Mark Stoops' Worst Nightmare Has Finally Come True and It Could Be the End of Him

LEXINGTON, Ky. — If you want to understand just how much instability there has been among the key personnel directing the Kentucky Wildcats football offense, consider this: in the Mark Stoops era, which began in 2013, the team has cycled through several different coordinators, recruiters, and position coaches.

Not to mention the Wildcats have also had three different starting quarterbacks in the past three seasons alone. Long-term success in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) is impossible to achieve without stability in at least the latter two aspects, and the Wildcats lack of that is an understatement.

The turmoil in the coaching staff, coupled with quarterback uncertainty and the overall inability to attract elite recruits consistently, is nothing new for the Wildcats under Stoops. Some have criticized Stoops — who's in his ninth season at UK — for the aforementioned consistency problems, while others have praised him for keeping his players motivated despite dealing with the constant flux.

But this season, as the Wildcats continue to disappoint with increasingly dull results, fans are likely to point fingers squarely at one man. It's hard to deny that Stoops might, indeed, be the common denominator behind the team's struggles.

Stoops arrived at UK in 2013 with a reputation as a defensive mastermind. His goal was to reinvent a Wildcats team that was down on its luck, with one bowl victory in three years and suffering through a dismal 0-8 SEC campaign the prior season.

He came to the program at a time when it desperately needed a strong presence, both on the field and off. A program with enormous potential that had not contended for national championships or even major bowls, in decades. He promised to fundamentally change the team's culture, toughening it up by emphasizing the run, making tackling an art form, and just finding every conceivable way to avoid defeat at all costs.

And yet despite an impressive record at the time of his arrival, and more importantly the glowing recommendations from coaches at blue-blood programs, Stoops has ultimately been unable to turn UK into a consistent winner in one of the best football conferences in the nation. UK fans who so eagerly awaited his arrival nearly a decade ago, now realize their team remains stubbornly mediocre.

The question has long been how much longer can this team's top man, stuck in neutral, convince boosters and fans to continue to finance his vision for the program. With the current Wildcat players coming off what by all accounts was a brutal, winless season in the league, Stoops insists he stays focused on the future.

That begs the question of just what the program can reach for moving ahead. A third-tier bowl game? There isn't a more uninspiring goal than this.

But who could replace him? There are only rumors swirling.