Mark Stoops’ Kentucky football coaching staff is whole yet again. And, as it turns out, he didn’t have to look far.
Earlier Wednesday, the Wildcats announced that Frank Buffano has been hired as safeties coach. Buffano has spent the past seven years as part of the extended Kentucky staff as director of football operations.
Buffano also has a working relationship with Stoops dating back to Arizona, when the former was a defensive graduate assistant from 2008-09 while the latter was the defensive coordinator. He was also a video graduate assistant for the Wildcats the three years prior to that.
“I’m so happy to announce the promotion of Frank Buffano from director of football operations to safeties coach,” the Kentucky football head coach said in a statement. “To say that Frank has paid his dues is an understatement. We began in 2004 when he was an undergraduate student at Arizona. He became a graduate assistant coach, then coached at Youngstown State, and has been with us since we came to Kentucky, so he has spent 16 years getting to this point.
“Frank has a tremendous work ethic and obviously has extensive understanding of our system and the expectations of our coaching staff. I’m excited for our team and for Frank to have this opportunity.”
In between his time as a Kentucky football staffer and Arizona graduate assistant, Buffano was an on-field assistant at Youngstown State. In 2010, he coached the Penguins’ secondary. From 2011-12, he was the FCS school’s linebackers coach.
This will serve as Buffano’s first FBS on-field coaching role in his career.
“I want to thank Coach Stoops for this opportunity,” Buffano said. “My collegiate coaching career started at Arizona under him when he was the defensive coordinator and when he called me to come work at Kentucky seven years ago it was a no-brainer. Even though it meant I wouldn’t be on-the-field coaching, I knew I wanted to be a part of his program and his vision. Serving as the director of football operations at Kentucky these past seven years has taught me a lot and helped prepare me for this opportunity. The timing was just right and I can’t wait to get started.”
Buffano, incidentally, will be filling the hole created when special teams coordinator and defensive backs coach Dean Hood left to take the head job at Murray State.