Cat Fight: Mark Stoops goes in on John Calipari's 'basketball school' comments again

Mark Stoops has been at work building the Kentucky football program and he's going all out to defend it. Even against John Calipari.

Mark Stoops once again came to the defense of the Kentucky football program after comments UK basketball coach John Calipari made earlier in the week about Kentucky being a "basketball school."

Stoops quickly responded to that claim by tweeting, "Basketball school? I thought we competed in the SEC?"

Speaking after football practice on Saturday, Stoops said he won't be "derailed" by any distractions, wherever they come from.

"When you start talking about my program and others that we compete against: me, I don't do that," Stoops said. 

"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."

Stoops also added that the Kentucky football program "wasn't born on third base."

"We understand history," he said. "That's great. I embrace it and love it, the history of our basketball. I'm proud of it. I love it. I didn't have that history. We're creating it."

Stoops said he hasn't spoken with Calipari since his first remarks, but Cal did address the situation again on Saturday in a tweet.

I was told about comments Mark Stoops made in his press conference. I reached out to Mark Thursday & will try again. Comparing our athletic dept. to others was my bad. I have supported Mark & the football team through good and bad. I will continue to support them & cheer them on.

— John Calipari (@CoachCalArk) August 13, 2022

Prior to Stoops joining the school, Kentucky struggled on the football field, not winning more than eight games in a season since 1984.

Stoops has steadily built the program, and now boasts a pair of top 10 wins, the school's first home win over Florida since 1986, and four straight bowl victories.

Kentucky has won 10 games in a season twice under Stoops and beat Penn State by two touchdowns in last season's bowl appearance.

"This is a basketball school. It's always been that," Calipari told The Athletic originally. 

"Alabama is a football school. So is Georgia. I mean, they are. No disrespect to our football team. I hope they win 10 games and go to bowls. 

"At the end of the day, that makes my job easier and it makes the job of all of us easier. But this is a basketball school. And so we need to keep moving in that direction and keep doing what we're doing."

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