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Ranking every SEC football coach ahead of SEC Media Days: Where does Butch Jones stand?

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 15: Head coach Nick Saban of the Alabama Crimson Tide shakes hands with head coach Butch Jones of the Tennessee Volunteers after their 49-10 win at Neyland Stadium on October 15, 2016 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 15: Head coach Nick Saban of the Alabama Crimson Tide shakes hands with head coach Butch Jones of the Tennessee Volunteers after their 49-10 win at Neyland Stadium on October 15, 2016 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /
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JACKSONVILLE, FL – DECEMBER 31: Head coach Mark Stoops of the Kentucky Wildcats yells during the game against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at EverBank Field on December 31, 2016 in Jacksonville, Florida. (Photo by Rob Foldy/Getty Images)
JACKSONVILLE, FL – DECEMBER 31: Head coach Mark Stoops of the Kentucky Wildcats yells during the game against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at EverBank Field on December 31, 2016 in Jacksonville, Florida. (Photo by Rob Foldy/Getty Images) /

Mark Stoops and Derek Mason have had similar trajectories except for the fact that Stoops had an extra year with the Kentucky Wildcats.

Why then, is he ahead of Derek Mason if it took him one extra year to reach a bowl game? Well, it’s mainly because his bowl appearance was no fluke.

Stoops inherited a program falling off the map way worse than what mason inherited from James Franklin. Still, after going 2-10 his first year, he was one game away from a bowl appearance in both 2014 and 2015.

When you consider the fact that he’s had to face a Bobby Petrino-led Louisville Cardinals team the past three years, getting to those six wins has only been more difficult as a result.

Still, he was able to break out in 2016 and finally get bowl eligible, going 7-5 and actually upsetting Louisville in the process. And that was after a bad opening-season loss to the Southern Miss Golden Eagles.

As a result, he was able to move into the Top 10 of SEC coaches for finally getting Kentucky to a bowl game.

However, for now, he’s only here. That’s because doing it one year is not enough, especially in a year in which the SEC was so mediocre.

He should’ve made a bowl game the previous year and under-achieved. So Kentucky as a program is still on questionable ground. And it’ll take this year for Stoops to prove what he can do long-term.

Until then, he’s in the bottom half of coaches in the conference.

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