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The Kentucky Wildcats may have targeted their next secondary coach.
Not long after Derrick Ansley left to join Alabama's staff, Mark Stoops reportedly has a candidate in mind as a replacement. According to Justin Rowland, former South Carolina Gamecocks assistant Grady Brown is set to interview for Ansley's vacated secondary coaching spot at UK.
Sources have confirmed that former South Carolina assistant coach Grady Brown is interviewing for the position coach job related to the Wildcats' secondary. Derrick Ansley had previously held the same job. Ansley was initially the cornerbacks coach but the shuffling of responsibilities during Mark Stoops' tenure resulted in Ansley coaching both the corners and the safeties.
As Rowland writes, Brown has plenty of coaching experience in the SEC, not to mention one of UK's biggest division rivals. Brown originally joined the Carolina coaching staff on February 3, 2012. He eventually rose to the title of secondary coach before moving to quality control coordinator for the defense in 2015 while still focusing primarily on the secondary.
Brown also at one point served as South Carolina's assistant special teams coordinator, so that's another area he could help with at UK as they still don't have a special teams coordinator.
Prior to his arrival at USC, Brown spent two seasons as the Southern Miss Golden Eagles' cornerbacks coach. During the 2011 campaign, Southern Miss was No. 7 nationally in pass efficiency defense (108.47 rating) and set an NCAA record for interceptions returned for touchdowns with eight.
Brown came to Southern Miss after spending the previous year and a half working in the strength & conditioning area and assisting as a defensive intern at LSU. That came after one season at Texas Southern where he was the safeties coach and also the community outreach liaison. That followed a six-year stint as the secondary coach at Alabama State.
Brown began his coaching career in 2000 at his alma mater, Alabama A&M, before being promoted to the rank of a full-time assistant coach for the 2001 campaign.
In all, Brown has over a decade of coaching experience, most of which has been with the secondary. On the surface, this looks like it would be a good addition if Stoops is able to add him in some capacity.