With 50 new players, Mark Stoops has become the mass recruiter of CFB. At this point, it seems like the Kentucky Wildcats are picking anyone from anywhere. Agreed that you’ve got a top-three NIL budget in the country. One report even surfaced earlier this week suggesting UK will break the $20 million mark on Mark Pope’s second roster as basketball head coach—although a rumor, as confirmed by a KSR insider. You can’t just go around and splash. Not when your locker room just barely survived a civil war that saw one of the program’s most popular figures leave for your rivals.
Mark Stoops has always run Kentucky with a “player’s coach” vibe, but the fallout from last year’s locker room chaos forced him to throw sentiment out the window. The entire operation needed a reset. Culture, chemistry, continuity—gone. It wasn’t about talent. It was about a total collapse of internal trust brought on by NIL missteps and a transfer portal approach that spiraled out of control. As KSR’s Nick Roush explained on That SEC Podcast, “They went out and he was doing the same but in a little bit different way, right? Kentucky, early on, had a lot of success in the portal getting guys at power programs that either underperformed or were in the wrong role.” And the proof?
Wan’Dale Robinson was playing RB at Nebraska—“Scott Frost, what an idiot, right?” Will Levis was a castoff at Penn State. “Had a lot of success at Kentucky.” But that formula stopped working. The new portal pulls? Less proven. More risk. And they didn’t mesh. “So you know what?” Roush added. “We’re going to go get all-conference players from a lower level. We’ve seen it. We know they’re good. There’s tape of them winning.” Roush summed it up: “This is basically their NFL trial. They have one season to go prove themselves.”
.@JKattus on the mic at #SECMD25.
– https://t.co/kJL3IN79P8 pic.twitter.com/1HO21hxrGR
— Kentucky Football (@UKFootball) July 17, 2025
But as smart as the trench upgrades may be, the wide receiver room is still a mess. “I don’t know who he’s going to throw it to,” Roush said, bluntly, about projected starter Zach Calzada. And that’s not the only concern. The locker room rot from last year wasn’t just due to losses—it was mismanagement. “You pay the wrong players, right? That happens sometimes. And then when things go wrong, people start pointing fingers.” The result? A total teardown. “At one point, it was only 40% of their roster from last year still around. And a lot of those guys weren’t even playing. They were the redshirt freshmen you’re hoping to build around.” Another thing, most of them are older. Take Arkansas Joshua Braun, who is about to get his 2nd degree and is literally married. That’s a grown man.
That brings us to SEC Media Days, where Mark Stoops finally addressed the elephant in the room. When asked about the long-term impact of the portal and NIL, Stoops didn’t duck. “I think any coach that comes in here and talks about it, we’re all into developing our program, developing players, bringing them along. Sometimes that’s in one year, sometimes it’s in two and three.” He then pointed to the three veteran players he brought to Atlanta. “They understand the culture. Like I said, they’ve been around when we won a bunch of big games. They’ll stick with us as we fight through what we went through last year. Those are the guys I want to have by my side.”
The real tension came from Vince Marrow’s surprise departure to Louisville. If you want to understand why the Kentucky locker room imploded, it starts there. Marrow wasn’t just an assistant—he was the recruiting identity of the program. And when the longtime right-hand man bolts for your in-state rival after a decade? That shakes the walls. Especially when you’re already ‘taking a risk’ and, in Roush’s words, “got away from what made them good. And, it was a bad poker hand, and they lost all their chips.”
Can Mark Stoops beat Ole Miss this year?
When Lane Kiffin and his Rebels stroll into Kroger Field (Kentucky) on September 6, they’ll be packing more than just their flashy offense — they’ll have revenge on the menu. After all, it was Kentucky’s stunning 20-17 upset in Oxford last season that helped keep then-No. 6 Ole Miss out of the CFP. That stings. And Ole Miss hasn’t forgotten.
But if you ask Roush, the Wildcats might just do it again. “I picked Kentucky to beat Miss last year. I’m picking Kentucky to beat Miss this year,” he said confidently. And the case he makes? It’s got teeth.
First off, it’ll be Austin Simmons’ first road start for the Rebels — not exactly ideal in an environment that’s going to be rocking. Then there’s the familiarity factor: “Stoops has played Ole Miss, I want to say four times, and none of them have been decided by more than three points.” The games are always tight. Always.
Roush added, “That is my… if I’m picking… Kentucky to beat Miss this year. It’s awesome.” It might just be a must-win for Mark Stoops, coming off a 4–8 slog and trying to prove that his rebuilt squad isn’t just talk.
The post Ugly Locker Room Forces Mark Stoops to Take Drastic Step as HC to Do Unthinkable vs. Ole Miss appeared first on EssentiallySports.