Yesterday we posted that Kentucky had announced a job vacancy for an assistant football coaching position. Football Scoop then released news of Kentucky moving on from Scott Woodward at WR coach.
Woodward and OC Liam Coen have obviously known each other a long time and came in together in 2021.
UK's wide receiver room has seen a lot of turnover in terms of the men coaching the room:
Tommy Mainord
Lamar Thomas
Jovon Bouknight
Michael Smith
Scott Woodward
The question now is if Mark Stoops will be making any other changes to the staff. Remember, there are going to be several areas that he's evaluating in making these changes:
- How the unit is functioning in the overall offense/defense in terms of communication and execution
- Development of players in that room
- Track record of recruiting success
- Maybe a player you want/need to keep around wants that coach to stay
Could go on but you see that the stay/go decisions for Stoops could be based on a number of things.
Woodward was credited with some of Kentucky's recruiting successes in Tennessee. He was the position coach during a stretch of recruiting success at the position. You think about the guys they brought in from the portal and HS during Woodward's time on staff: Wan'Dale Robinson, Barion Brown, Dane Key, Tayvion Robinson, etc., and they've drawn other talented commitments. There's an open question as to how much to credit each individual coach for those players, but we also have to recognize that it's the NIL era and that's a bigger factor than it used to be, while the assistant coach himself is probably less important in a lot of situations.
Overall it's hard to escape the lack of development at the receiver position. I'm always hesitant to criticize assistant coaches because none of us see what goes on day in, day out, and there's always a lot of factors in play.
But at the end of the day Woodward had more of a quarterback background coaching wide receivers and one of the big themes of this season is the wide receivers did not develop as well as they should have. Wan'Dale had a tremendous year because he was an elite player who was plus-plus in almost every category other than size. The last two years the wide receiver room has not been at the level Stoops wanted it. We heard folks talk about a lack of separation and the drops were on display for all to see.
I've said for a long time that I think the dynamic was less than ideal. If those guys had come into the program in 2021 when Wan'Dale was around and saw the standard that he set for how hard you have to work, how single-minded you have to be, then it would have been good. But they came in on the heels of Wan'Dale and didn't have that leadership in front of them. They were thrust into a position of having to be the guys right away. It didn't go well for Tayvion last year and then this year with all the second stringers leaving in the transfer portal there was not a lot of competition. UK threw almost entirely to three receivers all season long, in part a reflection of the depth situation, in part because they didn't run many plays overall, but the receivers left a lot of yards and points out on the field. It was a big reason for Leary having the kind of season he did, although you can't absolve him of his own share of it.
I think in the NIL era Stoops is probably thinking he's got an OC who has been able to attract plenty of QBs and WRs so you keep that, NIL is still probably the biggest recruiting factor there.
So who does Mark Stoops hire as a WR coach replacement? The job posting is set to expire 12/6 but I wouldn't read anything into that, he's got his own plan and candidates. I will post names if I hear some, but this is one of the staff changes that everyone probably speculated was possible.
In my view the WR room needs a couple of guys from the portal. There is plenty of talent in the room, but there's a big need for development.
Of course we also have to remember the portal here. When a position coach leaves, it could prompt a player or two to consider the portal. Barion Brown is someone Woodward had a hand in recruiting to Kentucky along with Coen and Eric Wolford. He's had his splash moments for sure but hasn't developed into the kind of player you can automatically assume is going to generate a certain amount of production and there are probably a lot of things to consider.
Woodward and OC Liam Coen have obviously known each other a long time and came in together in 2021.
UK's wide receiver room has seen a lot of turnover in terms of the men coaching the room:
Tommy Mainord
Lamar Thomas
Jovon Bouknight
Michael Smith
Scott Woodward
The question now is if Mark Stoops will be making any other changes to the staff. Remember, there are going to be several areas that he's evaluating in making these changes:
- How the unit is functioning in the overall offense/defense in terms of communication and execution
- Development of players in that room
- Track record of recruiting success
- Maybe a player you want/need to keep around wants that coach to stay
Could go on but you see that the stay/go decisions for Stoops could be based on a number of things.
Woodward was credited with some of Kentucky's recruiting successes in Tennessee. He was the position coach during a stretch of recruiting success at the position. You think about the guys they brought in from the portal and HS during Woodward's time on staff: Wan'Dale Robinson, Barion Brown, Dane Key, Tayvion Robinson, etc., and they've drawn other talented commitments. There's an open question as to how much to credit each individual coach for those players, but we also have to recognize that it's the NIL era and that's a bigger factor than it used to be, while the assistant coach himself is probably less important in a lot of situations.
Overall it's hard to escape the lack of development at the receiver position. I'm always hesitant to criticize assistant coaches because none of us see what goes on day in, day out, and there's always a lot of factors in play.
But at the end of the day Woodward had more of a quarterback background coaching wide receivers and one of the big themes of this season is the wide receivers did not develop as well as they should have. Wan'Dale had a tremendous year because he was an elite player who was plus-plus in almost every category other than size. The last two years the wide receiver room has not been at the level Stoops wanted it. We heard folks talk about a lack of separation and the drops were on display for all to see.
I've said for a long time that I think the dynamic was less than ideal. If those guys had come into the program in 2021 when Wan'Dale was around and saw the standard that he set for how hard you have to work, how single-minded you have to be, then it would have been good. But they came in on the heels of Wan'Dale and didn't have that leadership in front of them. They were thrust into a position of having to be the guys right away. It didn't go well for Tayvion last year and then this year with all the second stringers leaving in the transfer portal there was not a lot of competition. UK threw almost entirely to three receivers all season long, in part a reflection of the depth situation, in part because they didn't run many plays overall, but the receivers left a lot of yards and points out on the field. It was a big reason for Leary having the kind of season he did, although you can't absolve him of his own share of it.
I think in the NIL era Stoops is probably thinking he's got an OC who has been able to attract plenty of QBs and WRs so you keep that, NIL is still probably the biggest recruiting factor there.
So who does Mark Stoops hire as a WR coach replacement? The job posting is set to expire 12/6 but I wouldn't read anything into that, he's got his own plan and candidates. I will post names if I hear some, but this is one of the staff changes that everyone probably speculated was possible.
In my view the WR room needs a couple of guys from the portal. There is plenty of talent in the room, but there's a big need for development.
Of course we also have to remember the portal here. When a position coach leaves, it could prompt a player or two to consider the portal. Barion Brown is someone Woodward had a hand in recruiting to Kentucky along with Coen and Eric Wolford. He's had his splash moments for sure but hasn't developed into the kind of player you can automatically assume is going to generate a certain amount of production and there are probably a lot of things to consider.
