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In Depth ESPN Article on Mark Stoops

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Talks about his life, work ethic, and about how he and his staff have overcome negative recruiting by other schools inside their home state:

NOW STOOPS' ASSOCIATE head coach and recruiting coordinator, Marrow remembers getting the call from Stoops one day and how Stoops told him, "I think we can do something good, but I need you to come to Kentucky with me."

Marrow had reason to believe in Stoops. Their families had known each other for years. Marrow's older brothers were recruited by Stoops' uncle. Marrow and Stoops would play together as kids and then become teammates in high school in football and basketball. Marrow joked that it was Stoops' job to get him the ball and get the heck out of the way.

As the two spoke about the possibility of reuniting at Kentucky, they started talking about recruiting. Marrow looked up Lexington and its proximity to their native Ohio -- how close it was to Cincinnati, to Columbus, to Youngstown.

"Oh man," Marrow said. "I agree with you, Mark, we could do some damage."

It was difficult, leaving one friend for another, but Marrow packed his bags and hit the road in recruiting.

"At that time everyone was trying to recruit the South," Marrow said. "And to be honest, Kentucky was looking like a joke. Nobody wanted to go to Kentucky. So we made the plan to go to our home state. Let's lock down Kentucky and tell those boys in Ohio, 'Hey, you don't have to go to the Big Ten to play great football.'

"That was the message, and it paid off."

Not that it was easy, though.
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One particularly uncomfortable visit stands out. Marrow was in Lagrange, Ohio, recruiting tight end C.J. Conrad when Conrad pulled out a photo. It was sent from a prominent Big Ten coach at the time and it showed a moment a year earlier when Kentucky lost to Vanderbilt 40-0. And while the score was bad enough, Marrow couldn't get over the setting; there had to be fewer than 3,000 fans in the stands.
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Conrad corroborated the story. To this day, he remembers thinking of Marrow, "Who is this dude talking about this program like it's Alabama?" I'm getting recruited by a bunch of Big Ten schools, and then all of the sudden this dude from Kentucky comes in and he was hyping up Kentucky like, 'We're going to do this, we're going to do that.' I was like, 'What?' I didn't even watch Kentucky football," he said. Conrad eventually came around, committing to Kentucky over Indiana, Illinois, Arkansas and others. His 12 career touchdowns is the second most by a tight end in school history. Today, he's a graduate assistant on Stoops' staff. Since 2014, Kentucky has signed 12 top-15 prospects in the state of Ohio. Michigan has signed only eight. Two of those Ohio products, Benny Snell and Lynn Bowden, went on to become stars in Lexington and were drafted by the NFL.
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www.espn.com

How Mark Stoops brought winning -- and fun -- back to Kentucky football

Behind the passion and hard work of the "other" Stoops brother, Kentucky is 6-0 for the first time since 1950. Next up: a shot at No. 1 Georgia.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
 
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Caneadian said:
When Georgia beats them 42-10 this week it's going to be hilarious to see the posts that are going to go something like this.

"Pfft and you guys wanted Mark Stoops?"
"Who wanted this guy?"

Stuff like that
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I'm not saying he's my top choice. In fact I was one of the first ones to question everyone crowning him after the UF win.

So I'm not crowning him yet, but he would obviously be an upgrade over Manny. And what he's done this season and a few seasons ago when he got to 10 wins is impressive.

If he can get to 10+ wins again this season he's an absolute rockstar, regardless of what happens against the #1 team in all the land this weekend. At that point he'd be the top candidate for the USC, LSU and FSU jobs, which probably means he'd be way out of our price range.
 
Caneadian said:
When Georgia beats them 42-10 this week it's going to be hilarious to see the posts that are going to go something like this.

"Pfft and you guys wanted Mark Stoops?"
"Who wanted this guy?"

Stuff like that
Click to expand...
Probably.

But even if he gets beat down by Georgia he would still be a huge upgrade. I’ll keep beating the drum for a proven P5 head coach.
 
EmilioEstevez said:
I'm not saying he's my top choice. But he would obviously be an upgrade over Manny. And what he's done this season and a few seasons ago when he got to 10 wins is impressive.

If he can get to 10+ wins again this season he's an absolute rockstar, regardless of what happens against the #1 team in all the land this weekend. At that point he'd be the top candidate for the USC, LSU and FSU jobs, who probably means he'd be way out of our price range.
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We expect Kentucky to lose to Georgia 42-10. Anything better then that supports the stoops want. Kentucky is way over matched by Georgia. But if they play hard, look organized and efficient, and make it competitive for a while then that’s all we need. Now if it’s the other way around then you have a point
 
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Sounds like he was able to indentify the right athletes around their university. If he can translate that here and value the Nik Bonnito’s, Elijah Moore’s and Tiawan Mullen’s of the world properly, he’ll have something really good.
 
Mr. Dynasty1 said:
Dude def met with FSU for their opening before Norvell. Now maybe he’s more come comfortable staying at UK with the new contract but def means he was looking before
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Dude saw that FSU was a train wreck and didn’t want to go there. That’s another thing to the the plus column.
 
ddann said:
Dude saw that FSU was a train wreck and didn’t want to go there. That’s another thing to the the plus column.
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FSU is wayyyyy more Ca$h strapped than we are....
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EmilioEstevez said:
I'm not saying he's my top choice. In fact I was one of the first ones to question everyone crowning him after the UF win.

So I'm not crowning him yet, but he would obviously be an upgrade over Manny. And what he's done this season and a few seasons ago when he got to 10 wins is impressive.

If he can get to 10+ wins again this season he's an absolute rockstar, regardless of what happens against the #1 team in all the land this weekend. At that point he'd be the top candidate for the USC, LSU and FSU jobs, which probably means he'd be way out of our price range.
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Yup, Stoops is out here winning 10 games a season — in the SEC — with a mediocre roster. Meanwhile, we can’t even win 10 games playing in the easiest Power 5 division in college football.

Sounds like an immense upgrade to me.
 
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Mr. Dynasty1 said:
Dude def met with FSU for their opening before Norvell. Now maybe he’s more come comfortable staying at UK with the new contract but def means he was looking before
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supposedly he wanted too much $$ in total. I think it was about the total package, including staff
 
If seriously looking at Stoops, might as well look at Ed Orgeron. Yes go ahead and downvote me. Sorry, I think everyone is all caught up with teams having a great start THIS year. That 2019 lsu team was one of the most remarkable teams I've ever seen and they did it with a third string transfer QB from Ohio State (who tried to transfer to Nebraska before LSU but was rejected). Make no mistake, Ed Orgeron recruited and built that 2019 roster himself. 20 years after Butch Davis left UM, UM fans STILL want him as HC because he built on the greatest teams of all time, and lots of fans also give an honorary championship trophy even though he wasn't the coach. Now that 2019 lsu wasn't as talented as the 2001 UM team but it's one of the best teams we've seen in cfb in a long time. Ed O put it together and coached them to a national championship. I think 15-0 and building one of the best teams of the century and winning a natty ONLY TWO YEARS AGO tops anything Mark Stoops has done.

I'm not saying Ed O should be in the top 5, but I am saying that if you are really interested in Stoops you might as well consider Ed O, who is far more accomplished and would be cheaper (since he'll probably be out at LSU)
 
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TimeBum said:
If seriously looking at Stoops, might as well look at Ed Orgeron. Yes go ahead and downvote me. Sorry, I think everyone is all caught up with teams having a great start THIS year. That 2019 lsu team was one of the most remarkable teams I've ever seen and they did it with a third string transfer QB from Ohio State (who tried to transfer to Nebraska before LSU but was rejected). Make no mistake, Ed Orgeron recruited and built that 2019 roster himself. 20 years after Butch Davis left UM, UM fans STILL want him as HC because he built on the greatest teams of all time, and lots of fans also give an honorary championship trophy even though he wasn't the coach. Now that 2019 lsu wasn't as talented as the 2001 UM team but it's one of the best teams we've seen in cfb in a long time. Ed O put it together and coached them to a national championship. I think 15-0 and building one of the best teams of the century and winning a natty ONLY TWO YEARS AGO tops anything Mark Stoops has done.

I'm not saying Ed O should be in the top 5, but I am saying that if you are really interested in Stoops you might as well consider Ed O, who is far more accomplished and would be cheaper (since he'll probably be out at LSU)
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Ed is awful. Pass
 
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He’s making $5 million with no expectations and can claim “SEC” on the recruiting trail. He’s not going anywhere. He already got his extension. No need for him to even play the “interested in this other job” anymore.
 
I was impressed by the energy Kentucky brought to their wins over UF and LSU. Where was this passion against South Carolina (Win, 16-10) and FCS Chattanooga (Win, 28-23) ?
 
hoops156 said:
Ed is awful. Pass
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What exactly makes him awful? Is it the 15-0 and a national championship?

I don't understand your take. Yes the first three years of his career at Ole Miss started off poorly.

Then he went
6-2
6-2
9-4
10-3
15-0 (national championship)
5-5
And is currently 3-3.

The 2019 team he built is in the conversation as one of the best this century. He didn't inherit a loaded roster like Coker. That team was basically all his recruits. LSU was gutted in the draft after that season and last season was bizarre in general. So his career was 3 bad years to start, followed by 5 years ranging from good to phenomenal, and now two down years. How does that add up to awful? Not every championship winning program is like Bama and can just replace all the 5 stars with another group of 5 stars without missing a beat. It's not unusual for a team to have to rebuild for after getting gutted in the draft. Ed O proved he could build one of the most elite teams ever once already (as recently as 2 years ago) , I don't see why you think it would be impossible for him to do again.

Stoops resume pales in comparison to Ed O's. I am not thrilled about either, but if an AD had to pick one of those two just off their resumes and without knowing their actual identity, every single AD in the country would end up picking Orgeron.
 
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If Stoops wants to keep talking about Youngstown then he needs to bring Tressel here with him as AD. ****, let him be dean of the music school or something too so he can maintain his academic bonafides and get a courtesy interview when we fire or reassign Frenk.
 
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