Kentucky’s close road victory over Georgia might have some Bulldogs fans thinking it’s time to move on from coach Mark Fox.

John Calipari doesn’t want to hear any of that. 

In his postgame press conference Saturday, Calipari went on a two-minute rant about the state of the coaching profession in 2017. He made a point of sticking up for Fox and another coach who’s not even in his league: the recently fired Mark Gottfried, who’s done at NC State once the Wolfpack’s season ends. 

“Here’s what bothers me about this profession right now,” Calipari starts in the video below, then proceeds to recap Georgia’s rugged run through the SEC. 

“But he keeps his team together,” Calipari says of Fox. “That’s coaching. Not when things are going good. It’s when things go south and you lose a bunch in a row, how do you get them and go. ... Well we all want to win more. No kidding. Live [in my shoes]. You wanna win more? We gotta win by 25 or we got problems. We win by two or in overtime, people are jumping off bridges.”

Calipari is not wrong with his hyperbole there. When the Wildcats are not romping the weak SEC, UK fans and college basketball writers frequently question the state of the program and why it’s not operating at the highest levels. 

But from there, Calipari veers into Gottfried’s situation, and that’s when he drops an S-bomb.

“We’re firing coaches in midseason. Are you s------- me? We’re firing coaches in midseason. You know what I’m putting my contract? You can fire me at midseason but you’re going to have to pay me $3 million. Oh, you’ll let me stay now, won’t you. ... Every coach in the country PUT IT IN YOUR CONTRACT. What if Mark Gottfried goes on a run at the end and gets to the NCAA Tournament, which he was in four out of five years? Two Sweet 16s, which is not done at NC State. What happens if he now if he goes and wins and gets another team [in?] He had good players but they’re young, they’re like my team. It’s hard to do this with young guys.”

Here’s the video, via Kyle Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution/SEC Country. Love seeing this side of Cal, and coaches around the country who see this video in the coming hours will applaud him, too. Calipari doesn’t have to say stuff like this, but he’s a person in power speaking up for coaches who don’t own national profiles and aren’t subject to day-by-day scrutiny the way he is.  

WATCH: John Calipari on an epic rant for friend and UGA coach Mark Fox, with one family unfriendly word mixed in. For full coverage, download our free SEC Country app: http://apple.co/2cJwARR

Posted by Kentucky Wildcats Insiders on Saturday, February 18, 2017