Mark Stoops just hired his eighth WRs coach. Why this position has given UK football fits.
You could probably make a little money from even the most ardent of Kentucky football supporters by asking them to name all eight of the wide receivers coaches during the Mark Stoops era.
First, there was Tommy Mainord, an Air Raid disciple who followed offensive coordinator Neal Brown from Texas Tech to Kentucky on Stoops’ first staff. Mainord stayed an additional year at UK after Brown left for the Troy head coaching job, but he was fired after the 2015 season.
When Stoops fired offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson and replaced him with Eddie Gran, further staff shuffling was needed since Gran coached running backs and Dawson coached quarterbacks. Stoops elected to move running backs coach Chad Scott to wide receivers and fire Mainord in order to make room for Gran’s co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Darin Hinshaw. But Scott left UK for a job at North Carolina just a month later.
Stoops eventually hired former Louisville assistant Lamar Thomas, who had recruited Lamar Jackson in high school, to replace Scott. In two seasons at Kentucky, Thomas never duplicated that recruiting success and the inconsistency among the wide receivers that had cost Mainord his job continued. After the 2017 season, Stoops elected to let Thomas’ contract expire.
By 2018, the wide receivers coaching job had become a revolving door. Stoops next hired Michael Smith, who had worked for Stoops’ close friend Bret Bielema at Arkansas. Smith was on the staff for the 10-win 2018 season, but his position group became an afterthought in 2019 when wide receiver Lynn Bowden was forced to move to quarterback due to a series of injuries at that position. Smith resigned shortly before spring practice in 2020.
Stoops hired former Oregon assistant Jovon Bouknight to replace Smith. Bouknight stayed on the staff for two years, but he was demoted to a quality control position in 2021 after an offseason arrest on a DUI charge that was later dismissed as part of a plea deal. Bouknight was replaced as wide receivers coach by Scott Woodward, a longtime friend of new offensive coordinator Liam Coen.
Woodward remained on staff even after Coen returned to the NFL in 2022, then reunited with Coen in Lexington in 2023. But Stoops and Coen decided to fire Woodward after much-hyped sophomore receivers Dane Key and Barion Brown failed to make the predicted step forward in 2023. Before Coen left Kentucky for the NFL for a second time, he helped Stoops tab former Houston assistant Daikiel Shorts as wide receivers coach.
Even before Shorts started coaching in games, Stoops and Coen praised the impact he had on Brown, Key and the other wide receivers. Key enjoyed a breakout year under Shorts’ leadership, but the passing attack was among the worst in the country.
Despite Shorts’ contract including a $500,000 buyout if he left UK before June 30, in December he elected to accept a job at Nebraska where his college coach and former Houston boss Dana Holgorsen had been hired as offensive coordinator. Stoops replaced Shorts with former South Florida assistant L’Damian Washington.
“I was pretty stern with my contract and with my discussions a year ago and that didn’t hold up, so I got to keep on working that,” Stoops said after Shorts’ departure. “I thank Daikiel for the work he’s done here. I thought he was a very good young coach.
“I was pretty demanding that I needed at least a two-year commitment out of that. Put a pretty large buyout on it. Some schools weren’t afraid to write a check, so I wish him luck.”
Stoops stressed the need for more offensive staff continuity throughout the 2024 season, and while he is poised to employ the same offensive coordinator for consecutive seasons for the first time since 2020, the wide receiver coaching turnover has not been fixed. The era of the transfer portal has made the issue even more concerning as evidenced by Key and much-hyped freshman wide receiver Hardley Gilmore following Shorts to Nebraska.
Shorts’ departure does not fit the mold of most of the turnover at the position for Stoops though.
Only Scott, who never actually coached the UK receivers in a game, left Kentucky for another job before Shorts. Every other wide receivers coach was fired or resigned.
So, perhaps the bigger issue than constant turnover among the wide receivers coaches is consistent poor performances from the position in games.
Included in the Stoops era is the best single season from a wide receiver in program history when Wan’Dale Robinson broke the school records for catches (104) and receiving yards (1,334) in 2021, but only two other receivers have even totaled 700 receiving yards in a season in Stoops’ 12 years as coach: Lynn Bowden with 745 in 2018 and Key with 715 last season.
Robinson, who initially committed to UK as a senior at Western Hills High School but flipped to Nebraska before signing day, is looking more and more like a special case. Kentucky coaches planned to use Robinson’s success to recruit the next wave of transfer wide receiver talent, but the transfer receivers signed since have instead underperformed their production at their previous school.
Now, Washington is faced with essentially building his position group from scratch. The only returning scholarship wide receivers are seniors Ja’Mori Maclin and Fred Farrier and sophomore David Washington, who combined for just 27 catches last season. Maclin was a 1,000-yard receiver at North Texas in 2023 but totaled just 13 catches in his first season at Kentucky.
“Right now, my job is to transform them to understand that everything that happens they got to be mentally tough,” Washington said. “Whether they get one target or 10, no matter what, we have a mental ability to go in and execute and do our job. If we do our job, the University of Kentucky wins, and that’s the mindset that I have to bring to that room. No job is too big, no job is too small. We have to attack every day.”
Kentucky has already added Oklahoma transfer J.J. Hester and Alabama transfer Kendrick Law as reinforcements for the wide receiver room. Both receivers bring SEC experience but were not featured weapons in their previous schools’ offensive attacks. Hester started his career at Missouri, when Washington and offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan were on staff there. Law is from Shreveport, Louisiana, like Washington.
UK signed five wide receivers in the 2025 high school class in December, but continues to search for additional transfer weapons since Gilmore’s departure on the last day of the winter transfer portal window. There is potential in the room but no player who has proven he can be a go-to receiver at the SEC level.
Washington, who will be paid $425,000 annually according to the term sheet obtained by the Herald-Leader through the state’s open records law, will have the chance to break the cycle of wide receivers coach turnover by silencing the numerous doubts about the position circling the roster right now. But he inherits a situation that will make it more difficult to post the type of production that will solidify his spot on the staff for years to come.
With no receiver who has been at Kentucky for more than one season, Washington will at least get to start fresh alongside most of his players next season.
“I’m not going to walk into a door and live in the past or let those kids,” Washington said when asked if the constant coaching turnover affects his job any. “... I don’t think it works like that. You walk into it with an open mindset. That’s why I said my job is to meet them wherever they are. And maybe they’re reluctant because there have been two to three receiver coaches. Cool. My job is to earn their trust.
“If I earn their trust, they’re going to understand I’m here for a reason. I’m here for a long time. I didn’t take this job to be here one year and leave. I took this job with expectation we’re gonna continue to build on what Coach Stoops already built for 12 years prior to this.”