Bio Blast: Kolby Smith

New Kentucky head coach Will Stein continues to build his first coaching staff while preparing for a College Football Playoff game with Oregon over 2,000 miles away. The work got one step closer to completion when Stein closed in on his running backs coach.

The latest expected staff addition is one that Stein — and likely many Kentucky fans — are familiar with.

Kolby Smith played at Louisville and was a long-time assistant coach for Bobby Petrino. The 41-year-old will also bring NFL and SEC experience to Stein’s program. What did Kentucky add to the coaching staff? KSR is taking a closer look.

Let’s dive in.

A fifth-round pick who played at Louisville

Kolby Smith is a Tallahassee (Fla.) Rickards alum who played college football at Louisville. The three-star recruit in the 2003 recruiting cycle would spend four seasons with the Cardinals as their program went from the C-USA to Big East under head coach Bobby Petrino. During his time on campus, Smith helped UofL win 41 games and finish ranked three times.

While never truly getting the chance to be RB1, Smith was a consistent contributor in Petrino’s pro-style offense. The tailback rushed for at least 300 yards in each of his last three seasons. When starter Michael Bush was injured in 2006, Smith stepped into a starting role and finished the season with 862 rushing yards and 24 receptions. His collegiate career ended with 1,863 rushing yards and 20 total touchdowns.

Smith would then be picked in the fifth round of the 2007 NFL Draft by the Kansas City Chiefs. After spending three years in the AFC West, Smith was released. After spending short periods with the Denver Broncos and Jacksonville Jaguars, Smith’s NFL career would officially before the 2010 regular season.

That’s when this coaching journey got started.

A long ride with Bobby Petrino

After his playing career ended in 2010, Kolby Smith took some time off before beginning a coaching career. At age 28, Smith took a graduate assistant position at Arkansas. The tailback was in Fayetteville during the period where Bobby Petrino was involved in a motorcycle arrest and ultimately fired for having a relationship with a former volleyball player that he hired to work for the football program. Petrino was ultimately fired and John L. Smith took over as the interim head coach for that season.

Smith spent that year in the SEC before rejoining Petrino at WKU in 2013 as a running backs coach for his first full-time position. One year later, Smith found himself coaching in the ACC at his alma mater at just 30 years old.

The position coach would stay on Petrino’s staff for the duration of his stay at Louisville. During this run, the Cards had a guy named Lamar Jackson at quarterback. That led to the program’s first Heisman Trophy winner in 2016. Smith was a part of a pair of nine-win teams before everything crumbled for Petrino in 2018. Louisville ultimately fired the most successful head coach in program history.

That led to Smith working at Rutgers for one season in 2019 before beginning a four-year run in the NFL for the Miami Dolphins from 2020-23. However, the Petrino relationship did not end there as Smith landed at Arkansas in 2023 when Sam Pittman hired Petrino as his new offensive coordinator.

The running backs coach would spend a pair of season with the Hogs until becoming a coaching free agent once Arkansas decided to move on from Pittman and ultimately hire Memphis head coach Ryan Silverfield. For only the second time in his career, Smith will work for a head coach not named Petrino in 2026.

Wide zone experience

Will Stein has utilized a wide zone run scheme at Oregon. The play caller will use that scheme to set up boots of play-action to create some easy throws for his quarterback. You should expect to see that action next year at Kentucky. Kolby Smith has extensive experience in that scheme.

During his four-year stint with the Dolphins, two of those seasons were spent under Mike McDaniel who brought the Shanahan wide zone scheme from the San Francisco 49ers to the AFC East franchise. Smith will be familiar with this key concept on top of having some work experience with Stein as the Kentucky head coach served as a quality control assistant in 2014 when Smith arrived at Louisville with Bobby Petrino.