Throughout the early part of the 2024 season, it’s become apparent that Kentucky football has peaked under Mark Stoops, which means it’s time for change.

First and foremost, starting with the obvious, just because it’s time for change does not mean Stoops is a bad coach or has necessarily wronged the program. 

It actually means just the opposite. It’s remarkable what Stoops has turned the Kentucky football program into, but it’s also time to admit that Kentucky is on a downward tailspin. 

Unfortunately for him, expectations were at an all-time low when Stoops arrived and the irony of the situation is that the same expectations he raised are the ones digging his own grave. 

When Stoops first arrived, making a bowl game was like winning the national championship. Then, when the program turned in multiple* 10-win seasons, the shine of a lower tier bowl game started to fade.

As is the case with most rebounds, there comes a defining moment when a team either takes the next step… or it doesn’t. It either puts up… or it shuts up.

After the string of consistent success the Wildcats began to have, the next step fans kept waiting for was to become a real threat in the SEC, which is admittedly no small ask.

With a four-team College Football Playoffs format, even optimistic fans knew making the promised land was a long shot. Despite that, most fans still expected the Cats to be in games against the higher powers of the SEC such as Georgia or Alabama and, if fate was on their side for a Saturday, maybe even come out on top.

The culmination of this rebuild was supposed to happen in 2022, with the year being one of the most anticipated in Kentucky football history. But, when the dust settled, the Cats finished a disappointing 7-5.

Looking at the 2023 season, it was the same gimmick: great new talent that could turn it around and take the next step. Instead, deja vu struck as, once again, Kentucky finished a lackluster 7-5.

The part that is perhaps most interesting about these seasons is that there were various reasons brought up for why the team came up short, but few were directly aimed at Stoops.

When looking back at the 2022 season, the fact that Will Levis got injured gets brought up as the reason for the shortcomings. For 2023, it’s Devin Leary’s mediocre quarterback play that people hang their hats on.

Even though both of these reasons are somewhat valid, Stoops should not have avoided blame. 

In both of these seasons where the next step was supposed to occur, the Cats still got blown out by the likes of Georgia and Alabama, but the alarming part was they also had some embarrassing losses that indicated trouble beyond just play on the field.

Then, where Stoops really began to sour in some of the minds of Big Blue Nation was when he encouraged fans who were disappointed in the team’s inability to compete against the best to “pony up,” referring to NIL monetary donations into the program. This comment came following a 51-13 loss against Georgia.

Stoops later cleared the air by reaffirming his love for the fans, but, for some, the damage had already been done and it wasn’t even finished.

In 2022, the Cats dropped games to South Carolina and Vanderbilt at home, with both games being expected to be resounding UK victories.

The same fate occurred in 2023 when Kentucky dropped games to Missouri at home and on the road against South Carolina, both of which it was, again, favored in.

The part about these games that sticks out most, though, is that they didn’t just come down to the wire and not go Kentucky’s way. All four of these games were lost by poor play, poor coaching and, frankly, the Cats beating themselves.

When factors like that lose a team multiple games a year, then a serious look in the mirror needs to occur.

Kentucky had gained a reputation for being a very disciplined football team under Stoops, but it seems like at least once a year it goes completely out the window. It’s often in these games the Cats are supposed to win where they become borderline unwatchable.

While fans continued to hope for change in 2024, even after Stoops nearly left overnight to become the head coach at Texas A&M, they were once again sucked in by a great transfer class and experienced talent returning. Again, the question was being posed of whether or not this be the year of change. The year of the next step.

Overall, there were a lot more questions than answers with this season’s team and a daunting schedule limited expectations for some coming into the season opener against Southern Miss.

However, in a bizarre game where fans showed their allegiance to the Cats by waiting for a two-plus hour lightning delay, the team rewarded them with an impressive showing from top to bottom.

This result caused fans to buy back in, thinking that the schedule might not go as bad as they might have initially thought.

The hype got ramped all the way up when the Cats’ week two opponent, South Carolina, had a rough debut as it was taken to its limits by Old Dominion. 

It was ultimately all for not though, as Kentucky was embarrassed by South Carolina on its home field in a game that saw what was a packed house almost empty by the start of the fourth quarter.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, Kentucky had been favored by multiple possessions. Simply put, there needed to be a sense of urgency in a winnable game ahead of the No. 1 team in the country coming to town.

However, Stoops was simply out coached. His team was outplayed and outclassed, to put it bluntly. In fact, the 25-point blowout was the worst loss at home against an unranked SEC opponent for Kentucky since Oct. 31, 2015.

Moving to the aforementioned Georgia game, while the Cats held a lead for much of the game and had a chance to win, several decisions made by Stoops and Co. cost the team the game.

This loss truly came down to two costly decisions.

First, it was abandoning the run game when it mattered most. With a passing game that’s been nonexistent all season, the run game had been working. In fact, Demie Sumo-Karngbaye set the program record for most rushing yards against an AP No. 1 team with 98 yards.

Despite this, Kentucky decided to pass on second-and-eight, which landed incomplete and forced the Cats’ hand for a pass on third-and-eight, which also fell incomplete.

This leads into the second decision that cost the Cats the game and that’s punting the ball in Georgia territory while losing the game with 3:03 to play. Ultimately, this decision sealed the Cats’ fate in the loss and led to nothing more than a moral victory.

Choosing not to play for the win and instead playing not to lose cost Kentucky in the game and Stoops’ refusal to take that risk is another reason why the Wildcats have reached their ceiling.

In a game the Cats weren’t not supposed to win anyways, the decision not to leave it all on the field is puzzling to say the least.

Now, while risking it all is not always the best play, those who refuse to risk anything will never truly accomplish anything and many of the greatest moments in sports history have come from programs taking that chance at glory.

For example, in the 2018 National Championship game, Alabama of all teams found itself down 13-0 and knew it needed a change. It turned to true freshman quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, which left many scratching their heads. 

This decision ultimately paid off as Tagovailoa zipped a 41-yard touchdown pass in overtime to secure the upset over No. 3 Georgia. Had a legendary coach like Nick Saban been unwilling to take a risk, an iconic moment in college football history would not exist.

Simply put, when playing with your back against the wall, seeking moral victories should never be the answer.

Based on that fact, among other troublesome numbers, it’s clear as day that Kentucky football is on the downslope and no longer on the upswing.

Normally, there were a few weeks of stellar play before an embarrassing loss around mid-season that caused fans to start wondering when the men’s basketball season was supposed to start.

This season, however, has raised the volume on a dialogue that should’ve started a few seasons ago and that’s whether Kentucky is at the end of its rope with Stoops and if change is necessary.

Matter of fact, this time in program history feels all too important and eerily similar to 2019 when it was believed that John Calipari was leaving Kentucky for UCLA.

Calipari stayed, just as Stoops did, but what came after was seasons of disappointment and turmoil that ultimately changed the perception of Calipari to the point that fans rejoiced when he ultimately left for Arkansas in the offseason.

With Stoops having the staying part down, it feels like the writing’s on the wall for this to happen all over again and it would truly be a shame to see all the hard work Stoops put into building this program from scratch be forgotten because he stayed too long. 

When it’s all said and done, Stoops is deserving of a statue and honors at Kentucky. He turned a bottom feeder program into a 10-win program. But none of that is to say fans are wrong for thinking it’s time to part ways.

Whether it’s fair or not, stagnation is death in college athletics and, regardless of what Stoops has already accomplished, if he isn’t able to take Kentucky to that next level, the Cats need a new man in charge.