Kentucky Wildcats Football: Stoops’ Wishlist For ST Unclear
At nearly the same time Shannon Dawson was announced as Kentucky’s new offensive coordinator, they lost another coordinator in special teams coach Craig Naivar. Naivar is going back home to Texas to coach at Houston under their new regime. The move is puzzling, as Houston isn’t even a lateral move from UK. Of course Texas is his home turf and he has always coached in that area of the country. But one has to think that he was encouraged to look elsewhere after his units were a liability several times during the season.
A large portion of the fanbase was happy to see him pursue other opportunities despite redshirt freshman kicker Austin MacGinnis being named first-team All-SEC and freshman running back Boom Williams being named to the All-Freshmen team as a return man. Landon Foster was his usual steady self. But the coverage unit were inconsistent and there were several embarrassing moments over the course of the year. And the whole wearing his hat backward thing seemed to irritate folks for no reason.
The flip side of this situation is the improvement we saw from Kentucky’s safeties, coached by Naivar. AJ Stamps was new to the position but had a great first season in Lexington, and Marcus McWilson improved enough to claim a starting spot after many worried he might not reach his potential. It can’t hurt that it was year two of the system and Mark Stoops knows a thing or ten about coaching up defensive backs.
So just when Kentucky appeared to be settled as a staff and ready to move forward, we are all on watch again for tea leaves that might predict the next Stoops hire. Personally, I’m going to try to not predict anything. Clearly Stoops has his own plan in mind for these spots. I can say that Stoops is likely to take his time with this position as well, with the holidays going on and coaching conventions coming up soon. There really is no rush to make a hire, as no recruit is going to pick a school based on the special teams schemes that they employ.
I know that a lot of people would like to see former UAB special teams coach Daric Riley get the job because it’s a good human interest story, and his overall units were some of the best in the country last year. But that ranking is skewed by the return units leading the country in touchdowns and returns. The coverage units weren’t great and UAB allowed several blocked kicks. That would be very concerning to me if Riley were to get the job.
People are going to want an ace recruiter, and Florida’s DJ Durkin fits that mold, but what Kentucky really needs is someone experienced who can coach disciplined units. After hiring an above average recruiter in Shannon Dawson, the need for an ace isn’t as dire as the need for coach. I think that is the way Mark Stoops will look to go, though I’m not hearing any names. He will try to hire some he knows, respects, and who will fit in with the current staff. And he will take his time. Because it’s the recruiting dead period and the next big date for UK football is Damien Harris’ January 9th decision date, yet here are fans talking football every day in the midst of what should be one of the most magical basketball seasons ever. Maybe Stoops knows what he is doing.