Kentucky and Florida met week five of the 2018 season with the Gators winning the last 31 match ups between the teams, the longest win streak by any team over another. Mark Stoop's Wildcats went on to break that notorious streak on the heels of a great defensive performance with a 27-16 win over the Gators, and at that point every college football fan in America knew that Kentucky football could be something special in 2018.
The Wildcats did just that, managing to win 10-games for the first time in decades and finished the season ranked #12 in the AP poll after a win over Penn State in the Citrus Bowl.
Leading up to signing day, Mark Stoops was able to continue that momentum from the season and keep his Kentucky staff together providing some important continuity for 2019. But as it wrapped up on Wednesday, he shared that he had received a call about one of his coaches from an NFL team.
Then, this morning,
Source: the Chiefs are expected to hire University of Kentucky defensive coordinator Matt House as their linebackers coach.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) February 8, 2019
">Field Yates shared a tweet saying that the Kansas City Chiefs were expected to hire UK defensive coordinator Matt House for their linebackers job. Kentucky's defense was a huge reason for their success this past year. They finished #6 in the country in scoring defense, allowing just over 16 points per game, and they also ranked in the top 25 in total defense and passing defense and had one of the top defensive players in the country in linebacker Josh Allen. Allen was named unanimous All American, and took home a host of post season awards including the SEC Defensive Player of the Year. House coached the inside linebackers and was in his third season as part of the staff at Kentucky. In February of 2017 he was named defensive coordinator and prior to that he spent two seasons as the defensive coordinator at Pitt, and one season at Florida International. Currently on Stoops' defensive staff that have coordinating experience at the FBS level are defensive backs / special teams coordinator Dean Hood - who spent 8 seasons as the head coach at FCS Eastern Kentucky and is the former defensive coordinator at Wake Forest - and defensive backs Steve Clinkscale, who coordinated the defense at Cincinnati in 2015. SEC defensive coordinator positions, especially with a defensive minded head coach like Stoops, will draw its fair share of interest, so Stoops will have some quality candidates in the mix for this one if he decides to go outside his current staff. Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.