Kentucky gives Mark Stoops contract extension

Kentucky was 107th in total offense in Mark Stoops' first season. (AP Photo/Garry Jones, File)

Kentucky extended the contract of head football coach Mark Stoops, keeping him at this school through the 2018 season, the school announced Tuesday.

Stoops' new contract now ends on June 30, 2019. Financial terms were not disclosed, but according to The Courier-Journal, Stoops will make $2.1 million next season, $2.5 million in 2017-18 and $2.65 million in 2018-19.

Stoops went 2-10 and 0-8 in the Southeastern Conference in his first season in Lexington after taking over the job in December 2012, but Rivals.com ranked his 2014 recruiting class the 17th-best in the country.

“We are excited about the enthusiasm and recruiting success that Mark and his staff have brought to our football program,” Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart said. “We had the nation’s second-largest increase in attendance last season and we have had the two largest spring-game attendances in school history (in 2013 and 2014).

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“In recruiting, Mark and his tireless assistant coaches have made an obvious impact with their first two classes and that momentum is carrying forward for 2015.”