Kentucky Football hires Mark Hill away from Indiana

The Kentucky Wildcats aren't done making changes to the football staff, and the latest move comes on the strength and conditioning side.

According to Cats Illustrated's Justin Rowland, UK has hired former Indiana Hoosiers head strength and conditioning coach Mark Hill after Hill resigned earlier this week to take a similar position in Lexington. However, Hill won't be placing anyone current on the S&C staff.

Rowland also reports Hill's hire is part of head coach Mark Stoops making an effort to lower the impact of the High Performance program run by Erik Korem. That program won't go away, but it will be utilized in a lesser role that allows more a more traditional S&C program to be used by Kentucky football.

Here's part of Rowland's report.

Multiple Cats Illustrated sources have confirmed that former Indiana head strength and conditioning coach for Hoosier football, Mark Hill, will be joining Stoops and his staff in Lexington. He will be working closely with current and returning strength and conditioning coach Corey Edmond.

Hill won't be replacing an outgoing staffer so much as helping to bolster Kentucky's strength program, which is the key component in the program's effort at the physical development of its players.

One person close to the Kentucky program who first tipped Cats Illustrated off to the staff addition noted that Hill "is going to have a major impact in ways most people don't see," and emphasized that people in the program believe the hire will strengthen a program that is already viewed favorably.

Cats Illustrated spoke with a person familiar with Hill's work at Indiana, as part of our research into the story given by sources, and we were told that, "It's widely seen as a big loss (for Indiana)," and that, "They can't say he's irreplaceable but he was a major part of their success. Guys like him don't get the credit or the publicity they deserve but people who know what happens (inside football programs) know how important a good strength coach is. He's a great strength coach."

Hill spent five seasons as the football program’s head strength and conditioning coach, arriving in January 2011 after four seasons spent in a similar role with the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Indiana head coach Kevin Wilson praised the work done by Hill and his impact on the football program.

"Mark Hill has resigned and accepted another position with a Power Five program," Wilson said in a press release earlier this week. "We appreciate his service and his leadership. Mark was our first staff hire and he did an exceptional job. Under his direction, our strength and athleticism has improved drastically."

Between Rowland's report and Wilson's praise of Hill, it sounds like Kentucky made a great hire that will hopefully impact the team in a positive way.