Will Stein is putting the finishing touches on his support staff in Lexington, and the latest wave of hires leans heavily on the defensive side of the ball and the recruiting operation.
Kentucky announced four additions today; Dillon Sanders, Rob Snyder, Leah Barnard, and John "Hova" Herron. Two will work with the defense, two will help drive the recruiting machine, and one of them is coming home.
The one returning to Big Blue Nation would be Sanders, who is back for his second stint with the Wildcats after serving as a defensive assistant in Lexington from 2016-18. This time he will work with the defensive front, focusing specifically on the defensive ends. Sanders most recently ran the defense at Ensworth School (Nashville, TN), where he served as defensive coordinator. Before joining the high school ranks, he spent four seasons at Murray State as their defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach under Dean Hood, a well-respected name in the coaching world and a fellow defensive-minded guy.
For a program trying to get back to the physical brand of defense that defined its best years in the SEC, adding a coach with roots in the building and coordinator experience at multiple levels is a calcuated, low-risk move in Will Stein's head coaching debut.
Snyder joins the staff as the assistant defensive line coach, and he brings some FCS pedigree with him. He arrives in Lexington following a brief stop at Illinois State (FCS) and two seasons at Nicholls State (FCS), where he helped build one of the better defensive units in the FCS. Snyder has developed multiple all-conference defensive linemen across his career, and there is a direct Kentucky connection there. He coached current Wildcat defensive lineman Mi'Quise Humphrey-Grace while at South Dakota State, so this is a reunion of sorts for player and coach.
On the recruiting side, Barnard earned a promotion after working her way up from student worker to recruiting operations assistant. She played a central role in organizing recruiting operations and on-campus visits, and now she takes over as assistant director of recruiting. In the new role she will help plan and execute on-campus recruiting operations, including official and unofficial visits, recruiting events, prospect communications, and the day-to-day coordination that keeps a modern recruiting department running. Anyone who has spent time around a recruiting office knows how much of the machine runs on people like Barnard.
Rounding out the group is Herron, who comes aboard as acquisition coordinator with nearly three decades of coaching, leadership, and talent evaluation experience. He will work with the coaching staff, recruiting personnel, and support departments to identify and evaluate prospective student-athletes, and he will have his hands in the transfer portal strategy as well as high school recruiting. Herron spent the 2025 season at Texas as a scouting consultant, and before that he served as director of recruiting at Louisville from 2022-25. Bringing in someone who knows the region, the portal, and the evaluation game from a rival's building is the kind of hire that pays off on signing day.
The four hires mark the latest impressive appointments Stein has made to elevate Kentucky both in on-field product, and with regards to recruiting.
Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.