Posts Tagged ‘mark stoops’

The Kentucky athletic department has provided a nice behind-the-scenes look as the Wildcats' brass travels from Lexington to Tallahassee to bring their new head coach to campus.  

First: Kentucky athletics staff depart from Lexington to Tallahassee to pick up Stoops. Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart and his staff prepare for the press conference. 

Next: The plane lands at the Tallahassee airport where UK personnel greets Stoops and his family. 

Then: Stoops and co. are ready to board the plane back to Lexington.

Finally: Stoops goes through a debriefing from Kentucky staffers on the football facilities and the plan once he arrives on campus.

It was Championship Week in college football, so which coaches delivered championship efforts on Saturday? Find out here in our FootballScoop Coaches of the Week. 

Head Coach of the Week - Nick Saban, Alabama: Saban's team survived a rip roaring, record-breaking SEC Championship with a 32-28 win over Georgia and now sits on the precipice of history. The Crimson Tide were far from perfect on Saturday (see: special teams) but in the end they were five yards better than Georgia. Alabama came out on top of a game that set an SEC Championship record with six lead changes but after falling behind 21-10 in the third quarter, it was Alabama that scored 22 of the game's final 29 points. Saban's decision to go for two after T.J. Yeldon's 10-yard touchdown run loomed extremely large as it forced Georgia to need a touchdown on the game's final drive rather than a field goal. That one extra point is what caused the Bulldogs to run out of time at the doorstep of the goal line. 

Offensive Staff of the Week - Wisconsin: Doug Nussmeier called a great game for Alabama, but Wisconsin's night in the Big Ten Championship can not be ignored. Matt Canada's offense compiled 63 points and 640 yards in a 70-31 thrashing of Nebraska. The Badgers ran 50 times for a mind-boggling 539 yards and eight touchdowns. Melvin Gordon ran nine times for 216 yards (24 yards per carry!) and a touchdown, Montee Ball pounded out 21 rushes for 202 yards and two scores, and James White rushed 15 times for 109 yards and four touchdowns. When they needed to throw, three Wisconsin passers combined to complete 8-of-10 attempts for 101 yards and a touchdown. In all, Wisconsin snapped the ball 60 times and averaged 10.7 yards per play and scored a touchdown on nearly 15 percent of their plays. 

Defensive Staff of the Week - Florida State: In his final outing as Florida State's defensive coordinator, Mark Stoops orchestrated a masterpiece. The Seminoles held Georgia Tech to 183 yards on 52 carries (3.52 yards per carry), their second-worst output of the season, and 5-of-16 passing for 118 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions. Karlos Williams' interception with with one minute to go ended Georgia Tech's last gasp drive and sealed the ACC championship for Florida State. Stoops' unit also played solid red zone defense, holding the Yellow Jackets to two field goals and one touchdown in three trips. Stoops will now move on to assume the head coaching position at Kentucky, but his closing act sent Florida State to its first Orange Bowl since the 2005 season. 

Special Teams Unit of the Week - Georgia: A hat tip must be given to Tulsa for returning a punt for a touchdown and blocking a field goal and extra point in their 33-27 overtime win over Central Florida, but Georgia was clearly the best special teams unit of the week. Georgia opened the second quarter with a fake punt pass from punter Arthur Lynch to cornerback Sanders Commings for 16 yards on 4th and 10. The play got Georgia inside the Alabama red zone, and two snaps later the Bulldogs had a 7-0 lead. Then, with Georgia leading 14-10 with just over 6:30 to go in the third quarter, Alec Ogletree returned a blocked field goal 55 yards for a touchdown to put Mark Richt's team up by 11 points. 

Call of the Week - Nick Saban, Alabama: It was mentioned above, but deserves further explanation here. After T.J. Yeldon rumbled in from 10 yards out at the 4:19 mark of the third quarter, Saban chose to go for two trailing 21-16. The Crimson Tide was in the midst of a second half feeding frenzy after Yeldon had rushed four times for 47 yards on the drive. Saban gambled that his offensive line could get him two-and-a-half more yards, and he was correct. That extra point was crucial after Georgia drove all the way to the Alabama eight-yard line with 15 seconds left. With no timeouts, the Bulldogs couldn't just spike the ball, send in their field goal unit and play for overtime. Aaron Murray had to throw, and linebacker C.J. Moseley's tipped pass landed in the arms of Georgia receiver Chris Conley in bounds at the five-yard line, essentially ending the game and sending the Tide to Miami. 

Kentucky officially announced Mark Stoops, presently the defensive coordinator at Florida State, as its head coach on Tuesday afternoon. Stoops, in his third season at Florida State, took over a unit that ranked 108th nationally in total defense the year before his arrival.

Stoops instantly upgraded the Seminoles' defense, quickly transforming Florida State into one of the elite defenses in the nation, boosting their total defense ranking to 42nd in 2010, fourth in 2011 and second in 2012. Stoops is a nominee for this year's FootballScoop Defensive Coordinator of the Year award.  

Stoops oversaw dramatic defensive improvements at both FSU and Arizona and is a finalist for national Defensive Coordinator of the Year.

— Kentucky Athletics(@UKAthleticsNews) November 27, 2012

Since word broke, we have reached out to a number of coaches and every one of them thinks this is a tremendous hire. Stoops is regarded not only as a great defensive mind, but as a successful, energetic recruiter.

A Big 12 head coach just called me & said, "Kentucky can't imagine how much energy and enthusiasm Mark Stoops will bring up there!"

— FootballScoop Staff (@footballscoop) November 27, 2012

Like his older brothers Bob and Mike, Mark Stoops' career began as a graduate assistant at Iowa in 1990-91. Stoops worked on Jim Leavitt's staff in South Florida's inaugural football season before moving to coach defensive backs under Dana Dimel at Wyoming. After a one-year stay as the co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach at Houston, Stoops helped Miami to a 35-3 overall record and a national championship as the defensive backs coach from 2001-03. 

Stoops then worked as the defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach for his brother Mike at Arizona, helping the Wildcats improve from consecutive three-win seasons to consecutive eight-win seasons while boosting Arizona's defensive ranking by more than 80 spots. Stoops assumed the defensive coordinator role under head coach Jimbo Fisher at Florida State in 2010. 

"Mark's passion has been evident in the way he coaches and in his love for the game of football," said Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart in the school's official statement. "That passion carried over into our process and his desire to wear the Blue and White.  Our desire to get better defensively and continue to expand our recruiting base helped guide us to Mark.  He comes from a coaching family and has been in big games and big atmospheres throughout his career.  That has prepared him for this opportunity to become head coach at Kentucky.  We welcome Mark, Chantel, Will and Zack to the Big Blue Nation."

"I am thrilled to be named the head football coach at the University of Kentucky," Stoops said.  "My family and I are excited and looking forward to becoming a part of the Big Blue Nation."

For anyone curious for more information on Stoops, Kentucky has created an official Mark Stoops landing page. 

Jimbo Fisher knows there will be many head-coaching jobs will come open this off-season, and potential employers could target members of his staff to fill vacancies.

In fact, Fisher hopes it happens.

"I hope [ defensive coordinator Mark Stoops gets an offer.] When I was that guy, that's what I wanted to do," Fisher told ESPN.com on Monday. "Change is inevitable. You've got to have a plan for it and where you want to go and what you want to do. I hope he stays here forever. As long as I'm here, I want him as defensive coordinator. But I also want him to reach his dreams and goals to become a head football coach."

Stoops, who is in his third season as the Seminoles' defensive coordinator, may not be the only target on Fisher's staff this off-season. Florida State is 8-1 this season, leads the ACC Atlantic Division and statistically dominates the ACC on both sides of the ball. The Seminoles lead the ACC in nine statistical categories including total offense, total defense, scoring offense and scoring defense. 

It's great to see Fisher encourage his assistants to find bigger and better jobs for a few reasons. First, he wants to reward his assistants' hard work. Like every other head coach, Fisher rose through the ranks as an assistant and wants to pay the help he got along the way forward to his assistant coaches. 

Next, Fisher's philosophy benefits his program because it will only make working on his staff more attractive to any future assistant coaches. Any potential hire that wants to one day become a head coach will be eager to work for someone that wants him to realize his goals. Finally, Fisher's philosophy demonstrates a great level of confidence in himself and his system to win no matter what assistants he may lose.

If change does indeed come to Fisher's staff, he'll be prepared. 

"You hope your system helps develop head coaches. I love that," Fisher said. "I want to be known as that. It makes the other top assistants want to come and makes other people want to be here. You have good players, you have a good system, you're organized well, you understand the big picture and what you want. I think that's another thing -- just like players want to come somewhere to get developed, hopefully coaches can do the same thing."

Fisher is far from the only head coach across the country that thinks this way, credit him for putting his thoughts out there.