Missed Opportunity: How UK Football’s Hesitation Cost Them Their Dream Coach Replacement for Mark Stoops

This was inevitable — sooner or later, the curtain had to fall on Mark Stoops’ long run at Kentucky. Yet, the timing? Well, it couldn’t have come later if they’d tried. Mitch Barnhart, the man steering the ship as UK’s athletic director, believed in giving Stoops every possible chance to right the ship after a shaky 3-5 beginning. But that patience? It may have cost Kentucky the chance to land their dream replacement. With whispers turning into certainty that Stoops’ 13-year tenure is ending after yet another losing season, the race is already on — but the top contender, Jon Sumrall, is already making waves down in Florida. Sumrall’s impressive streak of winning seasons and championship-contending squads made him an ideal fit, yet now he’s out of reach. Meanwhile, the program grapples with the reality of underperformance, wavering leadership, and missed opportunities. As the hunt pivots, fresh prospects like Oregon’s Will Stein emerge, carrying the kind of pedigree and offensive spark that could reignite Kentucky’s football fortunes. The crossroads have arrived — and the next steps will shape the Cats’ future for years to come. LEARN MORE

It had to happen this season, it only happened too late.

Kentucky athletics director Mitch Barnhart wanted to extended every amount of latitude to coach Mark Stoops, the longest tenured and winningest coach in program history, to turn things around after a 3-5 start.

In doing so, Barnhart took UK out of the running for the best possible replacement hire.

News leaked on Sunday that Stoops will reportedly be fired after 13 seasons, after a second straight losing season that kept the Cats out of a bowl game. But it’s too late to nab former UK linebacker Jon Sumrall, who took the job at Florida on Sunday.

Sumrall has posted four consecutive winning seasons combined in as many years as a head coach. His teams in two seasons at Troy and and two more at Tulane have played for a conference championship every season including the Green Wave earning a spot in next week’s American Conference title game.

As the highest ranked Group of 5 team in the College Football Playoff rankings, a win over North Texas for the title would land Sumrall an automatic bid to the playoff.

He’s the one surefire candidate who would have checked all the boxes Barnhart wants the next coach to embody, starting with a love for UK. But Sumrall is already perfecting his Gator chomp.

Stoops had appeared to save his job with wins over Florida and Auburn to start November and pulling to a 5-5 record with two games to go needing just one to get bowl eligible.

His job became in jeopardy, not just because the Cats lost both games, but it was the way they lost.

Vanderbilt blasted the Cats 45-17, which was their worst lost in the series dating back to a 40-0 shellacking in 2012 — the season before Stoops arrived.

Saturday’s 41-0 loss to Louisville was their worst in the Governor’s Cup series since a 59-28 loss in 2006.

Had the Cats shown more fight in one of those games, Stoops would likely still be the coach today. Had they shown more fight in both, he definitely would still calling Lexington home.

But in getting blown out in both, it suggested UK is behind two of the programs that could be considered its peers in terms of resources.

While Stoops couldn’t control the unforgiving SEC schedule that featured Georgia, Mississippi, Vanderbilt, Texas and Tennessee — all teams ranked in the top 20 of the CFP — he could control the personnel that he put on the roster.

Stoops undermined himself in that regard. He signed players from the transfer portal that didn’t make it out of spring practice.

He also invested in players like receiver Ja’Mori Maclin that stayed around, but didn’t deliver. Maclin had more than 1,000 receiving yards at North Texas in 2023, only to catch a total of 27 passes the past two seasons for the Cats including this year’s total of 14 catches for 196 yards.

Stoops’ biggest mistake was investing in quarterbacks the past two seasons that didn’t pan out.

In theory, Brock Vandergriff should have been the starter this season with a year of experience under his belt after transferring from Georgia in 2024. But Vandergriff was so disillusioned when it didn’t work out last season that he quit football rather than play out his last season of eligibility.

People on all levels of football make wrong projections when it comes to quarterbacks, that’s why it’s the most difficult position on the field. But that also means when it happens once, it cannot happen consecutively.

Whatever the process was to properly vet Zach Calzada, aside from being mesmerized by the stats he put up at Incarnate Word last season, failed to assess how he fit in this offense.

He was injured in the second game of the season against Mississippi, but it was pretty clear when he completed just 10 of 23 passes for 85 yards against Toledo in his debut that he was not the answer. It paved the way for redshirt freshman Cutter Boley to take the reins.

Fortunately for Barnhart, Sumrall isn’t the only candidate out there with ties to the program who could potentially be a great fit. Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein, who played quarterback at Trinity and UofL, has to be on a short list.

Stein’s father, Matt, was a walk-on who earned a scholarship at UK and played from 1982-84. His mother, Debbie, also went to UK. Stein used to be so much of a Cat fan that he still remembers their season ticket seats were in section 128, row 13.

Stein operates an Oregon offense that ranks eighth nationally in scoring and 11th in total yards per game. Kentucky needs someone who can be innovative and creative to jump start an offense that has gotten to be pretty stagnant.

Barnhart should not wait another minute to go hire him.

Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at [email protected], follow him on X at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter at profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to make sure you never miss one of his columns.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky football coaching candidates to replace Mark Stoops took hit