Mark Stoops is striving to get Kentucky's disciplined culture back in the program

Kentucky's success has taken a dip the last few years, but especially so last year after a 4-8 season that ended Kentucky's eight-year bowl game streak. A big part of that is the slip in culture. Mark Stoops is known for his hard-nosed coaching attitude that he instills in his players.

Discipline is one of the main traits that all of his players leave the program with. No matter what, Stoops' teams don't back down. That hasn't been the case recently, and Stoops is trying to get back to that and reclaim the Kentucky football culture that he has built his success on in Lexington. A big part of that was analyzing what all happened last season and how to fix it. Stoops knows it starts with getting the culture back.

"After last season, obviously not a very good year for us, we had to take a good look at that. We had eight-straight bowl appearances, one of only three teams in the SEC to do that. It's not easy. So, we had a really good stretch and been really consistent. We know the great teams that are in this league and there's many of us that had a year off here and there, and when you do that and have a bad year like that, I had to take a step back, analyze each and every thing in our program along with our staff and our players, and there's a lot of work to be done, but we didn't want to just move past it. ...For us, we will continue to anchor the core values of our program. and that's an attitude of toughness, discipline, and pride, and we need to do that with the consistency that's necessary to make sure that you're gonna get the growth that's needed." Stoops on the program's culture.

The head coach is heading into his 13th season at Kentucky, and he's looking to bring back the culture that has been forgotten recently. Stoops also noted in his press conference that the disciplined culture doesn't just go away in a difficult year, it's something that is there for you to lean back on and trust. That wasn't there last season especially, where the Wildcats looked defeated towards the end of the year.

Stoops is looking to bring the Kentucky football culture back along with all of the roster change and staff continuity that has happened this offseason in hopes to get the program back to it's rightful level and even beyond.