UK’s Stoops discusses Buh’s departure, his plans to replace assistant coach

Andy Buh wanted to be a defensive coordinator and Maryland gave him the opportunity to live that dream, Kentucky football head coach Mark Stoops said Tuesday. The departure of UK’s special-teams coordinator and outside linebackers coach was announced Monday.

The search to replace Buh won’t begin until after the end of UK spring practice on April 16, said Stoops, who also discussed the type of coach he’s looking for and what the Cats will do in the remaining two weeks.

“We’ll be fine; we’ll manage it,” Stoops said of Buh leaving and noted that newly hired quality-control coach Louis Matsakis will fill in on special teams until the end of spring. He is a former special teams coach at Kansas.

“We’ll get through these last remaining practices and then I’ll have time to go look for somebody,” Stoops said.

Defensive coordinator D.J. Eliot will oversee both the inside and outside linebackers during that span.

When Stoops goes out to hire a new Buh, he will look for a linebackers coach first.

“There’s several ways we can go,” Stoops said. “I can hire an inside backer and special teams guy or an outside backer. Coach Eliot is versatile enough, and we’ve gone back and forth just because Coach Eliot has so much experience with outside guys and D-ends coming from Florida State and the great things we did there. Fundamentally, we need to get better at outside and inside, so we’ll see. We’re going to get the best coach we can, somebody with a strong special-teams background as well.”

It will be tough to replace Buh and his passion and energy for special teams, Stoops said.

“I really liked what we were doing in the special teams,” Stoops said. “So, it’s a tough loss, but I really wish him the best.”

This story was originally published April 5, 2016 at 11:24 AM with the headline "UK’s Stoops discusses Buh’s departure, his plans to replace assistant coach."