Toggle sidebar

My letter to Mark Pope (please read Coach)

P

PhattyJ

Senior
Jun 24, 2015
255
590
93
anot said:
It hurts a little honestly because that's the truth. Want him to succeed. I might just cheer my *** off for him this season knowing it's his last. I think he's trying really hard to win at a program Cal sabotaged on the way out.
Click to expand...

god bless you cal haters will find any way to bash him to save yourself from admitting we were better off.

he didn’t sabotage anything. He was being sabotaged. They wanted him gone and stopped the funding. He could’ve held our feet to the fire and made up pay tens of millions in buyout money. He didn’t. No matter what you thought of him, the way he left UK was very much to our benefit assuming we had a competent administration who wouldn’t hand the program over to a glorified high school coach.
 
G

Goingfor9

All-Conference
Jan 27, 2003
16,280
3,139
113
Kantucke_rivals said:
Pope doesn't strike me as the person that'll just step down and walk away especially with 17+ million dollars on the table.
Click to expand...
It’s real simple man, and I don’t think people understand the business of coaching or the business of athletics and how it works. People quit who are going to be fired. Whether that’s now or a year in the future.. they quit to save face. In this case, if we had an athletic director and he wanted to move pope on the first thing that would happen would be the logical first thing some of you might be damaged, but how Barney did things but the first logical thing is you go to the coach you say we don’t think you’re the right fit any longer we wanna go in that in another direction. Either going to fire you, or we will be willing to negotiate the buyout and let you resign willingly.. coaches can’t have both man. They don’t get the buyout and the ability to maintain a résumé that shows they never fired.. so almost always offered a negotiated buyout. If pope was unwilling to take that and demand the full buyout to be fired. He’s done in Lexington. He’ll never be welcome back when they talk about the 96 team Pope’s name will not come up often.. and as much as as they’ve celebrate the 96 team since Pope’s been here, he probably won’t celebrate it for another 20 years. At least another 10 and I don’t think UK fans will be happy with a coach who use the school just to get Rich a guy that was hired but just for being a former alum.
 
TheApostleSaulSmith

TheApostleSaulSmith

All-Conference
Mar 30, 2026
898
2,068
83
SlowWalkerSTL said:
He wasn’t put in a difficult situation.

He put himself in that position. He put his name out there. He took the call. He accepted the position. He got a huge raise for doing so.

At any point, he could have said that he isn’t ready, isn’t experienced enough, isn’t the right guy…he didn’t.

If he loved UK as much as he says he does, he would have never accepted the role. If he loved UK as much as he says he does, he would step down.
Click to expand...
...but why though??? He's getting paid $5.5MM to do his dream job. Who in their right mind would turn that down?
 
  • Like
Reactions: preacherfan
TheApostleSaulSmith

TheApostleSaulSmith

All-Conference
Mar 30, 2026
898
2,068
83
PhattyJ said:
god bless you cal haters will find any way to bash him to save yourself from admitting we were better off.

he didn’t sabotage anything. He was being sabotaged. They wanted him gone and stopped the funding. He could’ve held our feet to the fire and made up pay tens of millions in buyout money. He didn’t. No matter what you thought of him, the way he left UK was very much to our benefit assuming we had a competent administration who wouldn’t hand the program over to a glorified high school coach.
Click to expand...
the absolute worst take on the program now under Pope is "he has to right the ship after Cal screwed us"

Cal had flaws aplenty but...not like this. Not even close.
 
SlowWalkerSTL

SlowWalkerSTL

Sophomore
Jun 12, 2023
104
121
43
TheApostleSaulSmith said:
...but why though??? He's getting paid $5.5MM to do his dream job. Who in their right mind would turn that down?
Click to expand...
Someone who actually loved the school and knew they weren’t right. Did you not read my message? I answered your question before you asked it.

Someone who HAD an amazing legacy that wanted to keep it that way. If he is lucky, his legacy wont be the worst coach in history.

Are you secretly my wife asking me the same question I already answered using a few different words hoping I will reply differently?
 
B

Bluegrasskingreboot

Sophomore
Jul 17, 2025
131
139
43
PhattyJ said:
god bless you cal haters will find any way to bash him to save yourself from admitting we were better off.

he didn’t sabotage anything. He was being sabotaged. They wanted him gone and stopped the funding. He could’ve held our feet to the fire and made up pay tens of millions in buyout money. He didn’t. No matter what you thought of him, the way he left UK was very much to our benefit assuming we had a competent administration who wouldn’t hand the program over to a glorified high school coach.
Click to expand...
Wrong.

He breached his contract by even having discussions with Arkansas about their HC position as a candidate without reporting it ti the University and burned his guaranteed money.
 
P

preacherfan

All-Conference
Oct 11, 2003
29,104
4,786
113
TheApostleSaulSmith said:
Honestly as much as I'd love to hear that announcement, I think it's unfair to ask this of Pope.
The university hired him. He was offered a very generous salary/benefits, and he accepted it.
It's not his responsibility to decide that he isn't up to the task, and gracefully resign.
It's the AD's responsibility to fire him in that situation.
Click to expand...
Well said!
 
anot

anot

All-Conference
Mar 27, 2026
989
1,646
93
PhattyJ said:
god bless you cal haters will find any way to bash him to save yourself from admitting we were better off.

he didn’t sabotage anything. He was being sabotaged. They wanted him gone and stopped the funding. He could’ve held our feet to the fire and made up pay tens of millions in buyout money. He didn’t. No matter what you thought of him, the way he left UK was very much to our benefit assuming we had a competent administration who wouldn’t hand the program over to a glorified high school coach.
Click to expand...
Why did donors stop funding? Aw yea. Because he started bullshtn. I don't hate Cal. I don't Hate Pope. But I do want UK to get a coach that wins big.
 
B

Beatle Bum

Heisman
Sep 1, 2002
42,032
64,025
113
UKGrad24 said:
While I’m not surprised, it is astounding to me. “You just hate Cal” was an absolute staple here for about 5 years. Constant, non stop. Didn’t matter what it was, if you supported a change, you “just hate cal”. One of the worst things ever uttered here.

And wouldn’t ya know it, even though Pope literally cannot be hated personally, even though it’s not possible to hate the guy in any way really, it’s happening again. More and more “you just hate pope”, although worded differently, is happening now.

It’s amazing because if someone will say that phrase about Pope when it’s totally untrue and there’s no pathway to accuse anyone of it, it stands to reason that no matter what happens or who it is, “you just hate” excuse is going to live forever. If that excuse can be applied to Pope, it’ll be applied to anyone.

It’s a huge annoyance for me, personally. If a coach of Kentucky murdered 100 people and 90% of the fanbase wanted them out, you can believe the coach brigade would say, “you just hate ______”. What is really amounts to is, coach fans cannot come up with viable reasons to keep him, they cannot find anything but excuses. Can’t find a record or history to point to. Can’t find anything in the future to hold. So they say, “you just hate coach”. And that settles it, a win. A way to find some fault in the person who sees clearly a change is needed, and win. It’s not substance, it’s hate. And “you” are a hateful person. So now, the coach is covered, and I win.
Click to expand...
People have actually posted they hate Pope. Literally their words.

No one can point to a fireable offense for Pope. There is no rational case to be made. You may not like how things are going and predict the worst and may be right, but until it happens, the people who say he should have already been fired are not rational and are not people who would ever been in positions to make such decisions.

There are not many coaches who could do what Pope did in his first year. While I wanted Cal to succeed, I was comfortable with his departure and wanted him gone when it appeared he once again was trying to use other jobs to leverage more from UK. Cal could have never did what Pope did in Pope’s first year. Can you imaging Cal coming into UK in April with only ONE of his former players coming with him and trying to put together a team that can compete at the highest level? No way.

People who wanted Drew were hoping his recruits would follow like Cal takes his recruits. With Hurley, I think people would have accepted a really bad year for the coach but still probably wanted him to cart along some of his recruits and players. Pope accomplished a great deal that year despite devastating injuries. So, no rational AD would have fired him for last season. Yet, people parade around here pretending that should have happened.
 
  • Like
Reactions: paulcalhoun_rivals397471 and Crestcat
B

Beatle Bum

Heisman
Sep 1, 2002
42,032
64,025
113
flacat22 said:
Message Board Geniuses is having a field day mining these horribly embarrassing takes and mocking us. Free content, hourly, daily…Way to go asshats, keep giving them ammo. 🙄
Click to expand...
No one “mined” this letter. It was sent to them. Probably most of their publication is now people giving tips. I suspect the OP tipped in this instance.
 
T

TheInsider

Redshirt
May 6, 2026
53
24
3
Beatle Bum said:
Who the “f” are you, just joined yesterday? 😝
Click to expand...
 
C

Catphright23

All-Conference
Dec 6, 2023
632
1,182
93
If he stepped down most our players would transfer and we would have to probably get an all European team. I took a break from here because I like to have an opposing view because you have too many of the same on here. First year he has to assemble a team and we have some injuries and lose in Sweet 16. Last two years the sec has more NCAA teams than before. Second year he assembled the wrong type of players on the team and some of them got injured. First year he didn't have luck with any freshmen because of time.

2nd year he had Moreno. Hawthorne, Jasper, and Acaden Lewis. We should have kept Acaden Lewis instead of getting Lowe. Lewis wanted to be the man and now he is in Miami. Jasper didn't pan out and his uncle ran his mouth to other players.

That hurt us with freshmen and also he isn't a known commodity of putting freshmen to the nba because he hasn't had a chance minus Moreno. Last year he had some bad looks after losses, and we got blown out and part due to injuries, part due to selfish players and some of our players last year couldn't play offense. Substitution patterns were bad but part of me thinks its not even to do with statistics and he was just being nice to guys like Garrison/Jasper.

Last year we spent the most money and had the 2nd best transfer class. Lowe, JQ, Jelavic, and Mo D(offensively) didn't really pan out. Louisville, BYU, Indiana all spent lots on their roster and all finished up worse than we did. This year we haven't spent on much and we didn't get some of the players we wanted. Michigan last year had a portal class lower than ours and probably spent their money right. So even in this years class its hard to evaluate the players aka Juke Harris who came from a losing Wake Forest team compared to someone like Alex Wilkins who came from a small team but made the tournament.

This year injuries shouldn't be a concern and we'll see how he can coach them. We need a big and a sf/pf type and if he can get them that'll be great. If not if we are good he'll be here, if not we'll lose. Fan perspective is what is hurting us a bit on social media platforms. You got people like me who just gets tired sick of seeing negativity, then you get people who all do is spew negativity. We have a huge fan base so any bad crap spreads. I hate words like whiff it sounds like you are a 10 year old trying to use bro. We shouldn't have lost some games and shouldn't have been blown out by Gonzaga, Alabama, Iowa St and Vandy. We did have injuries and Sec has been tough the last two years compared to the 90s. It'll be up to him, he isn't going to leave in may. I guess yeah hypothetically he left but no other college coach would leave their program right now and leave that team in shambles think about it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: GhostofVerderber
GhostofVerderber

GhostofVerderber

Junior
May 18, 2022
312
380
63
Dear Desperate “FAN”
You are an immature idiot. Your basketball knowledge is obviously lacking. Rankings aren’t everything. Aren’t the same people who told you we were a final four team last year, a .500 team the year before, the same ones telling you how bad we’ll be next year? Grow up chicken little.
Mark Pope
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0510.jpeg
    IMG_0510.jpeg
    168 KB · Views: 2
  • Like
Reactions: paulcalhoun_rivals397471
Drcats2025

Drcats2025

Heisman
Nov 13, 2012
7,991
15,885
93
GhostofVerderber said:
Dear Desperate “FAN”
You are an immature idiot. Your basketball knowledge is obviously lacking. Rankings aren’t everything. Aren’t the same people who told you we were a final four team last year, a .500 team the year before, the same ones telling you how bad we’ll be next year? Grow up chicken little.
Mark Pope
Click to expand...
Got me.
 
BlueSince92

BlueSince92

All-Conference
Jul 2, 2025
10,756
3,384
230
My Letter to Mark Pope:


Yo. Ssup? Hey, I was thinking:

Gen Z can’t write cursive.

How TF those mofos sign their names??

—Pete
 
J

James Arington

Senior
Jan 14, 2002
817
521
93
Drcats2025 said:
Dear Coach Pope,

First off, thank you. Thank you for being a Kentucky Wildcat. Your enthusiasm and leadership played a huge part in us winning our 6th national championship; on a team that any partial, basketball mind will NOT find 5 better teams in the history of college basketball. You were the captain to this amazing squad, and forever will be beloved for that reason.

Now, let’s get to the present. Coach, you were put in a terribly unfair position. You were offered the job of your dreams and no one in their right mind would have turned it down, but it was a big ask. It was a big ask by our administration to expect you to come here and replace the greatest recruiter in our programs history, when you had never even won a tournament game, or established yourself well enough to get the types of recruits we need here at Kentucky. You were just starting to get the ball rolling at BYU, and was not quite seasoned enough to take over such a prestigious program with lofty expectations. Again, this is of no fault of your own.

Coach, I truly believe you’re doing your best. You’re putting everything you’ve got into this job, but as much as it pains me to say, it just isn’t enough. For whatever reason, you and your staff have been unable to put together the type of roster that should be expected at this great university. I know it’s hard to accept, but deep down you know this is true, too.

I ask to you to please consider stepping down. Humbly accepting that this job and its demands are just too much for you. There is no shame in that, and you will be so respected in doing so. Please force the hand of our administration to have to take action; to at least give us a shot at retribution, though I’ll admit I have little faith they’ll make the right hire after you.

What I do know is that this isn’t working, and that there is no realistic reason to believe it’ll get better. We appreciate your efforts, and you’ll always be a legend here.
Just please consider this before things get too out of hand. It wasn’t your fault, and we love you, Coach.

Sincerely,
A Desperate Fan
Click to expand...
I am not reading your crappy letter. Have a nice ego trip.
 
  • Haha
  • Like
Reactions: paulcalhoun_rivals397471 and Drcats2025
DudahUK

DudahUK

Heisman
Jul 23, 2020
7,072
11,245
113
Drcats2025 said:
Dear Coach Pope,

First off, thank you. Thank you for being a Kentucky Wildcat. Your enthusiasm and leadership played a huge part in us winning our 6th national championship; on a team that any partial, basketball mind will NOT find 5 better teams in the history of college basketball. You were the captain to this amazing squad, and forever will be beloved for that reason.

Now, let’s get to the present. Coach, you were put in a terribly unfair position. You were offered the job of your dreams and no one in their right mind would have turned it down, but it was a big ask. It was a big ask by our administration to expect you to come here and replace the greatest recruiter in our programs history, when you had never even won a tournament game, or established yourself well enough to get the types of recruits we need here at Kentucky. You were just starting to get the ball rolling at BYU, and was not quite seasoned enough to take over such a prestigious program with lofty expectations. Again, this is of no fault of your own.

Coach, I truly believe you’re doing your best. You’re putting everything you’ve got into this job, but as much as it pains me to say, it just isn’t enough. For whatever reason, you and your staff have been unable to put together the type of roster that should be expected at this great university. I know it’s hard to accept, but deep down you know this is true, too.

I ask to you to please consider stepping down. Humbly accepting that this job and its demands are just too much for you. There is no shame in that, and you will be so respected in doing so. Please force the hand of our administration to have to take action; to at least give us a shot at retribution, though I’ll admit I have little faith they’ll make the right hire after you.

What I do know is that this isn’t working, and that there is no realistic reason to believe it’ll get better. We appreciate your efforts, and you’ll always be a legend here.
Just please consider this before things get too out of hand. It wasn’t your fault, and we love you, Coach.

Sincerely,
A Desperate Fan
Click to expand...
lol. These “letters to the editor” crack me up. I’m sure he’s reading it right now Opie.
 
Last edited:
  • Haha
Reactions: Drcats2025
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom