is to walk into this league with the great coaching, with the recruiting and starting 6 feet below 14 (meaning last in the league), then try to climb the ladder as high as we can.”
From the big-picture view, what will make Stoops’ history-making 2022 intriguing is that the coming season will provide unique challenges that will test just how thoroughly the Cats coach has transformed the UK football program.
Kentucky was tabbed to finish second in the SEC East in 2022 by the assembled reporters at SEC Football Media Days. Based on the performance of SEC East programs over the past five seasons, UK and Stoops have earned that level of respect.
Since 2017, Kentucky has the second most overall wins among SEC East programs: 1. Georgia 58; 2. Kentucky 40; 3. Florida 39; 4. Missouri 32; 5. South Carolina 29; 6. Tennessee 27; 7. Vanderbilt 16.
UK has the third-most SEC regular-season victories among East teams in the past five years: 1. Georgia 36; 2. Florida 24; 3. Kentucky 21; 4. Missouri 19; 5. South Carolina 17; 6. Tennessee 14; 7. Vanderbilt 5.
The Wildcats are tied with Florida for the second-best average finish in the SEC East standings since 2017: 1. Georgia average finish of 1.2; 2. Florida 3.2; 2. Kentucky 3.2; 4. Missouri 3.6; 5. South Carolina 4; 6. Tennessee 5; 7. Vanderbilt 6.8.
Over the past five seasons, only three SEC East programs have produced double-digit win seasons — Georgia has four; UK and Florida have two apiece.
Yet in picking UK second in the East for 2022, the SEC media essentially opined that Kentucky can absorb the substantial loss of key personnel off of last season’s 10-3, VRBO Citrus Bowl championship team without taking a substantial hit to the bottom line.
Kentucky enters the coming season without a proven offensive tackle on its roster and with only two starters returning on the offensive line — one of whom, Eli Cox, is switching from guard to center. That is a huge question to be answered for the Cats because physical and relentless play from “The Big Blue Wall” has been the foundation of Stoops-era UK football success.
Entering a year with more offensive line uncertainty than UK has been accustomed to facing in recent seasons, there remain questions about the playing status of pile-moving star running back Christopher Rodriguez.
We know for sure UK will be without the difference-making slot receiver Wan’Dale Robinson, who in 2021 produced the greatest single season ever (104 catches, 1,334 receiving yards) by a Kentucky wideout (Robinson is already drawing raves in New York Giants training camp, too).
Though there are receiver newcomers on the Kentucky roster with apparent promise, UK enters 2022 with no wide receiver who has caught more than 14 passes for the Wildcats in a season (junior-to-be DeMarcus Harris made 14 receptions in 2020).
If that weren’t enough offensive uncertainty, Kentucky is on its third offensive coordinator and third full-time offensive line coach in the past three seasons, too.
Defensively, Stoops and Kentucky must replace last season’s two most disruptive down linemen, nose guard Marquan McCall and end Josh Paschal, the latter a second-round draft pick by the Detroit Lions.
Meanwhile, in 2022, UK will face its two perennial SEC East nemeses, Florida and Tennessee, on the road. The Gators have beaten Kentucky 33 out of the last 35 meetings; the Volunteers have vanquished the Wildcats in 34 out of the past 37 contests. Both will have taken offense to having been picked to finish below UK in the division standings.
To have any chance to finish in the top two in the East, Kentucky almost certainly must win in either Gainesville or Knoxville — and maybe in both.
No Kentucky coach has beaten Florida and Tennessee in the same season since Fran Curci in 1977. UK has never won in Gainesville and in Knoxville in the same season.
That’s why, in a season in which Mark Stoops will make Kentucky football history, the tests he is facing will provide him the chance to show that the change he has overseen in the UK program is genuinely historic.
©2022 Lexington Herald-Leader. Visit kentucky.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
