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UPDATE
During Tuesday’s tornado relief telethon, Kentucky Wildcats head coach Mark Stoops announced that defensive coordinator Brad White would remain with the school, despite interest from LSU.
In addition, White is donating his bowl bonus to the relief efforts.
KSR reports that LSU was willing to pay White $2 million annually, which would have made the top 10 of all college football assistants in 2020.
Would appear Brad White is staying at UK and donating his bowl bonus to the Kentucky tornado relief efforts (video via WLEX). #WeAreUK pic.twitter.com/lxy5HrLNgh
— A Sea of Blue (@ASeaOfBlue) December 15, 2021
You love to see it!
With the head coaching carousel has started to slow down, now comes the part of the offseason when coordinator and position coaches start to be approached for positions with different schools.
It appears that LSU has now got its sights set on landing another coach from the Kentucky Wildcats.
According to Zach Barnett of Football Scoop, new LSU head coach Brian Kelly has his sights set on hiring Kentucky’s Brad White to become the new defensive coordinator in Baton Rouge.
Sources: Brian Kelly targeting SEC defensive coordinator at LSU https://t.co/C79rbvah0d via @zach_barnett
— FootballScoop (@FootballScoop) December 14, 2021
According to Barnett:
“Sources said White is in Baton Rouge and a deal could come together quickly if White believes he would be a fit on Kelly’s staff.”
This is not the first time Kelly has added White to a short-list when it comes to a defensive coordinator search. It was reported last season that White was being considered as an option if Marcus Freeman would have turned down the opportunity to become Notre Dame‘s defensive coordinator.
White has been in charge of the Wildcat defense for the last three seasons, in which his unit has helped lead the Cats to a 22-14 record and two bowl wins in that time frame.
The Kentucky defensive unit has gained a reputation of being one of the better bend-don’t-break units in the SEC, and have really helped contain the big play that teams across the league are now looking to create on a consistent basis.
Losing White would be a big blow, especially with this news coming so close to signing day. If Mark Stoops is going to want to keep White in Lexington, it sounds like they will need to make a pretty strong offer to retain him.
We will have more on this as this is expected to play-out quickly with National Signing Day here.