The Latest Breaking News from Mark Stoops

LEXINGTON, Ky. — For some six decades, the general reaction to a University of Kentucky football season that yielded a winning record of any kind fell somewhere between contentment and excitement.

The regular season is over. The decision-making season begins now. And Mark Stoops has decisions to make. It’s why he’s paid the big bucks. Even bigger bucks all the time.

The Ole Miss coach squashed reports this week, but here is what we’re hearing around that Auburn opening and potential changes at Nebraska, Wisconsin and Colorado.

Mark Stoops knows the timing was awkward.

Hey, it’s Governor’s Cup week, but it’s not the Kentucky-Louisville football week we once expected.

One day before Kentucky football’s loss to Vanderbilt earlier this month, the school signed head coach Mark Stoops to a contract extension that would keep him as coach through the 2030 season.

The Wildcats quietly gave the 55-year-old a new deal, one day before an ugly loss to Vanderbilt.

The hire made sense. To coordinate Kentucky’s offense, Mark Stoops replaced one former NFL assistant coach with another former NFL assistant coach. Liam Coen came from the Kyle Shanahan/Mike Shanahan coaching tree. Rich Scangarello came from the Kyle Shanahan/Mike Shanahan coaching tree. On paper, the transition from Coen to Scangarello…

Despite the busts, the blunders and special teams sins Mark Stoops’ team committed Saturday at Missouri, it’s important to keep the main thing the main thing.

An SEC East “battle of two-ranked teams” is not the primary narrative in the run-up to Saturday night’s football border battle between No. 19 Kentucky and No. 3 Tennessee.

Kentucky football offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello might be reminding his players of the story of the tortoise and the hare in the buildup to a matchup with No. 3 Tennessee this week.