Kentucky Football promotes Derrick Ansley to Co-Defensive Coordinator

The Kentucky Wildcats are not only keeping Derrick Ansley, but they're also giving him a nice promotion.

Ansley, who's served as a secondary coach since originally joining Mark Stoops' staff in 2013, will now serve as the Cats' co-defensive coordinator. Stoops announced the promotion during Monday's press conference with the media to announce the hiring of Eddie Gran as UK's new offensive coordinator.

Ansley, who coached cornerbacks from 2013-14, guided the entire Wildcat secondary during the 2015 season. He was a defensive graduate assistant coach under Kirby Smart with Alabama in 2010-11, helping the Crimson Tide to a 22-4 record, including the 2011 national championship season.

This offseason when Smart was hired to be the head coach at Georgia, Ansley's name was brought up as someone who could join the Bulldogs' staff, and Stoops admitted Monday that he had to hold off other SEC programs to keep Ansley.

UK's secondary has improved every year with the help of Ansley, going from 64th nationally in pass defense in 2013 to 44th in 2014 and 32nd this season. UK also went from 85th nationally in passing touchdowns allowed (22 scores) in 2014 to 28th (14 scores) this season.

While Ansley now shares duties with current defensive D.J. Eliot, Stoops made it very clear this was not a demotion for Eliot. He simply wanted to give Ansley more responsibilities in hopes he could help improve a defense that, while improved, still had far too many holes, lapses and struggles in 2015.