DALLAS — Kentucky coach Mark Stoops, now the longest-tenured coach in the SEC at 12 years, ended the media days in Dallas filled with fodder about UT and OU, Saban's retirement and other top storylines.
One of those top storylines, fittingly, includes him and the Texas A&M Aggies. Reports were that Stoops was supposed to be named the new head man in College Station, but those reports quickly took a 180-degree turn in a matter of hours back in November.
Stoops even took to X, formerly Twitter, in the early hours of Nov. 26 to clear the air about the speculation of him leaving Kentucky.
Texas A&M named Duke's former head coach, Mike Elko, as their replacement for Jimbo Fisher instead. The exact details of how true the Stoops rumors were unclear, but he was asked about the Texas A&M job and how close he was to being the Aggies coach on the final day of SEC Media Days.
"I was pursued pretty aggressively by them, and we'll leave it at that out of respect for everybody involved," Stoops told the ballroom full of reporters. "It was very brief. I was pursued. ... I've been grinding at Kentucky for a long time, and I'm very proud of that and want to continue to do that."
Kentucky and Texas A&M did not play each other in the 2024 season.
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