There have been a very wide range of opinions on the Football Scoop report which indicated that UK is targeting Eric Wolford to bring back as offensive line coach. This is something that has been quietly going around for a little while. The timing of it is very unique considering UK recently gave Zach Yenser a short-term contract extension. And given the circumstances of Wolford's departure the first time around, a lot of people probably assumed, understandably, that this would be off the table.
I do think that for a while it was really unlikely that a Stoops/Wolford reunion would be in the cards. There were hard feelings over the way that parting happened. It was a long-term close friendship that was severely strained. But this is a business, and there is no question that Stoops and everybody else at UK believe Wolford is a big-time college football assistant.
Here's what I'll say. If you're hurt as a fan that Wolford left the way he did and you're acknowledging it's hard for you to be excited about it, what can I say to that? It's just a fair human reaction. But if you're trying to make the case that he wouldn't be a good hire, I just think you're very mistaken. My honest opinion is that after Wolford left for Alabama, there was so much anger on the UK side (and it was clearly expressed) that folks talked themselves into thinking it was no loss. Then when they saw Jalen Milroe sacked a lot this year they enjoyed celebrating that.
The reality as I understand it is pretty different. Eric Wolford did not begin the breakdown of the Big Blue Wall. John Schlarman built that wall and deserves the credit for that. Wasn't very easy to recruit over those last couple of years. Wolford's one and only season at UK was a 200 rush ypg/200 pass ypg offense, the best offense UK has had in a very long time. Dare Rosenthal knew Wolford would be his OL coach. He moved Fortner to center and he became the highest-ranked trench player of the Stoops era. All I can tell you is that the people I know in the football world all think very highly of him. Saban hiring him kind of proves that.
At Alabama, the pass blocking was not good but Wolford was hired to fix a situation that was already emerging. They weren't a good pass protection unit but the run blocking improving over the year was a reason the team improved, formed an identity, and made the playoff. He went into Iowa and beat them for a 5-star who started as a true frosh. That five star left when Wolford was out.
At Kentucky, he was the lead recruiter for Deone Walker, Barion Brown, Nik Hall (career derailed by injury) and generally recruits all the offensive linemen. There will occasionally be a case like Kiyaunta where Marrow was the lead but Wolford has been the guy tasked with recruiting all the OL at South Carolina, Kentucky, and Alabama for a long time now. There are not many elite recruiters Mark Stoops can easily hire at Kentucky and Wolford is clearly one of them.
In my view, in going from Yenser to Wolford, you're going from one of their weaker recruiters to an elite recruiter. You always like to see OL coaches who really recruit at a high level because you have to take so many of them every year.
This is a guy who has a great relationship with OC Liam Coen and bringing him in will probably make Coen very happy. Chance he could have pushed for that and made a difference. I think it says a lot about Stoops that he is willing to move on from something that obvious bothered him for the good of the program.
Just my thoughts. Stoops needed something big and I consider this pretty big. Wolford is a professional and can get elite players.
Yenser did a good job with the line this year considering the lack of depth and how bad it was the previous season. One thing that people underestimate his how LONG and how much went into getting the OL in the position it was in back in '22. Folks saw that coming from a long way away and Wolford was brought in to fix that.
If you remember, the '22 class had a lot of OT's that had close ties to other schools and ended up elsewhere...Daughtry Richardson, Bobo, etc. There's another portal wave and Wolford was on the top 2-3 short list for a lot of those linemen that ended up at big name programs. I think he will probably give them the ability to get some additional help on the OL in the portal. And remember, he was Jalen Farmer's recruiter.
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