Whether by mutual decision, Stoops' or A&M's, Mark Stoops will not be the next head coach at Texas A&M.
But that doesn't change the reality that, as of Saturday night, Ross Bjork wanted Mark Stoops to be the next head coach at Texas A&M.
The Aggie AD famously declared that his was "not an 8-4 job," and now must get back in a room with A&M stake holders after attempting to hire a coach who has averaged 6.6 wins in his 11 seasons at Kentucky.
How Bjork handles his relationships with the A&M Board of Regents, whose approval had not been granted to hire Stoops, and who some say killed the deal on the Aggies' end, is the next pivotal moment in the future of Texas A&M football. Remember, after Tennessee scuttled the hiring of Greg Schiano, the Volunteers then fired AD John Currie, replaced him with Philip Fulmer, and hired Jeremy Pruitt as head coach. The Aggies would be wise to make note of that and avoid repeating history here.
With the Stoops candidacy behind them, Texas A&M now has two paths before them:
1) continue moving down the proverbial list
2) hit 'reset' and start from scratch
On Path 1, Billy Liucci of TexAgs wrote on his site late Saturday night that A&M could pivot to another pursuit of Duke head coach Mike Elko, or to promote interim head coach Elijah Robinson to head coach with significant investment in the staff around him.
Neither man would be candidates for the job if not for their ties to Aggieland.
Elko is 16-9 in his two seasons at Duke, having wrapped up a 7-5 regular season with a 30-19 win over Pitt on Saturday. Those are good seasons at Duke, but would 16 wins in two seasons at Duke put anyone else atop the list to take a Cadillac job like A&M?
Robinson is a revered assistant who has been a lynchpin of Jimbo Fisher's staff from the outset. He continually added responsibility throughout his tenure: first as run game coordinator, to co-defensive coordinator and assistant head coach, to interim head coach, and now to a candidate for the full-time job. Robinson would be the overwhelming choice of players and recruits, but his pre-A&M resume amounts to three seasons as the D-line coach at Temple and one at Baylor.
If A&M were to hit 'reset,' the search could go in a number of different directions.
Brent Zwerneman, the longtime Houston Chronicle beat writer whose connections in Aggieland rival Liucci's, continued to report Dabo Swinney as an option throughout Saturday night.
Ryan Day is -- theoretically -- available after Ohio State's loss to Michigan on Saturday. Same for Jeff Traylor after UTSA's loss to Tulane on Friday.
The obvious problem: if any of those men were available and interested in becoming the next Texas A&M coach, why was Bjork trying to hire Stoops?
The Texas A&M search could move in countless directions from here, but the discussions between Bjork and the A&M power-brokers no doubt occurring as you read this will shape Aggie football for the foreseeable future.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.