Kentucky Wildcats head coach Mark Stoops on the sidelines as the Louisville Cardinals football team dominated Kentucky 41-0 Saturday, November 29, 2025 in Louisville, Kentucky at L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium.

The Kentucky Wildcats are moving on from head coach Mark Stoops. According to Pete Thamel of ESPN, they are "expected" to fire him with the process to "formally" take place on Monday.

Kentucky suffered a 41-0 loss to the Louisville Cardinals on Saturday, dropping them to 5-7. It was their second blowout loss to end the season, they fell to the Vanderbilt Commodores 45-17 the week prior, snapping their three-game losing streak. It was his 13th season as their head coach, and the second straight one that ended with a losing record.

Stoops went 82-80 as their head coach, including a 38-68 record in the SEC. His best seasons were in 2018 and 2021, when they went 10-3 and won the Citrus Bowl both years. They made a bowl game every season from 2016-23.

They followed up the 2021 season with back-to-back 7-6 performances before they collapsed in 2024, and he was never able to get them back on track. They went 4-8 in 2024 and 5-7 in 2025. Despite the disappointing ending, he is the winningest head coach in program history, and he significantly raised the level of the program.

Kentucky is now the sixth SEC program that will have a new coach next season, though Auburn, Arkansas, Florida, LSU, and Ole Miss have already made hires. Most notably, the Gators hired former Kentucky linebacker and coach Jon Sumrall.

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This article originally appeared on College Sports Wire: Kentucky Wildcats to fire head coach Mark Stoops

Reporting by JD McCarthy, College Sports Wire / College Sports Wire

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect