Kentucky’s Mark Stoops Addresses Twitter Dispute With John Calipari

After Kentucky men’s basketball coach John Calipari called the university “a basketball school” earlier this week, football coach Mark Stoops came to the defense of his program on Saturday.

“I don’t care about anyone’s program, I stay in my lane,” Stoops told reporters on Saturday after the football team’s scrimmage.

“But when you start talking about mine, and people I compete against, I’m going to defend my players. Don’t demean and distract from what we’ve done to get to this point,” Stoops said.

Stoops later said “this program didn’t wake up on third base” as he attested to the program building that has been needed to turn the Wildcats into a potential SEC East contender.

Calipari’s initial comments in which he called Kentucky a basketball school came as he advocated for a new practice facility.

“This is a basketball school. Alabama is a football school. So is Georgia. No disrespect to our football team. I hope they win 10 games and go to bowls, but this is a basketball school,” Calipari said.

Stoops immediately fired back on Twitter on Thursday saying, “Basketball school? I thought we competed in the SEC? #4straightpostseasonwins”

The football program opens its season on Sept. 3 against Miami (OH).