The assistant coaching carousel continues to spin as the College Football Playoff quickly approaches. New Kentucky head coach Will Stein added four coaches to his first staff this weekend while he prepares for the postseason in Eugene. Another coach preparing for the postseason added a former Kentucky who was also under consideration for Stein’s first staff.

Wide receivers coach L’Damian Washington will be staying in the SEC after Stein decided to reunite with UTSA wide receivers coach Joe Price III.

L’Damian Washington, 34, is a Louisiana native and former Missouri wide receiver who spent a couple of seasons in the NFL along with time in the Canadian Football League, Allegiance of American Football, and XFL. After his playing career officially ended, Washington took a support staff at his alma mater in 2020. That led to a job at Southern in 2021 and Oklahoma in 2022. The one-year stints didn’t stop there. After spending two seasons at South Florida under head coach Alex Golesh, Washington took a job with Kentucky in 2024. That led to an opportunity for Ole Miss as new head coach Pete Golding begins to build out his first coaching staff in Oxford.

In his only season at Kentucky, L’Damian Washington made a big impact on the recruiting trail for the Wildcats serving as the lead recruiter on four separate targets in the 2026 cycle and recording wins in Georgia, Texas, and South Florida. The wide receivers coach was also credited with helping develop what was a very young position room at UK.

The wide receivers coach is yet another former Kentucky assistant coach to find a landing spot in the SEC.

Where former Kentucky coaches landed this offseason

CoachPosition at KentuckyNew SchoolNew PositionBush HamdanOffensive CoordinatorMississippi StateAssociate Head Coach for OffenseBrad WhiteDefensive CoordinatorFloridaDefensive CoordinatorChris CollinsDefensive BacksFloridaSafetiesL’Damian WashingtonWide ReceiversOle MissWide ReceiversEric WolfordOffensive LineLSUOffensive LineDerek ShayTight EndsTexas A&MTight EndsChase HeukeDirector of RecruitingLouisvilleTBDBrad LambertDefensive AnalystMarshallDefensive Coordinator