A new rivalry has popped up for Mark Stoops and Kentucky football and it’s one that no one expected nor wanted. It’s John Calipari.
For the past week, Mark Stoops has been fighting off some doubters of his Kentucky football program and some of them are coming from an unexpected place: his own fanbase.
Kentucky has long been known as a basketball school, but when Stoops took over, he vowed to change that. And he’s done just that, going 59-53 over nine years with the Wildcats, turning Kentucky football around from bottom-dweller to threat.
But his hard work was kind of tossed to the side by John Calipari when he took to the media to speak on the facility upgrades he believed his basketball program deserved.
He slipped up and referred to Kentucky as a “basketball school” which may not be a complete lie, but when you’re trying to work together with another money-making program (Kentucky football), it’s something you should probably keep to yourself.
Instead of misleading quotes being put out, here’s what John Calipari actually said today with some context behind it
— Tres Terrell (@TerrellTres) August 11, 2022
(via KSR Digital/YT) pic.twitter.com/zADhpg9yo1
Obviously this sparked controversy and the fanbase began choosing sides. Not only that, but Calipari and Stoops began some infighting of their own as the latter defended his football program.
And then Stoops took a shot at Calipari with a “born on third base” comment over the weekend.
Mark Stoops asked why he had such a strong reaction to John Calipari's "basketball school" comments:
— SEC Mike (@MichaelWBratton) August 13, 2022
"This program wasn't born on third base. Some may, but I can promise you, this football team didn't wake up on third base.
"I did a lot of work, we did a lot of work." pic.twitter.com/iJ3AYov1Gu
In case you’re not catching on to this quote, it seems as if Stoops is saying that Calipari joined a program that was already elite and he’s claiming that it deserves more funding because it carries the school’s athletics. Meanwhile, Stoops built the football program up and it competes in the SEC every year now and is coming off a 10-win season.
This is a bad look for the school. Kentucky’s two most important public figures are duking it out on social media and through press conferences and interviews. You never want that.
Unity and cohesion between the two programs are key to building an elite athletic department.
This isn’t it.
You can’t blame Calipari for calling Kentucky a basketball school because, well, he’s not entirely wrong and you can’t fault Stoops for firing back after he built the football program up.
But no one is a winner here. Kentucky is fighting itself and both programs lose.