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Mark Stoops Definitely Took a Shot at Shane Beamer and South Carolina

Mark Stoops
UK Athletics

Mark Stoops, along with the other head coaches in the SEC, sat down with Ryan McGee and Marty Smith of ESPN for individual interviews at SEC Football Media Days in July.

The SEC Network chose to air footage from those interviews Tuesday, where Stoops appeared to take a shot at South Carolina Head Coach Shane Beamer.

Stoops spoke with Marty and McGee about how he changed the culture at Kentucky and why it’s more important than changing the climate of a program.

“I think ultimately it’s about the respect throughout the league when you’re dealing with coaches and players,” Stoops said when asked about the rewards of his rebuild at Kentucky. “Win or lose, you walk out you know you’re going to be in for a physical matchup. You know that we’re coming to play, we’re coming to compete and having that mindset. That’s not easy to change. I’ve talked years and years ago about climate vs. culture. It’s easy to change a climate. You just change a uniform, talk a little game, dance around, put on some stupid sunglasses, and you can change a climate. But to change a culture is at the core. I’m quite certain we’ve changed our culture.

“That culture throughout our whole organization has totally flipped,” Mark Stoops said. “From being kind of looked like as a dog to being looked at as you better come ready to play because we’re coming. Our players feel that, our fans feel that, and that’s a good feeling.”

Meanwhile, Beamer has done some things to change the climate at South Carolina, a program that has lost 7 of the last 8 games to the Wildcats.

Beamer participated in a Full House spoof earlier this year but his appearance centered around a Soulja Boy song grabbed the attention of everyone at SEC Media Days in July.

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