Multiple reports emerged in November 2023 that Mark Stoops was Texas A&M’s top choice to replace Jimbo Fisher after the program moved on from him and absorbed a $77 million buyout. But that move never came together. Now, after all this time, the Texas Longhorns have officially added Stoops to Steve Sarkisian’s coaching staff.
“BREAKING: Texas has hired former #Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops as a special assistant to Steve Sarkisian, a source close to the situation told http://Horns247.com,” Texas insider Chip Brown reported on X.
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After 13 seasons, following a second consecutive losing year and a 72-80 record, Kentucky parted ways with Stoops on December 1, 2025. Since then, Stoops has been waiting for a second chance, and Sarkisian has finally brought him onto the staff.
Stoops brings years of defensive experience. He coached defensive backs at South Florida in 1996 and in Wyoming from 1997 to ’99. He later worked under his brother, Mike Stoops, at Arizona from 2004 to ’09 as defensive coordinator and DB coach.
Then, at last, he was serving as defensive coordinator at Florida State before taking over coaching duties at Kentucky in 2013. So, with that level of experience, he will be a major advantage for Sark’s defense.
This isn’t the first time Sark has done something of this sort. Back in 2022, he got Gary Patterson from TCU, who worked as a special assistant for him. That pushed him to become DC at USC now. He did the same with Paul Chryst after the Badgers fired him in 2022. Sarkisian got him on the team as a special assistant for the 2023 season. So, it’s all part of his process.
Now, many might think taking over a coordinator role after head coaching experience is a major downfall. But for Stoops, it’s his second chance, as after getting fired from Kentucky, he is set to receive $38 million for letting him go early. This gives him financial security until another head coaching job pops up, and in the meantime, he is helping out Texas because we all know how shaky the coaching market is right now.
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On top of it, even though Kentucky went 5-7 under him last season, Mark Stoops was once among the most desirable coaches in College Football. Back in 2023, when Jimbo Fisher was fired by Texas A&M, he was Kentucky’s winningest coach at that time, but he stayed loyal to the Wildcats.
So, it’s pretty clear why the Longhorns trusted him in the first place. But his hiring is also raising some serious questions from analyst Paul Finebaum.
Paul Finebaum compares Steve Sarkisian’s move to Nick Saban’s
Mark Stoops joins Steve Sarkisian’s staff as a special assistant and is likely to help them with defense. But here’s the catch: how will Stoops’s hiring actually help the team, especially when they already hired Will Muschamp as their defensive coordinator? That’s exactly what Paul Finebaum is pointing out on his show.
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“The question I have is, didn’t he just hire Will Muschamp?” Finebaum said on The Paul Finebaum Show. “How many people have two ex-SEC coaches? Now, Nick Saban used to, I think. But he has two ex-SEC coaches. One is the DC, and the other one is what? We don’t know. It’s one thing if you have a 28-year-old defensive coordinator that you wanted to bring a mentor to.
But Will Muschamp is probably the same age as Mark Stoops. It just goes to show once you’re a former coach, you are probably going to be a coach or analyst somewhere.”
Finebaum pointed out clearly that Nick Saban used to hire head coaches to work on his staff, and Sarkisian was one of them. After the Trojans fired him, he went to Alabama, working for Saban. That job helped him rebuild his reputation, and later, he got the OC role at the Atlanta Falcons.
Then later, he returned to Alabama before ultimately taking the head coach title. Now, he is using the same idea with Stoops. What’s interesting is that both of them have huge respect for each other, so there’s no way there’s going to be any clash. Now, let’s wait and see how this move helps both Stoops and Sarkisian.
