New defensive line coach starts third tour with UK. ‘If I can do it, you can do it.’
Another former University of Kentucky player is joining Mark Stoops’ football staff.
Anwar Stewart, a defensive end at the school from 1995-1999 who served as a student assistant under Stoops during the 2017 and 2018 seasons, has been hired as UK’s defensive line coach. Stewart succeeds Derrick LeBlanc, who coached the defensive line for three seasons before accepting a similar position at Arkansas last week.
Stewart last year was the defensive line coach at Appalachian State University, which finished 13-1 and as champion of the Sun Belt Conference. The Mountaineers, ranked No. 20 by the College Football Playoff committee, ended their season with a 31-17 win over UAB in the New Orleans Bowl.
The Courier Journal reported on Wednesday that Stewart was the frontrunner for the position. A spokesperson for Appalachian State confirmed to the Herald-Leader on Wednesday that Stewart had resigned from the school.
UK on Friday confirmed Stewart’s hiring.
“I’m very excited to return to where it all started for me,” Stewart said in a news release. “Coach Stoops is doing it better than it’s ever been done before at UK. I know his vision and I know what it takes to coach under him.”
He will be the third alumnus currently on Stoops’ staff, joining John Schlarman (UK’s offensive line coach since 2013) and Jon Sumrall (who joined the staff last year as an inside linebackers coach).
“It’s great when we can bring back former players and I’m excited to have Anwar rejoin our staff,” Stoops said in the release. “I loved the energy and juice Anwar brought to the team during his previous time here. He has been a player and coach on both the pro and college levels, so our players will benefit from his wide range of experience.”
Stewart was recruited to Kentucky by Bill Curry but finished as a Wildcat under Hal Mumme, who guided the program to back-to-back bowl trips in 1998 and 1999 — Stewart’s last two seasons.
The native of Panama City, Fla., did not get to travel with Kentucky to the Outback Bowl in 1998, however, because of academic issues that sidelined him for the entirety of that season. Stewart spent his summer re-dedicating himself to his classwork and got back on the right track for his senior season.
“I had to do a lot of work academically, not just in football, to get here,” Stewart said before UK’s 1999 trip to the Music City Bowl. “I feel like if I didn’t really have to work for it the way I did I probably wouldn’t appreciate it.”
Stewart eventually graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and social work, which he completed while working as a student assistant a couple of years ago.
“I like mentoring and I like talking to young men and women, especially (those) that society says can’t make it,” Stewart told Kentucky Wildcats TV in 2017. “But it’s hard for me to talk to ’em about education if I didn’t finish my degree. ... For me to be able to come back and say, ‘Listen, I came back at the age of 41 and finished my degree. If I can do it, you can do it.’”
Bowl games were rare for Kentucky before the turn of the century but Stewart is joining a staff that’s led the program to four straight postseason berths, the second-longest stretch in UK history. He’ll take over a group of linemen that each of the last two seasons have been the first point of attack for a defense that’s finished among the country’s top-20 teams in points allowed.
Stewart from 2014-2016 was an assistant coach for the Montreal Alouettes in the Canadian Football League. He was a two-time CFL All-Star as a player, twice won the league’s Most Outstanding Defensive Player Award and was part of four Grey Cup championship teams and played for seven Grey Cup titles over the course of a 13-year career in the league.
As a senior at UK, Stewart recorded 25 tackles, four sacks and forced two fumbles. As a sophomore he made a crucial contribution in UK’s 40-34 win over Alabama in 1997, its first victory over the Crimson Tide in 75 years: Stewart returned a blocked field-goal attempt 68 yards to put UK in front, 34-31, with 6:54 remaining (Alabama would tie the game, which ended on a touchdown pass from Tim Couch to Craig Yeast in overtime).
