Kentucky opponents had some heavy coordinator turnover on carousel

To this point, Kentucky has had a very good offseason. The Wildcats could see as many as seven players selected in the NFL Draft, and 80 percent of the on-field coaching staff will be returning to the program in 2022. That’s a very good development.

Defensive coordinator Brad White turned down an option to go to LSU, and Kentucky made quick hires bringing in Mike Stoops and Zach Yenser. However, some of their opponents cannot say the same thing. The head coach hires get most of the attention on the coaching carousel, but coordinator movement can make some of the biggest impacts.

KSR is diving in to take a look at some of the movements in other places and what impact that can have on the Wildcats in 2022.

New regime in Gator country

After just four seasons, Florida moved on from Dan Mullen as the former Mississippi State head coach never truly embraced the SEC recruiting battles and had things completely fall apart in year four. Athletic director Scott Stricklin knew Florida would need to find a head coach who was willing to grind on the recruiting trail and compete with the elites for blue-chippers throughout the SEC footprint.

Former Alabama staffer and Louisiana head coach Billy Napier is returning to the SEC after winning 76.9 percent of his games with the Ragin’ Cajuns and leading the program to a pair of top 25 finishes. In the SEC, Napier will be rolling with what he knows.

The head coach will serve as the play-caller on offense using an outside zone scheme that operates primarily out of the pistol with some play-action boot game. On defense, 31-year-old Patrick Toney will serve as the play-caller after two years in the same role at Louisiana.

Napier is doubling down on what he knows and rolling the dice with an inexperienced coach who he believes could turn into a star despite Toney having zero power conference experience in college football.

Ole Miss turnover after breakthrough season

In 2021, Lane Kiffin continued his rise with a big season at Ole Miss. The Rebels finished the regular season with a 10-2 record and were as ranked as high as No. 8 in the AP Top 25. Ole Miss beat many quality teams and were led by star quarterback Matt Corral.

However, Kiffin is reloading in the transfer portal and with his coaching staff.

Offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby (Oklahoma) and defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin (Texas A&M) both departed after two seasons in Oxford. Kiffin went with what he knows in their replacements.

Charlie Weis Jr. worked for Kiffin at Florida Atlantic for two seasons after Lebby left for UCF. At 28 years old, the son of the former Notre Dame head coach will be one of the youngest coordinators in power conference football, but this likely means Kiffin will handle more of the play-calling duties.

On defense, the Ole Miss head coach brought his brother, Chris, back to the SEC from the NFL. A former defensive coordinator at Florida Atlantic under his big brother had a change of heart and will be returning to the NFL to coach defensive line for the Cleveland Browns.

All signs point to Chris Partridge taking over the full-time defensive role. After five years at Michigan working under defensive coordinator Don Brown, Partridge will get a chance to run his own defense after working under Durkin for each of the last two seasons. Expect a unit that plays a ton of man coverage and heats up the quarterback with some exotic blitz packages.

If Kiffin continues his rise, these new hires will have plenty to do with it.

Eliah Drinkwitz needs another defensive coordinator

Eliah Drinkwitz has been a college football coach for three years but has seen heavy staff turnover. After an outstanding season at Appalachian State, Drinkwitz then took the job at Missouri. Despite coaching just 36 games in his career, the 38-year-old will be on his fourth defensive play-caller in four seasons.

One year after Ryan Walters left for Illinois, Steve Wilks became a one-and-done after the former Arizona Cardinals head coach took a job with the Carolina Panthers. However, both Walters and Wilks had similarities as Missouri was a heavy Cover 1 team that wasn’t afraid to load the box and take chances with man coverage on the perimeter.

Even with the change, it seems like Drinkwitz has a defensive philosophy. Former Miami defensive coordinator Blake Baker was added to the staff in the offseason, and his defenses were very stunt-heavy when he worked for Manny Diaz. A promotion for Baker would make sense.

Meanwhile, Drinkwitz served as the quarterbacks coach and play-caller in his Missouri tenure. After an 11-12 start in Columbia, the head coach will still do the latter but the former Washington offensive coordinator will now handle coaching quarterbacks full-time to give Drinkwitz some more flexibility to do other things.

We’re entering an important year three for Nick Roush’s favorite coach at Missouri.

Transition has been rocky at Vanderbilt

Before his first season even started on the West End, Clark Lea was forced to make a big coaching change. For reasons still unknown, offensive coordinator David Raih was demoted before the year and former Ball State and Colorado State offensive coordinator Joey Lynch was given the keys at Vanderbilt.

Now Lea must find another defensive coordinator.

After Mike Macdonald went one-and-done at Michigan, Jim Harbaugh dug into that Baltimore Ravens coaching tree again and hired former secondary coach Jesse Minter after just one season calling the plays for the Commodores. Lea has turned around and promoted new staffer Nick Howell who was the defensive coordinator at Virginia last season.

Lea’s backup options bring some needed experience to the coordinator positions, but it’s clear things have not been smooth heading into year two.

Coach Boom is back

Kirby Smart scored a big win by getting offensive coordinator Todd Monken back for a third season, but the other side of the football needs some work. Defensive coordinator Dan Lanning is now the head coach at Oregon and Smart needed to reload.

The defending national champion decided to keep things in-house.

Glenn Schumann appears to be the next coaching star off of Smart’s tree and he has landed the co-coordinator title. However, he’ll be sharing it with a well-known SEC name.

After one season as an assistant, former Florida and South Carolina head coach Will Muschamp will be a coordinator again in the SEC after serving previously at Auburn and LSU. With this move, we are all winners as the cameras will give us plenty of sideline shots of an upset Muschamp who has now just entered his 50s despite living a crazy SEC coaching life.

Don’t be surprised if this gets Muschamp another shot at a head coaching gig sooner rather than later.

Scott Satterfield finds a No. 2

After offensive line coach and offensive coordinator Dwayne Ledford bolted for the NFL following the 2020 season, things got put into a bind for Scott Satterfield at Louisville. The play-calling head coach was all of a sudden without a clear No. 2 that he could trust and go through game planning with.

After one year without an offensive coordinator, the former Appalachian State alum, offensive coordinator, and head coach has found a guy he could trust.

Notre Dame running backs coach Lance Taylor is making the move to Louisville after three years in South Bend. Recently, Taylor worked at Stanford and for the Carolina Panthers but the Alabama alum got his first full-time coaching job at Appalachian State in 2009. Satterfield was not on that staff, but that is likely where the connection came from.

The experience coaching both running backs and wide receivers should be appealing and Taylor should help upgrade Louisville’s recruiting operation. Satterfield is smartly doubling down on his play-calling chops, but some fresh eyes certainly can’t hurt.