Five things to know about Mike Stoops, Kentucky’s new inside linebackers coach

The newest addition to Kentucky’s football coaching staff goes back a long way with its head coach.

Mike Stoops, officially named UK’s new linebackers coach on Tuesday, is the older brother of Mark Stoops, the Wildcats’ skipper since 2013. He comes to the Wildcats by way of Florida Atlantic, where he was the defensive coordinator last season following two years as an analyst at Alabama. Kentucky will pay him $650,000 through next June and $675,000 through June 2023, after that, per a contract released by UK.

Mike succeeds Jon Sumrall, who was named head coach at Troy in December.

Barring further amendments to the contracts of coaches previously on staff — recruiting coordinator Vince Marrow, offensive coordinator Liam Coen and defensive coordinator Brad White have all recently agreed to new contract terms that will pay each of them close to, or more than, $1 million per season — Mike Stoops will be the fourth-highest paid assistant on Mark’s staff.

“I’m excited about the opportunity to coach with Mike again,” Mark Stoops said. “Mike was instrumental in my early development as a coach, as I learned a lot from him at Arizona. He has a wealth of experience as a head coach, coordinator and position coach. I look forward to having him contribute to the staff at Kentucky.”

Here are five more things to know about UK’s newest hire.

Family ties

Mike (age 60), like Mark (54) and their other brother Bob (61), played at Iowa under Hayden Fry. He, like those two, also began his coaching career with the Hawkeyes as a graduate assistant.

He later coached under Bob at Kansas State and Oklahoma, before following him to Oklahoma when Bob was named head coach there in 1999. He won a national title as the Sooners’ assistant head coach and co-defensive coordinator in 2000.

Mike was named head coach at Arizona in 2004, and Mark was his defensive coordinator for the first six seasons of his tenure, which ended in 2011. Mike coached under Bob again at Oklahoma from 2012-2016, serving a second stint as the Sooners’ defensive coordinator through 2018 before Lincoln Riley, who succeeded Bob in 2017, fired him.

Almost here

Mark’s older brother was linked to the Kentucky program ahead of the 2020 season, when it was looking to add a safeties coach following the departure of Dean Hood, who became the head coach at Murray State.

Frank Buffano, a quality control assistant, was instead elevated to the vacancy. At the time, UK’s nepotism policy — which allows the hiring of relatives if the employment is deemed “in the best interest of the university” by the Board of Trustees — was cited as a possible road block to Mike’s hire. Mike, coming off his first season as an analyst at Alabama, opted to learn under Nick Saban for another season.

Winner

In 35 years of coaching, Mike’s teams have played in 28 bowl games. He guided Arizona to three straight bowl games from 2008-2010, giving the Wildcats their first bowl trip since 1998 and matching what was then the school’s longest streak of bowl appearances (Rich Rodriguez from 2012-2015 guided them to four straight, their current best).

Aside from the Oklahoma title, Mike was a quality control analyst for the 2020 Alabama football team that won the College Football Playoff championship.

“A career-saving decision,” Stoops last year told Tuscaloosanews.com of his time at Alabama. “Smart to step back to go forward. Helps you in a lot of ways. How you think. How you process things. Why you coach. What you’re coaching. Very enlightening. Very beneficial in every way. Physically, mentally, you just pick up a lot.”

Linebackers

Mike, like Mark, has mostly made his bones as a defensive backs coach. Before coaching Oklahoma’s outside linebackers from 2015-2018, he hadn’t been responsible for a position group outside of the secondary since his days at Kansas State, where he coached defensive ends from 1992-1996.

While he was Oklahoma’s defensive coordinator, Mike coached linebackers Rocky Calmus and Teddy Lehman, who won the Butkus Award in 2001 and 2003, respectively; both were high NFL Draft selections. He was not responsible for their position group at Alabama, but Crimson Tide linebackers Terrell Lewis and Anfernee Jennings were both third-round selections in the 2020 draft.

Sound-alike

Listen to Mike Stoops and, at times, you might mistake him for Kentucky’s head coach. His delivery, tone and choice of words are similar.

“We did what we had to do,” Mike says in a YouTube video shared from inside the Arizona locker room following a 20-17 win over Arizona State in 2009. “ ... We just kept playing and kept playing. It wasn’t the most pretty thing, but you know what, we fought it out.”

Mark has demonstrated a tendency to bust a move following big wins. Mike doesn’t dance in that video, but he’s wearing a signature visor upside down the whole time. The Stoops don’t mind having a little fun.

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