Over the short term, I would argue Mark Stoops was the winner in the public dust-up with John Calipari that followed last month’s “basketball school” imbroglio.
A Basketball Hall of Famer and a national championship-winning coach, Calipari is more famous on a national level than Stoops. So when the UK football coach stood up to the UK men’s basketball coach after Calipari made what could be considered condescending remarks toward Kentucky football, Stoops gave fans nationwide a reason to re-evaluate their presumptions about his program.
Stoops also ensured that a whole lot of eyes outside the commonwealth will be following UK football this fall. For at least three reasons, I believe the Kentucky football season that will officially kick off Saturday at 7 p.m. vs. Miami (Ohio) at Kroger Field will be the most-nationally scrutinized season in program history:
1. Starting out in the national rankings. The Wildcats will begin this season rated No. 20 in the AP Top 25 and No. 21 in the USA Today Sports AFCA coaches’ poll. This is the first time Kentucky has begun a season nationally ranked by The Associated Press poll since 1978 and the first time ever by the coaches.
Being in the “Top 25” portion of the scroll at the bottom of the screens where college football game broadcasts are consumed on Saturdays is a boon to brand promotion — if you can stay there.
2. The Will Levis NFL Draft boom-let. The hype train for Levis as a 2023 NFL Draft up-and-comer got rolling in May.
On May 2, NFL Draft Bible’s Ric Serritella projected Levis to go No. 14 overall. Three days later, ESPN’s Todd McShay projected Levis as the No. 8 pick in the draft.
Topping off the Levis mania, Chris Trapasso of CBS Sports forecast on May 9 that Levis would be the No. 1 overall pick.
That, inevitably, created a backlash. Michael Bratton, host of “That SEC Podcast,” told the SEC Network’s Paul Finebaum “Will Levis gets all this hype. Just because one outlet has (Levis) as the first overall pick in the upcoming NFL Draft, I don’t think he’s near that caliber.”
All the draft interest/controversy that attaches to Levis will bring eyes to Kentucky games this fall.
3. The Big Blue coaching feud. The unprecedented spectacle last month of the same school’s football and men’s basketball coaches engaging in a public beef will create national curiosity about UK football and men’s hoops that seems likely to endure through the current school year.
“(Kentucky) is a basketball school. Alabama is a football school. So is Georgia. No disrespect to our football team. I hope they win 10 games and go to bowls. But this is a basketball school,” Calipari said in the remarks that launched the Big Blue Civil War.
Fans from outside the commonwealth figure to check in to see if the Kentucky football coach really has built a team of sufficient strength that UK should no longer be considered as just a “basketball school.”
What they will also see on the football field for Kentucky in 2022 will be a team that features a fascinating contradiction.
Back in the day, former Kentucky coach Rich Brooks used to talk about the need for UK “to look like the (SEC) teams we play on Saturday.” I’ve seen the 2022 Wildcats go through practices twice, at Fan Day and then at a second practice whose early segments were open to the media.
The Cats looked long and athletic, like an SEC football team should appear. Based off those two viewings, I don’t doubt Kentucky’s level of talent.
What’s interesting about the degree of preseason respect UK has gotten, though, is that Kentucky’s experience profile does not suggest a team set up for a breakthrough year.
Using the figures from Phil Steele’s 2022 College Football Preview, UK entered fall camp with 11 returning starters. That is the second-fewest in the SEC East, behind only defending national champion Georgia (10). Florida, a team thought to be in rebuilding mode, actually returns more starters (13) than UK.
Of those 11 Kentucky returning starters, two — star running back Christopher Rodriguez and veteran outside linebacker Jordan Wright — will not be playing against Miami for non-football reasons that have not been publicly disclosed. A third returning starter, veteran offensive guard Kenneth Horsey, may miss the opener due to injury.
In the case of Rodriguez, a proven, star-caliber SEC running back, the expectation is that he will miss multiple games over the undisclosed reason. For a team with multiple new faces on its offensive line, not having its pile-moving running back seems worrisome.
Yet even with all that uncertainty, Stoops has opted not to lower expectations for 2022.
“I have confidence in this team. I have confidence in the leadership. I have confidence in the preparation that we’ve done to this point,” Stoops said Monday at his inaugural weekly news conference of the 2022 season. “Now, it is time to go put it on the field.”
All those extra eyeballs who figure to be watching Kentucky football in 2022 are going to see a wildly interesting dynamic play out this season for Stoops and troops.
