Mark Stoops & the Miami coaching search: What you need to know

The Miami Hurricanes have landed their new head coach, and thankfully, it’s not Mark Stoops.

Not long after rumors of Miami’s interest in Stoops emerged, the school announced that Manny Diaz would be the team’s next coach.

This season, Stoops was named SEC Coach of the Year after leading the Kentucky Wildcats to their first nine-win regular season since 1984 and first winning record in SEC play since 1977. He became the first Kentucky coach named SEC Coach of the Year since Jerry Claiborne in 1983 and only the fifth Kentucky coach to ever win the award.

Stoops has also guided Kentucky to three-straight winning seasons after going 7-6 in 2016 and ‘17. This after inheriting a program that had gone 2-10 and was at the bottom of the SEC. The Wildcats ended up finishing second in the SEC East this past season.

This type of success is why programs are going to start looking at Stoops for their vacancies, which is routine in sports. Miami would have been very intriguing had they interviewed Stoops, but that’s now off the table as he’s set to return for what’s already shaping up to be a promising 2019 season that features eight home games.