Kentucky football: How Mark Stoops mopped the floor with John Calipari

Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops won the feud over Kentucky basketball coach Jon Calipari.

As things have somehow simmered down a bit, there is no doubt about who won the bluegrass blood feud between Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops and Kentucky basketball head coach John Calipari.

Sure, athletic director Mitch Barnhart could have whispered in Cal’s ear to back the hell off, but the last thing UK would want is for Stoops to leave Lexington in December for opportunities Iowa City and Tallahassee could hope to provide him. Believe it or not, Stoops struck gold at Kentucky, as he has the best job in all of college football. He never has to win a division title to get himself a statue.

After telling Cal off by saying his “program wasn’t born on third base”, it is football season, baby!

Here is why Stoops won the feud over Calipari: He had to, as the university had no other choice.

Kentucky football: Why Mark Stoops had to win the feud over John Calipari

Before we get started, let’s ask ourselves what these respective programs are without their current head coaches. For the men’s hoops team, they still have seven national championships as the preeminent program in the SEC. As for the football program, there were a few years with Paul “Bear” Bryant back way in the day, as well as some sweet, delicious Hal Mumme Air Raid for a bit.

Though Tim Couch did go No. 1 overall to the Cleveland Browns and the late great Jared Lorenzen was the greatest quarterback Jefferson Pilot could ever hope to televise, Kentucky football was an absolute joke under Stoops’ predecessor Joker Phillips. Who is laughing now? Although Stoops has never beaten Georgia since taking over in 2013, he does have the respect of his conference rivals.

While it does not serve Barnhart to play favorite here, he does have to realize Stoops could be his school’s version of Bill Snyder. Calipari will never be Kentucky’s Coach K or Jim Boeheim, as he gave that dream up after leaving UMass. The man for which the basketball arena is named after is that guy for UK. Ultimately, not all successes are viewed the same in Lexington. Some mean more.

Calipari has won one national championship since leaving Memphis in 2008. It has been a decade since Anthony Davis carried the 2012 team in his one-and-done campaign. Meanwhile, Stoops has transformed the other Josh Allen from a player Rutgers did not even want to an All-American and a first-round pick by the Jacksonville Jaguars. He has another afterthought coming this year…

A 10-win season on the gridiron is the rough equivalent of a 30-win campaign on the hardwood in Lexington. Not to say Kentucky will be partying like it’s 2009 with a rare win over the Dawgs, but they have the better pro prospect at quarterback in former Penn State transfer Will Levis. Weird culinary habits aside, he has a chance to be a top-10 pick this spring if he wins another 10 games.

Ultimately, the littlest Stoops brother has always had to claw and scratch for attention and his seat at the table. Now that his program is no longer surviving on scraps, the Wildcats are on the verge of doing something special. Though they have benefited from playing in the lesser of two divisions, the adversity he has had to overcome in Lexington wipes the floor with Cal’s UK journey.

Stoops continues to prove that aggressiveness not only wins in football, it wins in the game of life.

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