Mark Stoops
Followed Joker Phillips. Mark Stoops moved Kentucky from Regional Program I to National Program II in 13 seasons.
In his own words
Awaiting signal — no quotes collected from this staff yet this cycle.
Career arc
His real stature score, season by season, across every program he’s coached — so a stretch that stays in one tier the whole way can still climb or sink on the line, not just flatten out. Node color marks the tier reached. Which program a stretch belongs to is carried by the shaded lane behind it.
Reached National Program in his 6th career season — faster than 12% of the 675 FBS coaches who have ever reached National Program (rank #580 of 675 by seasons-to-arrival).
Style position and drift
Where each stint’s offense sat between run-first and pass-first, and how far it moved from one season to the next. The band is that stint’s real season-to-season range, not a fixed-width box.
Season-to-season pass-rate range for all 258 FBS coaching stints with at least three covered seasons, 2014–2025.
The big-game ledger
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
6–17 against his rivals. Just 1–4 against Shane Beamer.
His own effect, isolated
A statistical estimate of this coach’s contribution to team performance, separated from that season’s roster talent, returning production, and his coordinators — pooled across his whole head-coaching career.
Model fit as of 2026-09-04.
Coaching career
5th-best Kentucky tenure of 16 by the numbers.
Underperforms his recruiting talent on offense and performs about as expected for his recruiting talent on defense.
Followed Joker Phillips (2010–2012).
| Season | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | ||||||||||||||
| Record | 2–10 | 5–7 | 5–7 | 7–6 | 7–6 | 10–3 | 8–5 | 5–6 | 10–3 | 7–6 | 7–6 | 4–8 | 5–7 | |
| Postseason | — | — | — | CFP loss | CFP loss | W bowl | W CFP | W bowl | W bowl | L bowl | L bowl | — | — | |
| Recruiting rank | — | #22 | #38 | #34 | #30 | #37 | #34 | #23 | #32 | #14 | #32 | #24 | #29 | |
| Style — pass rate | ||||||||||||||
| Pass rate | — | 47.6 | 48.7 | 35.8 | 40.3 | 35.6 | 31.0 | 35.5 | 42.5 | 43.0 | 52.5 | 41.5 | 46.0 | |
| Coordinators | ||||||||||||||
| OC | — | Neal Brown | Shannon Dawson | Eddie Gran / Darin Hinshaw | Eddie Gran / Darin Hinshaw | Eddie Gran / Darin Hinshaw | Eddie Gran / Darin Hinshaw | Eddie Gran / Darin Hinshaw | Liam Coen | Rich Scangarello | Liam Coen | Bush Hamdan | Bush Hamdan | |
| DC | — | D. J. Eliot | D. J. Eliot | D. J. Eliot | Matt House | Matt House | Brad White | Brad White | Brad White / Jon Sumrall | Brad White | Brad White | Brad White | Brad White | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | ||||||||||||||
| Offense | — | 29 | 39 | 70 | 47 | 47 | 83 | 19 | 63 | 10 | 70 | 13 | 24 | |
| Defense | — | 36 | 58 | 18 | 9 | 70 | 69 | 44 | 57 | 92 | 52 | 68 | 53 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script (2021+ only) | ||||||||||||||
| 1st-down pass% | — | 50.0 | 45.7 | 31.4 | 37.9 | 34.3 | 26.8 | 31.5 | 42.3 | 30.1 | 43.5 | 36.2 | 37.0 | |
| Red-zone pass% | — | 45.8 | 33.0 | 24.0 | 33.7 | 24.3 | 23.2 | 29.2 | 37.7 | 46.2 | 54.7 | 37.0 | 29.6 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | — | 36.4 | 35.9 | 28.9 | 15.0 | 25.8 | 42.1 | 30.0 | 40.0 | 31.7 | 30.0 | 38.7 | 38.7 | |
A typical amount of portal roster-building.
Brings in bigger-than-position-typical players than most.
Recruits older, more experienced transfers than most.
35 NFL Draft picks: Larry Warford (2013), Avery Williamson (2014), Bud Dupree (2015), Za'Darius Smith (2015), Josh Forrest (2016), Josh Allen (2019), Lonnie Johnson Jr. (2019), Mike Edwards (2019) + 27 more
2 player-seasons honored (All-America / national award): Darian Kinnard (2021), Barion Brown (2023)