In some ways, the noise made sense.

Mark Stoops raised eyebrows when he encouraged disgruntled Kentucky fans to “pony up” for better players after a blowout loss to Georgia. Texas A&M raised even more eyebrows 2 weeks ago when it ponied up $77 million to fire Jimbo Fisher because he didn’t win enough games with one of the most talented rosters in America.

But in other ways, it never made sense why A&M wanted to pony up to poach Stoops from Kentucky.

Stoops has spent 11 seasons at Kentucky, specializing in recruiting diamond-in-the-rough recruits from Ohio. He delivered the program its first winning season in SEC play since the Jimmy Carter administration in 2018, though Stoops had at least 3 losses in every season, and he didn’t beat an AP Top 10 team on the road until Saturday’s regular-season finale upset at Louisville. That was also something that hadn’t happened since the Carter administration.

On the same day that Stoops did that, reports were flying that he was on his way to College Station to replace Fisher. It was equal parts intriguing and baffling — and ultimately wrong.

After all of the late-night drama, Stoops is staying at Kentucky. Matt Jones reported it, then Stoops confirmed it Sunday morning.

But it doesn’t change the fact that A&M’s interest in Stoops was intriguing and baffling.

It doesn’t mean it couldn’t have worked. It just means that there would have been plenty of skeptics about the hire until it did work. It didn’t take long for the backlash to begin, either. Many wondered why A&M wanted to pin that historic Fisher buyout on Stoops leading the program to a place that neither he nor the Aggies have been during the 21st century. That is, a conference title game.

Then again, A&M had a perfect approval rating outside of Tallahassee for the last hire and how did that end up? It ended up with the most unforgivable contract in the history of college sports. Stoops made $9 million annually in what might’ve been the most favorable contract for a college coach, considering he was 30-20 overall and 15-19 in SEC play in the 4 seasons before he got that post-2022 raise.

Money wouldn’t have been an issue, obviously. The biggest obstacle Stoops would have faced is recruiting. Stoops doesn’t have the local recruiting chops of another reported candidate like UTSA’s Jeff Traylor, who spent most of the last 3 decades in the state of Texas.

Here are the Texas high school recruits that Stoops signed while at Kentucky:

  • 2013 — None
  • 2014 — 3-star WR TV Williams
  • 2015 — None
  • 2016 — None
  • 2017 — None
  • 2018 — None
  • 2019 — None
  • 2020 — None
  • 2021 — None
  • 2022 — 3-star OT Nikolas Hall
  • 2023 — None

To recap, Stoops has never signed a 4-star recruit from the state of Texas. Sure, A&M would like to recruit nationally and it’ll inevitably utilize the portal. But Stoops would have had to hire a staff with major ties to that state or else that would have been an uphill climb, especially as the SEC footprint within the state grows next season with Texas joining the conference.

It’s similar to what Dan Mullen took on when he left stability at Mississippi State for the big-time job at Florida. During Mullen’s 9 years in Starkville, the only 4-star recruit from the state of Florida that he signed was Cord Sandberg, who never even played there because he was selected in the MLB Draft. Mullen’s undoing at Florida was that the recruiting wasn’t up to par — and he had ties to the Gators and the state after serving as Urban Meyer’s OC.

The knock on Fisher at A&M was never the recruiting. He was called out by Nick Saban and Lane Kiffin for “buying” that historic 2022 recruiting class that ranked No. 1 in America. Could Stoops have consistently recruited at a top-5 level? We’ll never know, but that would have been an easy critique for skeptics to fall back on.

And sure, some of that will take care of itself with those resources. Texas A&M’s next coach will inevitably get plenty of blue-chip recruits from the state of Texas. But it is fair to wonder whether Stoops’ blue-collar, “Youngstown tough” vibe would have gelled with that type of talent.

At the same time, A&M’s intrigue in Stoops wasn’t that difficult to see. He could’ve been viewed as the perfect blend of a proven SEC coach who could establish a blue-collar culture with someone ready to embrace the new world of college football. That’s not just as simple as leaning into NIL and the transfer portal. Stoops has done that (go back to that “pony up” comment).

Stoops showed that he could, as a defensive-minded head coach, embrace a more pro-style offense in 2021. He brought Sean McVay disciple Liam Coen with him from the Los Angeles Rams, and instantly, he led UK to its best offense in 14 years. Even more impressive, Stoops was able to bring Coen back to Kentucky after he went back to the Rams for a year to be McVay’s offensive coordinator.

There’ll be no denying that Stoops is fully on board with a modern offense, and he’ll give that coordinator full autonomy. It took Fisher 5 years in College Station to finally hire an offensive play-caller. Go figure that Bobby Petrino stepped in and improved the offense by 12 points per game, but at that point, the hay was already in the barn.

Despite what plenty of people will tell you, the hay isn’t in the barn for any coach succeeding at A&M. Fisher’s tenure should serve as a reminder that there are no such things in this business. Fan reaction to the eventual hire — as strong as it might’ve been with the Stoops reports — won’t make or break this pivotal decision.

Whether it was Stoops or A&M getting cold feet at the 11th hour, the result is the same. Stoops isn’t going to College Station. The 3 hours that we got when that was an expected reality was understandably bizarre.

TexAgs Billy Luicci, who is as connected as there is at A&M, called Saturday night “the most insane night I’ve had covering A&M football.” Mind you, Luicci was the one who broke the news of Fisher’s $77 million. Shoot, he was there at every turn of the Johnny Manziel roller coaster. That suggests Stoops to A&M wasn’t as simple as someone getting information wrong. This had life, until it didn’t.

Where does athletic director Ross Bjork go from here? That remains to be seen. Maybe it will be former DC Mike Elko, or perhaps there are people cutting checks who want Traylor to get the job. Bruce Feldman reported that someone similar to Stoops’ résumé, Chris Klieman, could be in consideration for the vacancy.

Whatever the case, the reported Stoops era at A&M lasted less than a Quentin Tarantino film. It’ll be remembered for being equally dramatic and bizarre.