Report: UK special teams coordinator Dean Hood next head coach at Murray State
University of Kentucky special teams coordinator Dean Hood has reportedly been chosen to be the head coach at Murray State University.
Football Scoop, a website dedicated to covering coaching searches, reported that Hood, who has been at UK since 2017, is the Racers’ pick. The report does not name sources, and UK was not able to confirm the report.
Hood, who also coached defensive backs along with fellow UK assistant Steve Clinkscale, was the head coach at Eastern Kentucky University from 2008-2015 after serving as the defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach at Wake Forest from 2001-2007. He was an assistant at EKU from 1994-1998 under Roy Kidd before coaching two years at Ohio University (1999-200). Hood was the assistant head coach at Charlotte in 2016 before joining the Wildcats.
The Racers play in the Ohio Valley Conference and are coming off a 4-8 season. Mitch Stewart, who has been part of the program for 10 years and was its head coach the last five seasons, was reassigned to an undisclosed position within the athletics department at the end of the season.
Hood’s most recent contract at UK, effective July 1, 2018, was expires June 30, 2020. He was set to make a total of $375,000 this year if the full term of the contract was completed. He would make an additional month’s salary — $31,250 — if he coaches in the Belk Bowl on Dec. 31.
A termination clause exists that says Hood would have to pay UK $100,000 per years remaining in the agreement if he accepts another coaching position during the agreed length of the contract; there will be six months left on his contract after this month.
Murray State Athletics Director Kevin Saal was hired in March. Prior to that, he spent 12 years as a member of Mitch Barnhart’s staff at UK. He played in an integral role in bringing the KHSAA football championships to Kentucky’s campus, which hadn’t hosted the state football finals since 1976.
Hood is the second member of UK’s staff to be hired by an OVCfootball program this week. Walt Wells, a quality control assistant with whom Hood worked alongside at EKU, was named the head coach at EKU on Monday.
Kentucky punter Max Duffy, whom Hood recruited, was named to the All-Southeastern Conference First Team by the Associated Press on Monday and is a finalist for the Ray Guy Award.
This story was originally published December 10, 2019 at 4:58 PM.
