Kentucky insider gives latest on Mark Stoops' future after blowout loss in Governors' Cup

Kentucky’s Mark Stoops finds himself back on the hot seat after finishing this season at 5-7 following the final two games that saw the Wildcats lose by an average margin of 34.5 points, including a 41-0 shutout to Louisville in the Governor’s Cup on Saturday. Those have led to continued conversations on Sunday, with the latest being further reported on by Matt Jones.

KSR’s Matt Jones has, on several platforms today, noted several ongoing conversations regarding Stoops’ future at UK. He most recently posted on social media within the last hour that decision makers are currently having those discussions still, with them wanting it to be determined in some sense tonight.

“The individuals who are making the decision as to whether Mark Stoops will be retained are meeting as we speak and have been for a lot of the evening,” Jones posted. “When the meeting started there was no final decision yet.”

“Everyone involved does know however that Signing Day is Wednesday,” also posted Jones. “Most want a final resolution one way or the other tonight.”

This comes after a reaction video that Jones did earlier this afternoon with KSR’s Nick Roush and Adam Luckett as well as CatsIllustrated’s Justin Rowland. He went further in depth there with those insiders, who have also been covering what’s been ongoing into this evening, about what the past 36 hours or so have looked like within the program for Kentucky regarding Stoops.

“We get blown out twice. And there are a couple of people who I think are very influential, who always wanted Stoops to stay. And, at 2-5, they were like, what in the world are we going to do? And then, at 5-5, they took a deep breath. And, I actually talked to a couple of those people, people close to those people last night, and, like, I sort of said, ‘You think he still survives this?’ and they were like, ‘What? I mean, that decision has been made, right?’. And then, all of a sudden, the reality that you got thwapped twice hits everybody. I think, as Justin said, there are some folks, and I’ll be interested to see if we ever find out who this is – I mean, I know at least one, but it’d be interesting to see if they ever come out kind of publicly – and said, hey, wait a minute, this now, there has to be a change,” explained Jones. “And Mitch (Barnhart), who I think is hoping to keep him, I would say, almost solely for financial reasons, is now left with having to make a decision, and I agree with Adam. They’re a little bit flat-footed in the sense of the decision had kind of been made, and I don’t think anybody foresaw what happened yesterday.”

Jones has also posted several times with even further in-depth and behind-the-scenes details as well on KSBoard. Needless to say, it’s seemingly been a very busy day for those in the bluegrass coming out of what happened yesterday in the season finale on the road against their rival in the Cardinals.

This all comes after a very disappointing end to the season for Kentucky, in what was the thirteenth year of the tenure for Stoops. The Wildcats began the fall at 2-5, losing all of their conference games to start by an average margin of 15 points per loss, which began the hot-seat discussions surrounding Stoops. That then subsided going into November with a three-game win streak over Auburn, Florida, and Tennessee Tech, which brought the Wildcats to within a game of bowl eligibility and back to .500. However, UK then ended the season on the road with a 45-17 loss to Vanderbilt and then the 41-0 blowout to Louisville.

Now, Kentucky is at a crossroads with its all-time winningest coach in Stoops (82-80 -.506). The Wildcats will have to determine whether they want to pay a buyout of $37 million, which they’d have to do within two months’ time, to move on, or bring Stoops back, which, at this point, would be likely an unpopular decision within Big Blue Nation, for a fourteenth season in 2026.

Nothing is yet determined from these continued discussions on Stoops. Tonight, though, sounds as if it could be a massive one, one way or the other, for Kentucky Football.