Who will Mark Stoops hire to run the Kentucky offense? Here are some possibilities.
Before Eddie Gran and Darin Hinshaw came to Lexington to run the Kentucky offense, Mark Stoops was 12-24 in his first three years as Wildcats head coach.
With Gran and Hinshaw calling the shots, UK has gone 36-26 over the past five seasons.
So even as much as the Wildcats offense struggled in 2020 — and six games with fewer than 300 yards total offense and four games with one touchdown or fewer scored constitutes a major offensive slog — the decision Stoops announced Sunday to move on from Gran and Hinshaw is a risk.
Having moved Kentucky from the bottom of the SEC into the middle during his eight-year tenure, Stoops appears to have decided that UK needs a substantial offensive overhaul if the Wildcats are going to continue to climb in college football’s toughest conference.
Now Stoops is in the market for what will be the fourth offensive coordinator of his Kentucky head coaching tenure.
“We want an offense that is balanced,” Stoops said Sunday on a video news conference. “That’s what our vision is, a team that can become very balanced. We had become very one-dimensional (and run-oriented). Again, I cannot put that all on Eddie Gran or Darin Hinshaw.”
Before Gran and Hinshaw arrived off of Tommy Tuberville’s staff at the University of Cincinnati, current West Virginia head man Neal Brown ran the UK offense for Stoops’ first two seasons (2013 and 2014) before leaving to become the head coach at Troy.
Shannon Dawson called plays for Kentucky for one ill-fated season in 2015.
So who will Stoops turn to now? In alphabetical order, some names who could be in the mix:
Tim Beck. The current North Carolina State offensive coordinator, 54, is, like Stoops, both a Youngstown, Ohio, product and a graduate of Cardinal Mooney High School there.
A former Bo Pelini assistant at Nebraska, Beck was demoted from playcaller to quarterbacks coach at Texas in 2019 before moving to N.C. State. This season in Raleigh, Beck has helped the Wolfpack, 4-8 in 2019, post an 8-3 season.
N.C. State is 71st in the FBS in total offense (391.5 yards a game), 39th in passing offense (262.4), 99th in rushing (129.1) and 49th in scoring (31.1 points a game).
Mike Bobo. The South Carolina interim head coach, 46, whose short-handed team UK dusted 41-18 Saturday night, built his name as Mark Richt’s offensive coordinator at Georgia (2007-14). In Athens, Bobo developed a reputation as a quarterback guru for his work with David Greene, D.J. Shockley, Matthew Stafford and Aaron Murray.
After Bobo went 28-35 in five seasons (2015-19) as Colorado State head coach, Will Muschamp brought him back to the SEC as offensive coordinator at South Carolina before this season.
As the Gamecocks went 2-8, Bobo’s offense ranked 66th in the FBS in rushing (167.9 yards a game), 93rd in scoring (23.5 points a game), 99th in total offense (355.1 yards a game) and 104th in passing (187.2 yards a game).
(South Carolina offensive line coach Eric Wolford, 49, another Youngstown, Ohio, product and the former head man at Youngstown State, is a name to watch to fill UK’s vacant o-line coaching position).
James Coley. Presently the tight ends coach at Texas A&M, Coley, 47, was an assistant on Jimbo Fisher’s staff at Florida State with Stoops.
Coley has prior experience as an offensive coordinator and is considered a premier recruiter specializing in the talent-rich south Florida area.
However, Coley’s 2019 season running the Georgia offense was widely panned, with the Bulldogs finishing “only” 49th in the country in scoring offense.
Cale Gundy. The co-offensive coordinator and inside receivers coach at Oklahoma, Gundy, 48, is a former Sooners quarterback. He was hired as an OU assistant by Bob Stoops in 1999 and has been a fixture on the Oklahoma coaching staff since.
With Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley essentially running his own show offensively, would Gundy be tempted by a chance to call plays in the SEC?
Jeff Jagodzinski. The former Boston College head coach and ex-NFL offensive coordinator recently came to UK to help coach the offensive line following the death of John Schlarman. He had been serving as Bob Stoops’ offensive coordinator and o-line coach with the XFL’s Dallas Renegades.
Jagodzinski, 57, has a long and varied coaching history, including leading Boston College to back-to-back seasons of 11-3 and 9-5 in 2007 and 2008 as Eagles head man.
In various stops as a college and pro coach, he has worked with high-profile quarterbacks Brett Favre, Michael Vick, Aaron Rodgers and Matt Ryan.
Gerad Parker. A Lawrence County native and both a former Kentucky Wildcats wide receiver and graduate assistant, Parker, 39, is the co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach under Neal Brown at West Virginia.
Parker was interim head coach at Purdue in 2016 and has since been an assistant at Penn State (2019) and Duke (2017 and ‘18).
This season, West Virginia is 29th in the country in passing offense (277.2 yards a game).
Garrett Riley. If Stoops wants to go the “up and comer” route, the SMU offensive coordinator and younger brother of Oklahoma Coach Lincoln Riley would fit the bill. In his first year as SMU OC, the Mustangs are 14th in the FBS in total offense (494.5 yards a game), 15th in passing (318 yards a game), 17th in scoring (38.6 point a game) and 55th in rushing (176.5 yards a game).
South Carolina and its new head coach, Shane Beamer, are also said to have strong interest in the younger Riley.
Chad Scott. Another former UK player and assistant coach, Scott, 46, is the other co-offensive coordinator and the running backs coach at West Virginia.
He was the running backs coach at UK when Neal Brown was OC in Mark Stoops’ first two seasons as head coach.
An NFL assistant. Kentucky has had success with Brad White, who left pro football to become a UK assistant before the 2018 season and has just completed his second year as defensive coordinator. It would not be shocking to see Stoops hire an OC with NFL ties, too.
“I’m wide open,” Stoops said of his vision for Kentucky’s offensive future. “I think it would be extremely difficult to go from one extreme to the other. ... So, I want to be balanced, but I want to be exciting as well.”
This story was originally published December 6, 2020 at 4:19 PM.
