On this first full weekend of Southeastern Conference football, Saturday afternoon’s game between Kentucky and Ball State ranks near the bottom of my interest level.
The pairing does, however, contain a unique piece of history. Mark Stoops will become the first Kentucky football coach ever to begin a second decade in Lexington.
“If you had told me that 11 years ago, I don’t really know what I would have said,” Stoops said Wednesday afternoon on the SEC teleconference. “It’s been a very good journey. I think there has been a lot of work by a lot of different people and some very good continuity from the top down. There are always going to be challenges, and there are always going to be ups and downs, and you’ve just got to have the ability to persevere through it and adapt and change and put yourself in a position to be consistent and win every year.
“Even though I’m proud of the work we’ve done, there is still more work to do.”
Let’s put the Lexington longevity of Stoops into a couple of perspectives here. His 10 years in the books are more than Hal Mumme, Guy Morriss and Joker Phillips had combined, and there are only five Power Five coaches who have been at their programs longer: Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz, Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy, Utah’s Kyle Whittingham, Alabama’s Nick Saban and Clemson’s Dabo Swinney.