ESPN broadcast calls out SEC football team for game management

The announcers taking in the Ole Miss vs. Kentucky game didn't care for how Mark Stoops handled the game clock late in the first half.

ESPN's crew, including Greg McElroy, had some questions about how Kentucky handled the end of the first half against Ole Miss. | Brett Davis-Imagn Images

How the SEC’s longest tenured football coach managed his team at the end of the first half of Saturday’s marquee game against Ole Miss left the ESPN crew broadcasting the matchup with some serious questions.

With roughly a minute to go in the first half, Kentucky had a chance to put some more points on the board and cut into the Rebels’ lead, but came away with nothing.

“These are the kinds of things that, if you are on the hot seat, they get you fired,” ESPN announcer Sean McDonough said during the broadcast.

Sean McDonough and Greg McElroy on the rough clock management and execution from Mark Stoops and Kentucky to finish the first half vs Ole Miss. 🏈🎙️ #CFB pic.twitter.com/XaG2spRcKn

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 6, 2025

Kentucky used three of its timeouts early in the first half and then called the last one with under 9 minutes left in the second quarter. The result was a clunky end to the half with the Wildcats’ offense called for a delay and failing to score again before halftime.

“It just does not look like a well-coached football team in terms of the management of the operation,” McDonough continued.

“They do a lot of things really well. They obviously play great defense. They coach great defense. But the offense and the game management is an issue, at least recently.”

At the moment McDonough was making those comments, color analyst Greg McElroy noted that Stoops was laying into his assistants on the sideline.

“He is lighting up members of his offensive staff,” McElroy said. 

“I mean, he should be, because he’s not the one calling the plays, calling the formations. That’s coming from Bush Hamdan, the offensive coordinator, the rest of the offensive staff. That’s on the offense.”

Kentucky quarterback Zach Calzada ran out of bounds with 8 seconds left in the half after the offense took over and got to the Ole Miss 40-yard line, pushing the unit back 5 yards and likely out of field goal range.

McDonough then wondered aloud why Calzada wasn’t told to either spike the ball or throw it out of bounds to set up a Kentucky field goal try.

“Doesn’t somebody have to say in his headset, ‘Okay, we don’t have another timeout. We can’t run a play in bounds. Just throw the ball, take a snap, throw it out of bounds and we’ll kick a field goal,’” he said.

McElroy backed up McDonough’s comments by saying that a coach can, indeed, communicate directly with the quarterback through the helmet.

“You can walk your quarterback through it quickly,” he said. “Just spike it, if nothing else. Just really self-inflicted here down the stretch.”

ESPN sideline reporter Molly McGrath later said that Kentucky was having an issue with the coach-to-player communication system.

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