New Kentucky head coach Will Stein is working swiftly to hire his first coaching staff while also helping Oregon prepare for a College Football Playoff game. After getting both coordinators set, the ball really got rolling this weekend with four hires. While that was happening, a former Kentucky staffer found a new landing spot.
Brad Lambert spent the 2025 season with Kentucky as a defensive analyst. The long-time defensive coordinator and former Charlotte head coach will no longer be working as a support staffer in college football. Marshall has hired the 60-year-old to be the next defensive coordinator in Huntington.
Lambert joined the Kentucky program last offseason as he reunited with one of his former players. Former Kentucky defensive coordinator Brad White was a linebacker at Georgia when Lambert was the linebackers coach in Athens. Lambert then left the SEC after head coach Jim Donnan was fired. White followed him to Wake Forest.
The ACC defensive coordinator spent 10 seasons in Winston-Salem before becoming a head coach at Charlotte in 2011. After an eight-year run where Lambert helped the 49ers transition to the FBS, Lambert landed at Marshall to be a defensive coordinator in 2019. What followed were stops at Purdue (2021) and Wake Forest (2022-24) as a defensive play-caller. Now the long-time coach is returning to Marshall where he will be a defensive coordinator again.
Yet another former Kentucky staff member has found a new landing spot.
Where former Kentucky coaches have 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