Brad White appears to have turned down job opportunity at LSU

The coaching carousel got ramped up on Monday night when reports leaked out that Kentucky defensive coordinator Brad White was a legitimate target to be Brian Kelly’s first defensive coordinator at LSU.

Sometimes, these decisions can happen very fast. At the “Kentucky United for Tornado Relief” telethon, Mark Stoops states that he expects his defensive coordinator to return to Lexington in 2022.

“A guy that I was recruiting to stay, you know he was getting pulled away just a little while ago. Brad White is staying with us,” Stoops said on the telethon broadcast. “He didn’t even want anybody to know, but I called and asked him permission, but he donated his entire bowl bonus.”

Sources tell KSR that LSU was willing to play Brad White an annual salary of up to $2 million.

Brad White’s immediate impact

First things first, this gives the Kentucky football program a huge boost heading into National Signing Day. Brad White has done a very good job recruiting this cycle landing commitments from four-star EDGE Tyreese Fearbry and three-star defensive end Tomiwa Durojaiye. Meanwhile, White got the the Wildcats into the running for four-star defensive back Davison Igbinosun.

In the long-term, White has proven to be one of the best defensive coordinators in the SEC. Stoops is comfortable allowing the former NFL assistant coach to run his defense, and the results over the last three years have been very strong.

The Wildcats have a ton of momentum as the Citrus Bowl approaches, and keeping White for another year would allow the Wildcats to enter the 2022 season and attack the transfer portal with a lot of known commodities.

Mark Stoops is building a football program at the University of Kentucky.