Report: Kentucky’s Mark Stoops to Be Hired as Texas A&M HC to Replace Jimbo Fisher

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On Saturday night, Jeff Tarpley of 247Sports reported that Texas A&M was set to hire Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops to replace the fired Jimbo Fisher as head football coach.

However, conflicting reports have since declared that Stoops won’t be hired by the school:

Stoops himself took to X to refute the reports:

Stoops, 56, has gone 73-64 in his 11 seasons at Kentucky, including a 7-5 record this season. It’s been a strong run at a school famously more invested in the basketball program.

As for whether the potential hire would have been the right move for a Texas A&M program where the expectations often unrealistically ignore the realities of life in the loaded SEC, that was met with mixed reaction on social media:

One thing that Stoops would have had in College Station, compared to his time in Lexington, asw more resources. He lamented Kentucky’s lack thereof during an October radio appearance following a 51-13 stomping at the feet of two-time defending national champion Georgia.

“I can promise you—Georgia, they bought some pretty good players,” he said (h/t ESPN). “You’re allowed to these days, and we could use some help. That’s what they look like, you know what I mean, when you have 85 of ’em. I encourage anybody that’s disgruntled to pony up some more.”

Stoops somewhat clarified his remarks the next day.

“Basically one person was questioning me and the program and getting over the hump,” he said. “I really simply should have said, ‘Hey, dude, I’ve gotten over a lot of humps. That’s not a hump, that’s Mount Everest.'”

The expectation at Texas A&M is that you summit those peaks. Jimbo Fisher never came close, registering a 46-25 record and just three bowl appearances in parts of six years.

The question would have been whether Stoops could have gotten closer to meeting the expectations of Aggies’ fans.

“This is not an 8-4 job. It’s not,” athletic director Ross Bjork said on the Aggie Fan Zone radio show in November (h/t Brent Zwerneman of the Houston Chronicle). “Because of the decision we made (to fire Fisher) but also because of the resources and expectations. Does somebody have the wherewithal to deal with that, the weight of (the job) and the magnitude, and not get fazed and rattled, not panic, and if something doesn’t go right, they fix what they need to fix?”

It’s a moot point now, as Stoops appears set to remain with the Wildcats, leaving the Aggies to continue their search.