Mike Stoops is close to joining his brother Mark's staff at Kentucky, sources told FootballScoop on Wednesday.
A defensive backs coach by trade, we're told Stoops will likely share the secondary with Steve Clinkscale, who is expected to add a passing game coordinator title. Stoops coached defensive backs during both his runs at Oklahoma and at Kansas State before that.
(A previous version of this story said Clinkscale is UK's special teams coordinator. That is not accurate.)
We understand the hiring is not done, as it must be approved by Kentucky's board of trustees to clear nepotism concerns, per university policy.
The third of the four Stoops brothers, Mike rose to prominence as Bob's defensive coordinator at Oklahoma from 1999-03. The brothers helped Oklahoma become the premier program in college football at that time -- OU went 48-6 with four AP Top 6 finishes and one national title from 2000-03 -- which Mike parlayed into the Arizona head coaching position.
After going 41-50 from 2004-11, he returned to Bob's staff as assistant head coach, defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach from 2012-18 before he was dismissed after a 48-45 loss to Texas in Oct. 2018.
Mike Stoops spent the 2019 campaign as an analyst at Alabama and interviewed for a number of defensive coordinator positions this winter.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.