Another assistant leaving UK football team: Derrick LeBlanc heading to Arkansas
Mark Stoops now will have to replace at least two position coaches this offseason.
Derrick LeBlanc, the University of Kentucky’s defensive line coach, is leaving the school for a position at Arkansas. A UK spokesperson confirmed LeBlanc’s departure, but could not confirm what his position with the Razorbacks will be.
LeBlanc was UK’s defensive line coach over the last three seasons, the last two of which the Wildcats finished inside the top 20 in points per game allowed. UK this year ranked third in passing yards allowed per game (167.8), behind only Clemson and Ohio State.
Kentucky this season finished this season with 61 tackles for loss and 27 sacks after recording 87 TFLs and 38 sacks in its historic 2018 campaign. LeBlanc’s contract, which paid him $325,000 for the 2019-20 school year, was set to expire on June 30.
Arkansas will be the third Southeastern Conference school at which LeBlanc will coach. He began his career as a graduate assistant at LSU and later was the assistant strength and conditioning coordinator for the Tigers from 2008-2011. LeBlanc was the defensive line coach at Wyoming (2012), Southern Miss (2013-14) and took a year off before coaching the position at North Texas in 2016.
LeBlanc is a native of Breaux Bridge, La., and his son Dayton, a former standout for Frederick Douglass High School in Lexington, plays for North Texas. (Arkansas is about eight hours and 600 miles closer to North Texas’ campus than Lexington.)
He is the second position coach to leave UK this season. Special teams coordinator Dean Hood, who also helped coach UK’s defensive backs, left to become the head coach at Murray State in December (but coached in UK’s bowl game). A quality control assistant, Walt Wells, was also hired away; Eastern Kentucky University named him as its head coach, also last month.
This story was originally published January 3, 2020 at 6:29 PM.
