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Stoops Restarts Rivalry Against Calipari With Latest Jab

Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops fires shot at new Arkansas basketball coach John Calipari during Big Blue Madness

Jacob Davis

Kentucky Wildcats coach Mark Stoops reacts after defeating the Mississippi Rebels at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
Kentucky Wildcats coach Mark Stoops reacts after defeating the Mississippi Rebels at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. / Petre Thomas-Imagn Images
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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops and Arkansas basketball coach John Calipari appeared to bury their rivalry like it was nothing a few years ago. However, the jealousy seems to still be alive with Stoops' latest comments Friday night.

"So, this is madness?" Stoops asked the Rupp Arena crowd. "I've been missing this for 12 years. I just wanted to come and welcome Coach Kenny Brooks and his team, Coach Mark Pope and his team. We're all in this together. I cannot thank you all enough for your support to our football team, all of our athletes. Let's have a great year. Thank you so much!"

Stoops has spent the past 11 seasons in Lexington mostly in the shadow of a hall of fame basdketball coach. His distaste was never stronger than when Calipari commented that Kentucky was a 'basketball school' during the summer of 2022.

”And the reason (we deserve a new practice facility) is this is a basketball school,” Calipari told Kyle Tucker of the Athletic. “It’s always been that. Alabama is a football school. So is Georgia. I mean, they are. No disrespect to our football program. I hope they win 10 games and go to bowls. But this is a basketball school and we need to keep moving in that direction and keep doing what we’re doing.”

In response to Calipari's comments about desperately needing basketball facility upgrades, Stoops stood his ground by mentioning his team's four bowl wins.

"When you start talking about my program and others that we compete against — me, I don't do that," Stoops told reporters Aug. 11, 2022. "I stay in my lane. So that's in defense of my players, in defense of the work that we've done. And believe me, we want to continue to push. But don't demean or distract from the hard work and the dedication and the commitment that people have done to get to this point. I don't need to apologize for that, and I won't."

Kentucky's top two sports were exact opposites in postseason hardware for much of the previous five years. Calipari's teams hadn't made it to the Sweet 16 since 2019 while Stoops led his football program to seven straight bowl appearances (excluding 2020 season).

The Wildcats' family feud looked to be halted as Stoops shared a formal goodbye, via his X account, when Calipari departed for Arkansas in April. Friday's comments by the Wildcats' coach proves he is either not over it or just pandering to the Rupp Arena faithful.

"I will like to wish [John Calipari] and his family well in their new endeavor," Stoops tweeted April 10. "We spent 11 years working together and I really appreciate all they did for UK and the Commonwealth." 

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Jacob Davis
JACOB DAVIS

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