Steve Sarkisian tried to hire Mark Stoops at Washington

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steve-sarkisian-credits-quinn-ewers-humility-for-arch-manning-development — Sara Diggins (American-Statesman) / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Mark Stoops and Steve Sarkisian will face each other as opposing head coaches for the first time when Texas hosts Kentucky, but both coaches are very familiar with each other. Sarkisian spent time at Alabama and called plays when UK went to Tuscaloosa in 2020 but the relationship goes back to the Pac-12.

Sarkisian was at USC from 2005-08 as a quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator those final two seasons. Mark Stoops was the Arizona defensive coordinator from 2004-09. The play-caller went head-to-head twice with Sark’s offense never scoring more than 20 points. The Texas head coach went on record this week to state that he tried to hire Stoops away from Arizona when he took the head coach job at Washington in 2009.

Steve Sarkisian says he tried to hire Mark Stoops away from his brother Mike at Arizona when Sarkisian was head coach at Washington.
— Inside Texas (@InsideTexas) November 21, 2024

Stoops opened up on that competitive relationship on Thursday.

“There were really a lot of good memories and definitely some challenging memories as well. My brother Mike had a pretty rough job. Tough job at Arizona in building that. We got it to the point my last year there we were one play away from playing in the Rose Bowl,” Stoops said. “But I remember competing against Sark both at USC and at Washington. There was a moment when I almost worked for him at Washington.

“He says I accepted it back then. But I was real close.”

Now the former coordinators who almost worked together in the Pac-12 will face each other in the SEC. Throughout the week, Sarkisian has been very complementary of Kentucky and has even said that this could be the best defense that the Longhorns have faced this season.

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It was hard to see this coming a decade ago. Steve Sarkisian was fired after two seasons at USC in 2015 and went back to coordinating before becoming the Texas head coach in 2020. Mark Stoops left Arizona for Florida State in 2010 before becoming the head coach at Kentucky in 2013 before nearly leaving for Texas A&M after the 2023 season. Instead of facing each other in a heated rivalry matchup, Stoops and Sark will now face each other as SEC peers in the game before rivalry week.

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