Never mind Saturday night, all BBN cares about is what happened Saturday afternoon
When Big Blue Nation awoke Sunday morning, the air smelled fresher, the grass was greener, the food tasted better, the sun shone brighter. All was right with the world.
Never mind what did or did not happen amid the coaching job chaos that was Saturday night, what truly mattered was what happened Saturday afternoon.
Kentucky beat Louisville.
Kentucky beat Louisville in a year when Kentucky was not supposed to beat Louisville. Kentucky beat Louisville in football when Louisville was 10-1 and ranked ninth in the AP Top 25. Kentucky beat Louisville when Louisville had already earned a spot in the ACC championship game. Kentucky beat Louisville to win the Governor’s Cup for a fifth straight year, in a year in which surely a crestfallen Cardinal Nation believed it would snap that streak.
“This one hurts,” said Louisville coach Jeff Brohm, the former U of L quarterback who knows the Kentucky-Louisville rivalry as well as anyone.
Better still, Kentucky beat Louisville at the end of what had been a disappointing season for the Wildcats.
The Cats’ 38-31 victory over the Cardinals on Saturday doesn’t erase all of that disappointment, but the triumph sure puts the Kentucky faithful in a far different mood heading into bowl prep and the offseason. Recency bias is real.
Whether the Mark Stoops-to-Texas A&M thing was real is an entirely different matter.
“I know there’s been much speculation about me and my job situation the last couple of days,” Stoops tweeted at 1:02 a.m. Sunday. “It’s true I was contacted about a potential opportunity this weekend, but after celebrating a big win against our rivals with players I love like family, I knew in my heart I couldn’t leave the University of Kentucky right now. I have a great job at a place I love, and I get to work with the best administration and greatest fan base in college football right where I’m at. I’m excited to say I’m a Wildcat!”
Was Texas A&M all set to hire the Kentucky coach before a fan backlash? Was Stoops all set to coach the Aggies before the deal fell apart? Was there even a deal? Was this all just a smoke screen played out on social media?
Only Jimmy Sexton knows for sure. Sexton is the super agent for the vast majority of the top coaches in college football, including Stoops. He is a master at his craft, of playing one school against another, of getting top dollar for his clients. Contract law says there is a winner and a loser in every deal. Sexton is the art of the deal. He pulls the strings.
Social media just exacerbates the inner workings of the deal. The rumors, the speculation, the half-truths, the reaction, it all plays out in real time. Or at least it does for those on Twitter or X or what the writer James Wolcott refers to as “the devil’s bulletin board.” Coaching searches are feeding frenzies of misinformation mixed with a heavy dose of spin.
If, based on the reaction of its fan base or its deep-pocket boosters, Texas A&M got cold feet about a Stoops hire, that’s the Aggies’ loss. I have no doubt he would have done just fine in College Station.
Back in the real world, Stoops is still the Kentucky football coach. And he’s fresh off a huge win. The Cats could have folded their tents multiple times Saturday but did not. Unlike most of the season, they found a way to make a way to win an important game.
Telling stat: For a team that committed penalties at the worst possible time all season, that was supposedly undisciplined on the field and off, Kentucky was not flagged once Saturday. Not once.
Make no mistake, UK football’s future is still murky at best. Traditional powers Texas and Oklahoma join the SEC next season. Division play is going away. NIL is not. A nine-game conference schedule appears inevitable. Football at Kentucky is a hard job that is about to be harder.
Like all coaches, what Stoops needs now is better players and more of them. This might be the first season since 2018 in which the Cats will not have a single player chosen in the NFL Draft. And no conference puts more players in the NFL than does the SEC. As Stoops said after Saturday’s win, “The SEC prepares you for everything.”
Right now, however, Big Blue Nation received its Christmas present a month early. Never mind the failure to meet the season’s expectations. Never mind what happens in the bowl game. Never mind the coaching carousel.
The Cats beat the Cards.
Again.
All is right in BBN’s world.
Three takeaways from Kentucky football’s Governor’s Cup win against Louisville
Mark Stoops is staying at Kentucky, but there is still work to do this offseason
Mark Stoops staying at Kentucky after reports he was headed to Texas A&M. ‘I’m a Wildcat!’
Best social media reactions after Kentucky takes down No. 10 Louisville for Governor’s Cup
If Mark Stoops is leaving, he left Kentucky fans with one whale of a going-away gift
