Mark Stoops celebrates his 56th birthday today

The all-time winningest coach in Kentucky football history has a birthday today. Mark Stoops is now 56 years old.

Born on July 9, 1967, the Youngstown, OH native has completely changed the perception of UK football across the country during his tenure. Accepting the Wildcats’ head coaching job ahead of the 2013 season, Stoops inherited a program that was coming off a two-win season and the firing of Joker Phillips. Since then, he’s managed to build Kentucky into a consistent winner.

Stoops holds a 66-59 overall record during his 10 seasons so far in Lexington. Since 2016, Kentucky has posted a 28-30 record against SEC competition. The program has made it to seven consecutive bowl games — the longest streak in school history — including a pair of Citrus Bowl victories in 2018 and 2021.

At the young age of 56, Stoops is the fifth-oldest coach in the SEC and the 39th oldest in all of Division I football. He was named SEC Coach of the Year in 2018 after leading Kentucky to its first 10-win season since 1977.

Stoops has come a long way since his days of playing high school football at Cardinal Mooney alongside his then-teammate and now current co-worker Vince Marrow, who has been Kentucky’s associate head coach since Stoops was hired. Stoops played his college ball at Iowa as a defensive back from 1986-88 before beginning his coaching career.

He started off as a graduate assistant at his alma mater from 1989-91 before taking over as the athletic director at Nordonia High School in Macedonia, OH, a title he held from 1992-95. From there, he entered the college coaching ranks, making stops at South Florida (1996; defensive backs coach), Wyoming (1997-99; defensive backs coach), and Houston (2000; co-defensive coordinator) before earning his first Power 5 job as the DBs coach for the Miami (FL) Hurricanes from 2001-03.

Stoops then shared defensive coordinator and defensive backs responsibilities at Arizona (2004-09) under the guise of his older brother Mike, who was Arizona’s head coach at the time and is now the inside linebackers coach at Kentucky under Mark. Stoops then made one more stop as the DC and DBs coach for Florida State (2010-12) before beginning his head coaching career at UK in 2013.

In 10 seasons, Mark Stoops has changed the entire identity of Kentucky football. The program is now expected to win at least six games and make a postseason appearance. UK is now capable of beating the likes of Florida and Tennessee on a year-by-year basis. The next step is breaking through to the SEC Championship.

The Big Blue Nation will hope to keep Stoops around for another 10 seasons to see what other barriers he can break.