With Florida State now officially looking for a new head coach after firing Willie Taggart on Sunday, Kentucky’s Mark Stoops has quickly been tabbed a potential candidate. Given his ties to the Seminoles, it makes sense why Stoops, who has achieved success at Kentucky relative to the overall history of Kentucky football, would be a potential target for filling the vacancy in Tallahassee, however, Stoops is already trying to keep this speculation from being any type of distraction as he focuses on his job in Lexington.
“It’s something that you don’t really want to address in season,” Stoops said when meeting with the media at his Monday press conference. Of course, he is flattered and takes the speculation as a bit of a compliment for the work he is currently doing with Kentucky. “It’s better than the alternative.”
Stoops is in his seventh season as head coach of the Wildcats. Although Kentucky is sitting at 4-4 at the moment, the program is coming off a historic 2018 season that saw Kentucky win 10 games for the first time since 1977, and for just the third time in program history. Kentucky has had three consecutive winning seasons under Stoops and is looking for its fourth straight winning season, a feat accomplished twice by the program since 1957.
Besides, if Florida State is going to swing for the fences to hire a Stoops, maybe the more likely target would be former Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops, who is currently preparing to coach in the resurrected XFL. There has been no indication the former national championship coach of the Sooners is interested in the Florida State job, or any job outside the XFL at this time, but Florida State is the kind of job with some great potential that could lure some good quality coaching candidates to the job despite recent down seasons.
