Buh promoted to UK special teams coordinator

After a season without a special teams coordinator, University of Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops told reporters Thursday that Andy Buh would be promoted to the position moving forward.

Buh, who joined UK’s staff as outside linebackers coach before last season, had previously held defensive coordinator positions at Stanford, California and Nevada. He also brought extensive experience coaching special teams, and that was put to use during his first season with the Wildcats.

“Andy Buh is going to really be overseeing all the special teams,” Stoops said Thursday. “Andy will be promoted to special teams coordinator, and we will still delegate some of those responsibilities to some other coaches, but he will oversee all of it.”

He confirmed that Buh will officially be given the title of special teams coordinator.

Stoops declined to fill the position after Craig Naivar left UK to join Houston’s coaching staff following the 2014 season. Bradley Dale Peveto was Stoops’ first special teams coordinator at UK in 2013, but he left to rejoin Louisiana State’s coaching staff after one season in Lexington.

UK used a piecemeal approach to the special teams units in 2015, with several coaches chipping in. The Cats’ special teams play was often a target of criticism, but Stoops said throughout the season that he was comfortable with the arrangement and had no plans to name a permanent coordinator.

Buh was responsible for punt and kickoff coverage, and Stoops praised the work of those units after the season.

“I’m very confident in particular with the units that are exposed the most, the coverage units, punt and kickoff,” the head coach said in December. “I could not be more confident with coach Andy Buh and the way he coaches it. I don’t know if there’s a more passionate, thorough, disciplined, tough coach that I could find and name him special teams coordinator that would do that.

“Our coverage units busted their tails. I mean busted their tails, and that’s an indicator to me how your team is playing. And those guys to me — I watched that film very closely and our whole team watches every special teams play — and those guys are called out in front of the whole team if they’re not doing what they’re supposed to do. That unit plays hard. They play hard.”

Buh, who was not available for comment Thursday, spoke last fall of his passion for coaching special teams.

“I’ve always had a piece of the special teams my entire career and really, I love the special teams,” Buh said. “And, in fact, if someone said, ‘Hey, tomorrow you need to be the special teams coordinator,’ I’d love to do that.”

What was lacking last season was an assistant to exclusively work with the UK kickers and punters. Stoops addressed that need by hiring former college place-kicker and punter Louie Matsakis to be the Wildcats’ special teams quality control assistant, a new position for the program.

Stoops said returning UK kicker Austin MacGinnis has already thanked him for bringing in Matsakis, who is also a former special teams coordinator at Kansas.

“He appreciated that because there is a guy that they can talk to and he does have a background in kicking and knows what he’s talking about with kicking, and that’s hard to do with nine full-time assistants on the field,” Stoops said.

Staff writer Jennifer Smith contributed to this report.

This story was originally published March 3, 2016 at 5:30 PM with the headline "Buh promoted to UK special teams coordinator."