After Nick Saban retired following the 2023 season, Kentucky Wildcats head coach Mark Stoops became the longest-tenured head coach in the SEC. How long he holds that title, however, remains to be seen.
An anonymous opposing coach spoke to Athlon Sports about Stoops. That coach explained that they believe Stoops will retire within a few years and pointed directly to the conversations he seemed to have about the open Texas A&M job.
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“After the Texas A&M flirtation with [Mark] Stoops, a lot of us think he’s gonna end up retiring from Kentucky in a few years,” the anonymous coach said. “He’ll leave the game at a smart age, the way his brother [Bob Stoops] did.”
Texas A&M opened in 2023 with the firing of Jimbo Fisher. At one point, it looked like Mark Stoops would be hired there until pushback came to the hire. Some of that pushback was about the cost of hiring Stoops after firing Fisher. Some of it also came down to winning that initial press conference. That led to Mike Elko, who previously was an assistant at Texas A&M, being hired by the Aggies instead.
The coach also referenced Bob Stoops, who was regarded as one of the best coaches in the game and caught plenty of people by surprise when he stepped away in 2016. At the time, he was 56 years old.
For now, retirement is in the future for Mark Stoops. It’s not something that he’s publicly spoken about, only something that this anonymous coach says some opposing coaches could be coming in a few years. Instead, the focus for Stoops is going to be on the field where he’s trying to rebuild the offense with their fifth change at offensive coordinator in as many seasons.
“Before that, they’ve got to rework the offense again,” the anonymous coach said. “It’s remarkable in this league how often they lose offensive coordinators and the program doesn’t collapse…They might have one of the best defensive lines in the league, and they’re really good at playing the run. The measure for success is if they can install another new scheme to fit another transfer QB [Brock Vandagriff].”
One thing that’s undeniable is the success that Mark Stoops has had at Kentucky. He has a 73-65 record during his time there after needing to rebuild the program and is coming off a 7-6 season where Kentucky lost its bowl game. At this point, the Wildcats have been to a bowl game in eight straight seasons. He’s now 56 years old.
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