Mark Stoops was asked about the Texas A&M job offer at SEC Media Days

You knew it was coming. Midway through his turn on the main stage at SEC Media Days, Mark Stoops was asked about the Texas A&M job offer that kept Big Blue Nation up in the wee hours of the night Thanksgiving weekend last year. Stoops admitted that Texas A&M came after him but quickly made it clear that he’s happy at Kentucky and reenergized entering Year 12 of his tenure.

“I was pursued pretty aggressively by them and we’ll just leave it at that out of respect for everybody involved. There’s a lot of people over the years and a lot of interactions between people but it was very brief. I was pursued. I had a job to do.”

The reports about Stoops taking the Texas A&M job came hours after Kentucky’s stunning upset over No. 9 Louisville in the Governor’s Cup and quickly unraveled as the night went on, with Matt Jones finally reporting that Stoops was staying in Lexington. The next day, Stoops issued a statement acknowledging a “potential opportunity” but said that he knew in his heart he couldn’t leave Kentucky. He echoed that sentiment today in Dallas.

“I take great pride in another stat Tony [Neely] gave me on the way here: there’s only been 19 coaches in the history of the SEC that have been 12 years at their institution. I’m proud to be a member of that group. I’ve been grinding at Kentucky for a long time and I’m very proud of that and want to continue to do that. Again, we want more but that’s not nothing. The SEC has been around for a long time with a lot of very good football coaches.”

Stoops: “We want more”

Stoops may be the longest-tenured coach in the SEC now that Nick Saban retired, but that doesn’t mean he’s resting on his laurels. Today, he said that although Kentucky has come a long way during his tenure, the staff and players need to push harder to reach the next level. He mentioned the loss to Clemson in the Gator Bowl specifically.

“I want to continue to succeed,” Stoops said. “Since I want to say 2018, there are only three other schools that have more wins than us since 2018. Again, that’s not nothing, we want more. But the consistency that you have to have in this league, it’s difficult. There are some great schools, some great programs that have been up and down, and we’ve been relatively stable.

“Again, not good enough. I’m not very excited about — we had an opportunity last year to wrap up the season with two ranked wins and we let one slip away in a bowl game against Clemson and, you know, no more ifs and buts. We lost, you know, and they made the plays and we didn’t and that’s the motivation to go find the ways to do that.”