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Kentucky coach Mark Stoops says he was ‘aggressively’ pursued by Texas A&M

Rumors swirled last November that Stoops was a primary candidate for the Texas A&M head coaching job.

During his appearance at SEC Media Days on Thursday, Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops said he was “pursued pretty aggressively” by Texas A&M for its head coaching vacancy last year.

“We’ll leave it at that out of respect for everybody involved,” Stoops said at the Omni Hotel in Dallas. “There’s a lot of people over the years, a lot of interactions between people, but it was very brief. I was pursued. I had a job to do.”

Rumors swirled last November that Stoops was a primary candidate for the Texas A&M job. Stoops, without mentioning A&M by name, confirmed in a social media post that he was “contacted about a potential opportunity” but said he would remain at Kentucky.

Shortly before Stoops posted his statement, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that the coach would not be taking over the gig in College Station. Earlier Saturday night, 247Sports had reported that the university was set to hire Stoops to lead the program.

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Stoops spoke to media members at SEC Media Days on the same day as Mike Elko, whom Texas A&M hired from Duke to replace the fired Jimbo Fisher.

Stoops enters this year as the longest-tenured football coach in the SEC. He has spent the last 11 seasons at Kentucky, leading the Wildcats to a 73-65 record and eight straight bowl appearances.

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“There’s only been 19 coaches in the history of the SEC that have been 12 years at their institution,” Stoops said. “I’m proud to be a member of that group. I’ve been grinding at Kentucky for a long time, and very proud of that and want to continue to do that.”

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