After helping to upset Texas A&M early in the 2022 season during his first few games as the offensive coordinator at Appalachian State, Kevin Barbay catapulted to one of the hottest coordinators in college football.
The past two seasons has seen him bounce from play calling roles at Mississippi State and Houston for about a season each, and now he's heading to the SEC.
Barbay has joined the staff of Mark Stoops and Kentucky. where multiple reports share his role will be as an offensive analyst.
The creative offensive mind had just a few seasons of being a play caller under his belt, coupled with some experience working under Jim McElwain in support staff roles at Colorado State and Florida, before taking the offensive coordinator opportunity at Stephen F. Austin (FCS) for the 2018 season.
He would rejoin McElwain at Central Michigan after just one season at SFA, initially joining the Chippewas as assistant head coach / wide receivers coach before taking over as offensive coordinator and moving to quarterbacks after two seasons in Mount Pleasant.
That year calling the offense in 2021 resulted in freshman running back Lew Nichols III leading the country in rushing, out-gaining stars like Kenneth Walker III (Michigan State), Breece Hall (Iowa State) and Bijan Robinson (Texas) among a host of other future NFL selections.
After his breakout season at App State, Barbay would go on to join Zach Arnett's staff at Mississippi State, where they left Mike Leach's Air Raid behind. However, that lasted just one season and he then landed with Willie Fritz and Houston as offensive coordinator this past fall. In late November, just before their season finale, Barbay was let go after a 4-7 start where they ranked last in the country in scoring and last in the Big 12 in total offense.
A former Texas school coach, Barbay has deep recruiting ties and strong relationships in the Lone Star state and the surrounding region.
Stoops and the Wildcats are also adding former Charlotte head coach Brad Lambert to the staff as well, where he will work with the nickels, and former Kentucky offensive lineman Paul Rodriguez will be a graduate assistant working with the offensive line, both according to Mark Story.
Since leaving Charlotte following the 2011 season, Lambert has served as the defensive coordinator at Marshall, the co-defensive coordinator at Purdue, and most recently as Dave Clawson's defensive play caller at Wake Forest since 2022.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.
