Mark Stoops has begun pushing Fran Curci downward in the Kentucky football record book.
In last season’s 41-18 win over South Carolina, Stoops (now 53-50) recorded his 48th UK victory to pass Curci (47-51-2 from 1973-81) for second-most wins in Wildcats coaching history.
This year, Stoops (103 games) has moved by Curci (100 games) for most total games coached at Kentucky.
Last week, when UK gutted out a 16-10 road win over SEC East rival South Carolina, Stoops (26-42) moved by Curci (25-30) for the most Southeastern Conference victories ever recorded by a Cats football coach.
“I don’t know him very well,” Curci said Wednesday of Stoops. “Every time I go up there, I will shake hands and talk to him. I know the (Stoops) family. It seems like (Mark Stoops) is doing a good job.”
When Stoops leads the Cats (4-0, 2-0 SEC) against No. 10 Florida (3-1, 1-1 SEC) on Saturday at 6 p.m. at Kroger Field, Curci’s plan is to be glued to the television from his home in the Sunshine State.
At age 83, the ex-UK head man still keeps close tabs on the program he once led. Like many, he is flummoxed over a veteran Kentucky team’s minus-9 turnover ratio through four games.
“Oh yeah, I’ve seen them play most every game,” Curci says. “The thing that puzzles me a little bit about them, I thought they were clearly better than Missouri (a 35-28 UK win in week two) and clearly better than South Carolina. But they’ve struggled, turned it over, (made) a lot of silly mistakes. Starting right now, they can’t continue doing those mistakes.”
There is an area of UK football coaching lore where Curci feels he remains on top. That is in the category of “who coached the best team Kentucky has ever fielded?”
Curci believes his 10-1 team in 1977 — led by stars Derrick Ramsey and Art Still — is going to be hard to knock from that pedestal.
“We had four road wins against Florida, LSU, Penn State and Georgia,” Curci says of the 1977 season. “We beat Georgia 33-0 in Athens. We had Art Still, the second person picked in the (1978 NFL) Draft. We had Derrick Ramsey, who went on to win two Super Bowl rings (1980 and 1983 seasons with the Raiders franchise). We just had some great players.”
The only team with a viable counter-claim to the mantle “best team in Kentucky football history” is Bear Bryant’s 1950 Cats. Led by Babe Parilli and Bob Gain, the ‘50 Wildcats went 11-1 and upset No. 1-ranked and undefeated Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl, snapping the Sooners’ 31-game win streak.
“Look, I’m very prejudiced,” Curci says. “I think we had (in 1977), probably, the best team that ever was at the University of Kentucky.”
Under Curci in the 1970s, Kentucky beating Florida was not a rare occurrence. The Wildcats beat the Gators in 1974, 1976, 1977 and 1979. UK lost a pair of heartbreakers, each by two points, to UF in 1973 and 1978, too.
Yet since Curci’s 1979 Cats, quarterbacked by walk-on Juan Portela, hung a 31-3 pasting on Florida in Gainesville, Kentucky besting the Gators has turned into a “blue moon event.” In its last 41 meetings with UF, UK has won twice — 10-3 in 1986 in Lexington and 27-16 in The Swamp in 2018.
“Florida is always a great team. They’ve just got so many (talented high school) players in Florida to pick from,” Curci says.
The Stoops era has seen Kentucky consistently play the Gators tougher than at any time since Curci’s days — without a lot of bottom-line affirmation to show for it.
Other than the streak-busting victory over UF in 2018, Stoops has had frustrating losses to Florida of one point (2017), five points (2015), six points in triple overtime (2014) and eight points (2019).
Curci reports that he was among those who thought the Gators lost so much offensive firepower off their 2020 SEC East Division championship team — star quarterback Kyle Trask; all-world tight end Kyle Pitts; explosive flanker Kadarius Toney — that they would take a step back in 2021.
But after watching Dan Mullen’s crew battle No. 1 Alabama to the wire in a 31-29 loss two weeks ago, Curci does not think there has been any drop-off.
“Florida is pretty (darned) good. They amazed me against Alabama,” Curci said. “I didn’t think they were this good.”
For Stoops on Saturday night to join him in the club of Kentucky head coaches who have multiple wins over Florida, Curci believes there are three keys.
The Cats have to stop turning the ball over so prolifically.
UK must slow down Florida’s third-in-the-nation rushing attack (322.5 yards a game).
And the Kentucky coaching staff has to get the Wildcats players to play with conviction.
“You have to gear yourself up,” Curci said of the challenge of beating Florida. “Your players have to know, ‘This is the real test of our team.’ (Kentucky) has still got to take that one more step. That is this week.”
Saturday
No. 10 Florida at Kentucky
When: 6 p.m.
TV: ESPN
Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1
Records: Florida 3-1 (1-1 SEC), Kentucky 4-0 (2-0)
Series: Florida leads 53-18.
Last meeting: Florida won 34-10 on Nov. 28, 2020, in Gainesville, Fla.