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Stoops on his first years at Kentucky: “I was going into some gun fights with a butter knife”

Related Topics: Kentucky, Joker Phillips

Mark Zerof | USA Today

To say that Mark Stoops inherited a major rebuilding project at Kentucky would be the understatement of the century. After the Joker Phillips era, the program was practically barren of talent, to the point that several insiders insist that there were Division II programs with better personnel than the Cats. Stoops has been frank about the struggles the program went through in his first few seasons, and now, with a little bit of success behind him, he reflected on the journey this morning on KSR.

“The first couple years, quite honestly, we were far far off,” Stoops said.