Mark Stoops won’t be leaving Lexington anytime soon.
Stoops and the Kentucky Wildcats agreed to terms on a new contract extension Sunday. The extension will keep the Wildcats’ football head coach in town until 2030. Action Network reporter and college football insider Brett McMurphy tweeted Sunday, “Mark Stoops receives an extension at Kentucky thru 2030 season, increasing his salary from $6.35 million to $8.6 million/year.”
Mark Stoops receives an extension at Kentucky thru 2030 season, increasing his salary from $6.35 million to $8.6 million/year*
*Thank you Nebraska
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) November 20, 2022
News of an extension for Stoops (seen above after a 2021 win over the Louisville Cardinals) isn’t a surprise. In his since-2013 run with the Wildcats, Stoops has been one of the most successful coaches in Kentucky football history. While the Wildcats have been having somewhat of a down year in 2022 (they’re 6-5 following a 16-6 loss to the No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs Saturday), they won 10 games in 2021. And that was the second time Stoops won 10 games with Kentucky; he did that in 2018 as well. He’s won 65 games in his career as the Wildcats’ head coach to date, and will have coached them to seven straight bowl appearances after this season.
The Wildcats have also won four straight bowl games with Stoops at the helm. They have won, consecutively, the Citrus Bowl, Belk Bowl, Gator Bowl, and the Citrus Bowl again in the last four seasons.
Stoops and Kentucky will be a pairing that continues to just make sense. While instability in basketball might loom, the Wildcats don’t have to worry about it on the gridiron.
The college football world reacted to the news of Stoops’ extension on Sunday.
Mark Stoops has signed an extension at Kentucky for $8.6M/year that will keep him there through 2031.
Seems like a lot to avg. 6.5 wins per season (and have no shot at winning the SEC Chapmionship), but no coach had won 10 games twice prior to his arrival. #BBN
— Brad Crawford (@BCrawford247) November 20, 2022
Kentucky’s Mark Stoops receives contract extension that will now have him making $8.6 Million a year, through 2030.
Nice bump
— Trey Wallace (@TreyWallace_) November 20, 2022
Mark Stoops is making $8.6 million a year? Geez. https://t.co/mluNbEPMap
— Brian Stultz (@brianjstultz) November 20, 2022
UK gives Mark Stoops a new deal worth $9 million a year. That puts him in the top 10 of highest-paid college football coaches in the country. https://t.co/RFm3KjlNZ2
— Jennifer Palumbo (@JenNimePalumbo) November 20, 2022
[Brett McMurphy on Twitter; photo from The Lexington Courier-Journal, via USA Today Sports]