While "hot seat" analysis may be the lowest form of water cooler talk among college football fans,
One coach that finds himself firmly in that conversation heading into the 2025 season is veteran Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops.
Stoops, coming off a 4-8 season last fall as the most tenured SEC head coach at 13 seasons, saw a bunch of players leave the program after they lost six of their last seven games of the year despite playing Georgia to a close 13-12 loss and upsetting an Ole Miss squad that would go on to win 10 games.
If that wasn't enough, Stoops also saw longtime top assistant and tight ends coach Vince Morrow leave his staff for rival Louisville, where he accepted the executive director of player personnel and recruiting role for Jeff Brohm's Cardinals program.
Stoops had led the Wildcats to 10-win seasons in both 2018 and 2021 and eight straight bowl games before their dip to 4-8 last season, so not only did he change the expectations around a program many considered one of the toughest Power conference jobs in the country, but now he's in danger of becoming a victim of those expectations he helped create.
Stoops confessed to ESPN today that he actually kind of enjoys the pressure that comes along with being backed into a corner, sharing that it probably has something to do with his upbringing in Youngstown, Ohio.
"I kind of enjoy it. It is what it is, you know what I mean," he told ESPN earlier today.
"Bring the Youngstown out of me, right? Put me in a corner. Let me fight my way out. I feel an obligation to this great university that's been so loyal and so good to me and our fan base. That's what I care about."
"There's always pressure," Stoops goes on to share. "But it's always about this season. Certainly, there was a lot to do in our offseason, and I certainly did not want to go about it by putting my head in the sand. You wanted to take a good, hard look at everything in our program and all areas and make sure we addressed them.
"We embraced that challenge. We didn't run away from it."
Stoops and the Wildcats open the season August 30th against Toledo before welcoming Ole Miss to Lexington to open SEC play.
The rest of their SEC schedule consists of tough road games at South Carolina, Georgia, Auburn, and Vanderbilt while getting Texas, Tennessee, and Florida at home before a season finale against rival Louisville on the road.
Stay tuned to The Scoop for all the latest.