Mark Stoops flirted with the idea of leaving Lexington for the Texas A&M job last offseason, but opted to stay with the Kentucky Wildcats where he’s one of the longest-tenured head coaches in college football. He also has one of the best contracts in the sport, but here, we’ll take a look at the coaching staff he’s assembled in Lexington, Kentucky.
Kentucky Wildcats Coaching Staff
Head Coach, Mark Stoops
The story of Mark Stoops and Kentucky is one of patience by all involved. Stoops was hired in 2013, but his first few years in Lexington didn’t go well, winning just 12 games in the opening three seasons. Since then, he’s proven he’s the man for the job.
Stoops is the winningest coach in Kentucky football history, leading the Wildcats to eight consecutive bowl games since 2016, a program record. He holds a career record of 75-67 with the Wildcats and has been approached multiple times in the past for other jobs, including the Texas A&M opening last offseason.
Before coming to Kentucky, Stoops was the defensive coordinator at Florida State. The Seminoles went 31-10 during his three seasons in Tallahassee. He also held the same position at Arizona.
Stoops started coaching as a graduate assistant with Iowa in 1990 and coached defensive backs at Miami, Houston, Wyoming, and USF.
Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks, Bush Hamdan
For the fifth straight year, Kentucky has a new offensive coordinator, as Bush Hamdan has taken over the position.
Hamdan’s scheme is much closer to some of the spread systems we see in college than the more pro-style scheme the Wildcats have typically employed under Stoops in the past.
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Hamdan was the quarterbacks coach for Boise State in 2023. Before that, he coached with Missouri and Florida in the SEC, among others around the country.
Hamdan has served as the offensive coordinator at five different schools and was the Atlanta Falcons quarterbacks coach in 2017.
Defensive Coordinator/Outside Linebackers, Brad White
Brad White enters his seventh season with the Kentucky coaching staff and sixth as the defensive coordinator. He has helped make Kentucky one of the most consistent defenses in the country, with six straight top-40 finishes in total defense.
White coached inside linebackers at Air Force (2010-2011) and safeties at Murray State (2009), having got his start at Wake Forest as a graduate assistant (2007-2008).
White left the college ranks for a few years before returning to coach at Kentucky, spending 2012-2017 with the Indianapolis Colts in various defensive roles.
Special Teams Coordinator/Running Backs, Jay Boulware
Another coach with plenty of experience both in the college and pro ranks, Jay Boulware came to Kentucky in 2023 after spending the 2022 season as an intern with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Most of Boulware’s coaching experience is in the old Big 12, as he’s spent four years at Texas, seven years at Oklahoma, and two seasons with Iowa State.
Boulware is a rare coach who has coached both special teams and running backs at multiple stops, holding both positions simultaneously at Iowa State and Oklahoma. He’s also coached tight ends, worked with the special teams at Utah and Auburn, and has coached running backs at a few other major college programs.
Tight Ends Coach, Vince Marrow
If you ask anybody who knows how Kentucky operates, they’ll tell you Vince Marrow is the guy who makes it all tick.
Accordingly, he spends less of his time actually coaching the tight end position and more of his time scouting and recruiting. Marrow knows every high school head coach in the state of Kentucky and many more in Ohio and Indiana.
He’s the recruiting coordinator, NFL liaison, associate head coach and right-hand man to Stoops.
Marrow has coached tight ends at Nebraska, Omaha (UFL), and Toledo and has even coached Rhein and Berlin in NFL Europe.
Wide Receivers, Daikiel Shorts Jr.
One of the newer coaches on staff in 2024, Daikiel Shorts Jr. came to Kentucky last offseason from Houston, where he spent the last five years on staff with Dana Holgorsen, first as Director of Player Personnel (2019-2020), then on the field as wide receivers coach (2021-2023). There he helped develop receivers like Tank Dell and Matthew Golden.
Just 29, Shorts is one of the youngest position coaches in college football. He was a standout player under Holgorsen at West Virginia from 2013 to 2016.
Offensive Line, Eric Wolford
Long-time SEC offensive line coach Eric Wolford is back to coach the Kentucky offensive front in 2024. A former head coach at FCS Youngstown State, Wolford coached the Kentucky offensive line in 2021 before departing to coach the same position at Alabama in 2022 and 2023. He’s coached offensive line at South Carolina (two stints), Houston, Illinois, and North Texas.
Defensive Line Coach, Anwar Stewart
After starting his coaching career in Canada with the Montreal Alouettes in various roles from 2014-16, Anwar Stewart joined Stoops at Kentucky as a defensive assistant from 2017-2018. He parlayed that into a year as the defensive line coach at Appalachian State, but returned to Kentucky in 2020, this time as the defensive line coach, a position he’s held since then.
Inside Linebackers Coach, Mike Stoops
Mike Stoops has coached for his brother since 2022, reversing the power dynamic the two had from 2004-2009, when Mark was the defensive backs coach and defensive coordinator for Mike when the latter was the head coach at Arizona. Stoops has years of experience working for his father at Oklahoma and various other stops around the country.
Safeties Coach, Frank Buffano
Frank Buffano has a few random connections to the Kentucky staff, leading to his return to on-field coaching in 2020 after a seven-year hiatus. Buffano started at Arizona as a defensive assistant under Mike Stoops in 2008 and 2009.
When Buffano left the Wildcats, he was hired by Eric Wolford at Youngstown State, where he coached for three seasons from 2010-2012. He then took a break from on-field coaching to work as Mark Stoops’ Director of Football Operations from 2013 to 2019 before taking the safeties role in 2020.
Defensive Backs Coach, Chris Collins
Chris Collins was a defensive assistant at multiple stops across the mid-south before landing with Georgia State and staying with the Panthers from 2017 to 2020. He wasn’t one of the primary position coaches there but was an integral part of the program as a defensive assistant and recruiting coordinator.
Collins was hired by Stoops in 2021 as defensive backs coach and added co-defensive coordinator duties in 2024.
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