With Mark Stoops relationship mended, Eric Wolford focused on rebuilding Big Blue Wall
The retirement of Nick Saban at Alabama created something of a conundrum for Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops this offseason.
With new Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer bringing a new staff to Tuscaloosa, former UK offensive line coach Eric Wolford was suddenly available. Stoops had already handed his offensive line coach, Zach Yenser, a one-year contract extension to keep him on staff for the 2024 season, but Stoops still felt work was needed to increase the physicality of his offense.
Wolford, a Youngstown, Ohio, native like Stoops, was a known commodity who previously coached at Kentucky for the 10-win 2021 season, leading an offensive line that included two NFL draft picks.
But Wolford had not left Kentucky on good terms, accepting the offensive line coaching job on Saban’s Alabama staff while he was recruiting for Kentucky. Still, Stoops elected to fire Yenser and bring Wolford back to Kentucky.
“I think at the end of the day that’s something between myself and Coach Stoops,” Wolford said Tuesday in his first interview since returning to UK. “... We had a good old Youngstown meeting when the time was appropriate. I came back, and we resolved things. We’re in a good place.
“I appreciate Coach Stoops giving me the opportunity. I appreciate (athletics director) Mitch Barnhart. I appreciate all of you in supporting me on my return. You guys know I love this place and I want to get back to playing like we did in ‘21.”
In an interview with BBN Tonight after hiring Wolford, Stoops acknowledged there had been hard feelings after his move to Alabama.
“I’ve learned things since Eric left about that transition,” Stoops told BBN Tonight. “There’s things I could have done better. There’s things he could have done better. I think both of us understand that. The big thing is in our business there’s no room for being sensitive. You’ve got to have thick skin.”
‘He’s an intense coach’
With the relationship between Stoops and Wolford mended, the focus has shifted to rebuilding the offensive line.
Only three scholarship linemen remain from Wolford’s first stint in Lexington — center Eli Cox and guards Jager Burton and Paul Rodriguez — but Wolford is familiar with several of Kentucky’s new linemen from their high school or transfer portal recruitments.
“Those guys were curious,” Burton said of his teammates after Wolford was hired. “I just told them he’s a character. You’ve just got to meet him. He’s a great coach. He’s been doing it for a long time. He’s put a lot of guys in the league. Has won a lot of games in the SEC. So, at the end of the day we all trusted Coach Stoops.”
Whether or not Wolford is the right coach to spur the improvements Stoops is looking for on the offensive line will not be determined until games start in the fall, but it is clear he brings a more fiery personality to practice than Yenser.
“He’s an intense coach that’s going to demand a lot out of the guys, and I think will get a lot out of the guys,” Cox said. “So, I think having him back is really good, especially for our younger guys. I think he does a really good job developing younger guys and making sure everyone is cross-trained at different positions. I think you’re going to see a really physical and prepared offensive line.”
Is that intensity alone enough to bring more physicality out of Kentucky’s linemen?
Wolford thinks more work is needed.
“You have to practice physical,” Wolford said. “You have to do fundamental drills that are physical. You have to make them aware of what is expected, what good looks like and what it doesn’t. I had to pull out some 49ers film, when I was back at the 49ers. All these guys want to play pro football, so I had to show them some examples of what practice looks like even when you don’t even have shoulder pads on.
“... I think also what you ask your players to do in practice when you’re running team reps. If we just run a bunch of passes and a bunch of wide zones and we’re not running anything where we’re running downhill — we all know about running downhill, those schemes and gap schemes — then you’re not going to get that physicality. You’re not going to show up on game day and be physical. You’ve got to execute that in practice.”
‘Failure is not an option’
Wolford has promised all his linemen a blank slate for his second stint at UK, telling them he does not even plan to watch film of their play last season. Kentucky returns four starters on the line, but with transfers Jalen Farmer (Florida) and Gerald Mincey (Tennessee) already joining the team, super seniors Eli and Marques Cox (center and left tackle) are probably the only players locked into the starting lineup.
The progress of Burton, a former four-star recruit and Frederick Douglass High School star who has yet to match his recruiting hype with on-field production, could be particularly important. Burton opened 2023 as UK’s starting center but eventually moved back to guard after early season struggles.
Burton played in just four games during a redshirt season in 2021 with Wolford as his position coach but has started all 24 games he played in across the last two seasons.
“Last time I was here, Jager was a freshman and I used to wear him out,” Wolford said. “He’ll be the first to tell you that, but it’s because I care and I think he can be really good. He has tremendously improved in the four days I’ve had him (this spring) from the last time I was here.
“Now, that’s to be expected. There’s things we can improve on, and we’re going to get him there. Failure is not an option. My job as a coach is, I work for you. I work for you as a player. Meet me halfway. If you meet me halfway, we’re going to have an opportunity to have success.”
Burton credited that early pushing from Wolford for helping him make the progress he has made thus far in his career and said Wolford’s return has reinforced the need to focus on details like his stance before the snap. Wolford said depth along the offensive line has improved since 2021, but the pressure is on the transfers, Burton, left guard Dylan Ray and redshirt freshmen Austin Ramsey and Malachi Wood to prove that depth is good enough to force Wolford to play more linemen when the season starts. That group will be joined by right tackle Courtland Ford in the summer when he returns from offseason wrist surgery.
Improvements from that group will more than justify Stoops’ decision to fire Yenser and mend his relationship with Wolford. Eli Cox dismissed the suggestion that there was any lingering tension between Wolford and the players still on the team from 2021 — “Any of us would take a raise to go to a different job too, so no hard feelings there at all,” he said — but Wolford went out of his way in his first news conference since returning to Lexington to make it clear he values the program more than his initial departure might suggest.
“There are expectations,” Wolford said. “Coach (John) Schlarman established the Big Blue Wall here, so I think there’s an expectation about the way you’re supposed to play up front. ... (Schlarman’s wife) LeeAnne Schlarman was one of the first people to reach out to me. Her and my wife and myself were close, and our family. We want to get back to playing the way the Big Blue Wall was intended to play.”