The high point of UK football’s 2023 season has lost some luster in Mark Stoops’ eyes

Kentucky football defeated one top-25 team during a disappointing 2023 season. Unless you ask Mark Stoops.

While the Wildcats’ upset of a Louisville squad (then ranked in the top 10) in the regular-season finale was the high point for Kentucky’s season, Stoops chose not to rank UK’s archrival in his final USA Today coaches poll ballot. The Cardinals, who dropped their final three games to finish the season at 10-4, were ranked No. 18 in the final coaches poll, but Stoops was one of two voters to leave Louisville off his ballot entirely. The other was SMU coach Rhett Lashlee.

Louisville coach Jeff Brohm, who also was on the 63-coach panel for the poll this season, ranked his team 17th. Tom Herman (FAU), Mike Locksley (Maryland) and Rick Stockstill (Middle Tennessee) were highest on the Cardinals, slotting them at No. 15.

In Brohm’s first season as coach, Louisville won 10 of its first 11 games before falling 38-31 to Kentucky in the annual Governor’s Cup rivalry game. The Cardinals then lost to a short-handed Florida State in the ACC championship game and were beaten 42-28 by Southern Cal in the Holiday Bowl.

Louisville was ranked 19th in the final Associated Press Top 25.

While Stoops might not have considered the Cardinals a top-25 team, his team’s victory over Louisville will still go down as one of the best in his UK tenure.

In Stoops’ 11 seasons as coach, Kentucky has beaten seven teams that finished the season ranked in the AP poll. Only three (No. 7 Florida in 2018, No. 17 Penn State in 2018 and No. 15 Louisville in 2016) were ranked higher in the final poll than Louisville this season.

Kentucky considers any victory over a team ranked in the top 25 at the time of the game a ranked victory for its official records. Stoops has recorded 13 of those wins, but that stat includes victories over Florida in the last three seasons, a win over Tennessee in 2020 and a win over Missouri in 2015 even though each of those teams finished the season with a losing record.

It is unclear how Stoops viewed the Cardinals before their three-game losing streak to close the 2023 season. Coaches’ individual ballots are only published by USA Today for the final poll.

Stoops was complimentary of the quick turnaround orchestrated by Brohm both before and after the Governor’s Cup rivalry game, but he has also made it clear during Kentucky’s five-game winning streak in the series that he believes the rigors of playing in the Southeastern Conference present a challenge for UK that Louisville playing in the ACC does not.

“Definitely, he’s made a huge impact already,” Stoops said of Brohm after Kentucky’s rivalry win. “… We have respect for each other. I have respect for his family. He does a really good job with his brothers and the whole family. We try to do the same, so hopefully we’ll keep it going for a long time, have some good battles.”

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