Mark Stoops 'pursued pretty aggressively' by Texas A&M, UK coach reveals

Texas A&M was very interested in hiring Mark Stoops to replace Jimbo Fisher, the Kentucky football coach confirmed at SEC Media Days.

Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops admits that Texas A&M 'aggressively' pursued him to replace Jimbo Fisher as head coach. / Bob Self/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY

Back during the chaos of the post-Jimbo Fisher era at Texas A&M, it looked like the school was set on bringing in Mark Stoops as head football coach, but just as suddenly, that talk died down and Stoops stayed on at Kentucky instead.

Stoops confirmed the Aggies were very interested in him when speaking at the 2024 SEC Media Days this week.

"I was pursued pretty aggressively by them and we'll just leave it at that out of respect for everybody involved," Stoops said. "There's a lot of people over the years and a lot of interactions between people, but it was very brief. I was pursued, I had a job to do."

Stoops reflected instead on his long and somewhat historic tenure at Kentucky.

"I take great pride in, there's only been 19 coaches in the history of the SEC that have been 12 years at their institution," he said.

"I'm proud to be a member of that group. I've been griding at Kentucky for a long time and very proud of that and want to continue to do that and again, we want more but that's not nothing. The SEC's been around a long time with a lot of very good coaches."

Three years removed from winning 10 games and the Citrus Bowl, the program's fourth-straight postseason victory, Kentucky has put forward consecutive 7-6 finishes with two 3-5 SEC records and two straight bowl defeats.

"We just want more," Stoops said. "I think I talked about it last year, but where we're at, the margin for error? We have to make the best of every situation. There's been some consistency."

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