The FAU coaching staff is now without an offensive and defensive coordinator as it was reported on Jan. 7 that Mike Stoops will be joining the University of Kentucky football staff as the linebackers coach.

Stoops will be reuniting in Lexington, Ky. with his brother Mark, who has been the Wildcats’ head football coach since 2012. 

Stoops began his coaching career as a graduate assistant coach at the University of Iowa in 1986. He also held defensive coaching jobs at Kansas State and Oklahoma before accepting the job of head coach for the University of Arizona in 2004. 

After parting ways with Arizona in 2011, Stoops returned to Oklahoma, this time as defensive coordinator, which he held until 2019 when he joined the staff at the University of Alabama as a defensive analyst for legendary coach Nick Saban. 

Stoops joined the FAU staff in 2021 as the defensive coordinator and his defense allowed 26.8 points and 425.4 yards on average per game, ranking 90th out of 130 teams in total defense.

Head coach Willie Taggart will now be tasked with replacing both coordinators in an offseason that already has seen plenty of change. 

Cameron Priester is a staff writer for the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet him @PriesterCameron.