Mark Stoops to join Steve Sarkisian’s Coaching Staff at Texas

Mark Stoops is not staying away from the college football sideline in 2026. The former Kentucky head football coach has a new gig in the SEC.

According to Chip Brown of 247 Sports, Stoops is joining Steve Sarkisian‘s staff at Texas as a special assistant. The Longhorns will not be on the schedule next fall, but their goal-line stand in overtime at Kroger Field cost Kentucky a chance to win six games, which would’ve likely kept Stoops in Lexington.

During his time at Kentucky, Stoops had nothing but nice things to say about Sarkisian. The two colleagues competed against each other in the Pac-12 when Mark worked at Arizona and Sark was at Washington. Sark and Mike Stoops also worked together under Nick Saban at Alabama.

This move signals that Stoops intends to get back into the mix as a head coach. After he was fired by West Virginia, Neal Brown spent one year as a special assistant at Texas, then was hired to lead the North Texas football program. A year or two as a special assistant is often considered “coaching rehab” for fired head coaches who are looking for their next opportunity.

Texas may not have to pay Stoops much at all help the Horns. Kentucky owes Mark Stoops $37.7 million over the next six years, and there are no mitigating circumstances to offset that price tag, which is paid off in quarterly installments.

More on Mark Stoops at Kentucky

Stoops was the longest-tenured coach in the Southeastern Conference. With a win at Florida in 2022, he surpassed Bear Bryant (60) with more wins than any other coach in Kentucky football history. Unfortunately, those wins were harder to find in recent years.

The former Florida State defensive coordinator from Youngstown inherited a two-win program in 2013. Four years into his tenure, he took the Wildcats to the postseason, beginning a school record run of eight straight bowl games.

Kentucky won 20 SEC games from 2018-2022. Since they handily defeated Florida on Sept. 30, 2023, they mustered only four wins over SEC foes. Over 13 years in Lexington, Stoops went 82-80 at Kentucky.

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