LEXINGTON, Ky. (ABC36 NEWS NOW) – Former Kentucky head football coach Mark Stoops is sharing his first public message since being fired earlier this week, posting a goodbye letter to fans, players and staff on X Tuesday afternoon.

The message, written on UK-branded graphics and shared from Stoops’ official X account, thanked “all of my former players, coaches, staffers, and the Big Blue Nation” and called his 13 years in Lexington “one of the greatest honors of my life.”

Stoops wrote that he has “felt your support, your pride, and your love every single day,” adding that Kentucky has become his home and that he is “forever grateful to have been your head coach.”

The post marks Stoops’ first public comment since UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart announced the school would “go in a new

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