Kentucky Wildcats – Mark Stoops – ‘Big Mo’
The Kentucky Wildcats and head coach Mark Stoops have created unusual optimism in the Big Blue Nation. The only remaining Stoops with a head coach gig believes the Wildcats have turned a corner.
After starting 0-2 in 2016, the Cats rallied to go 7-4 the rest of the season. It does not matter to Wildcat fans that two of the seven wins came against New Mexico State and Austin Peay. It also does not matter that Kentucky was soundly beaten by Georgia Tech in the Tax Slayer Bowl.
The Mark Stoops era at Kentucky carries an overall record of 19-30, with only one winning season and a SEC football record of 8-24. None of that matters either.
The Big Blue Nation explodes over every single loss in basketball. In football, any bit of success is greeted like an oasis in a desert.
In the minds of UK fans and apparently in the mind of Mark Stoops, Cats football has ‘Big Mo’ for 2017. The reason why is the outcome of one game.
A winning record and making a bowl game were just cake icing. That’s because Kentucky went to Papa John’s Stadium on November 26 and took down Louisville. Decades of intense basketball rivalry have led to Kentucky and Louisville hating each other.
The two schools only played football against each other six times before 1994, all before the Great Depression. Since 1994, the Cats’ record against the Cardinals has been 9-14. Before Kentucky’s 2016 victory, Louisville had won five straight and Kentucky had never beaten a Bobby Petrino coached Louisville team.
Given that history, win a game by a field goal against an arch rival and ‘Big Mo’ comes your way.
Mark Stoops has a more solid reason to be optimistic about 2017. Based upon superb data collection by Phil Steele the Cats return 17 starters. That makes Kentucky one of the top nine teams in college football in terms of starter experience.
Kentucky has a favorable 2017 SEC football schedule, only traveling to Southern Miss, South Carolina, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt and Georgia. A few prognosticators are already suggesting the Cats will be favored when the Vols come to Lexington on October 28. Going to Athens will be a chore but the following week the Cats get Louisville in what should still be called Commonwealth Stadium.