By destroying Kentucky football’s NIL, Mark Stoops makes his job harder | Toppmeyer

Mark Stoops enjoys one of the most lucrative and secure jobs in college football.

At the Kentucky, Stoops is not expected to produce national titles or conference championships. In the division era, he wasn’t expected to win the SEC East or beat Georgia or Tennessee.

Just keep Big Blue Nation entertained until basketball heats up. Seven wins and a trip to the Gator Bowl will do, thank you.

This side of the golden parachute there is nothing better. Or at least I thought.

Slopes, in a recent interview with 247Sportsmade it seem like he was working in poverty.

Stoops was dismissive of Kentucky’s NIL efforts and said he is so busy with homecoming and fundraising that he can barely find time to coach.

“I don’t get help. None,” Stoops said during the interview.

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Stoops may consider this a cry for help, but destroying Kentucky and its NIL agent makes Stoops’ job more difficult.

Most coaches worry that their opponents will criticize them in the recruiting process or exaggerate negative aspects about a particular school while trying to steer recruits away from a rival and toward their school. This practice is known as negative recruitment.

No one recruits Kentucky more negatively than Stoops lately.

Let’s review some of his actions over the past year:

∎ He described Kentucky fans as cheapskates and told them to “shell out” more money if they wanted him to beat better opponents.

∎ He flirted with the job at Texas A&M before the Aggies dropped a tryout balloon.

∎ He has lost six of the last eight games.

∎ He trashed Kentucky’s NIL operation and said he’s too busy talking to train the way he wants to.

Stoops, 57, speaks like a man who is tired of Kentucky and has his sights set on replacing Kirk Ferentz at Iowa, his alma mater, or joining Nick Saban in retirement.

Either that, or Stoops has completely lost touch with reality, and he truly believes that being asked to raise funds It is Beating Vanderbilt is a very difficult task.

NIL collectives operate in a dark universe. I don’t know if Kentucky’s NIL efforts are as dismal as Stoops makes them out to be, but perception is reality, and thanks to Stoops, my perception is that lazy paupers run Kentucky football’s NIL collective.

This is a destructive perception in this era where NIL dominates recruitment.

Recruits and transfers want to play for a program with a well-oiled NIL machine. Stoops insists that in Kentucky, he’s the only one putting effort under the hood to try to keep this jalopy running.

“I feel very isolated, very alone,” Stoops said during the 247Sports interview. “I’ll be honest, I don’t know how long it will take me to deal with what I’ve faced.”

What a great shot, coach.

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Stoops shows no love for Kentucky, where his handsome $9 million salary positions him to earn more than $1 million per win.

How, indeed, can Stoops be expected to work in such adverse conditions?

The SEC eliminated divisions in favor of a tighter 16-team conference, and Stoops has laid the groundwork for an excuse if Kentucky’s record slips in the face of a tough schedule: It has a lot of fundraising on its shoulders to win games.

“Other places are blessed with people who can raise (money) for them,” Stoops told 247Sports. “They weren’t there. So it just consumes me.”

Overshadowed amid the criticism of Stoops is the fact that he has a lot to sell. He’s the best Kentucky coach since Bear Bryant. The Wildcats have a three-game winning streak against Florida. Kentucky’s facilities are good enough.

Stoops turned Kentucky into a great place to play football.

You wouldn’t know it from the way Stoops talks. If he’s to be believed, Kentucky football is a tight operation run by an exhausted coach.

Blake Toppmeyer is an SEC columnist for the USA TODAY Network. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.

Also, check out his podcast, Unfiltered SEC Football, and newsletter, Unfiltered SEC Football. Subscribe to read all your columns.

This article originally appeared in the Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky Football: Mark Stoops Makes Job Harder By Destroying NIL