Kentucky set to hire Houston's Josh Christian-Young as safeties coach

Will Stein‘s coaching staff is coming together in Lexington with new additions being reported seemingly by the minute. We already knew LSU’s Joe Sloan had been named offensive coordinator, followed by Texas A&M’s Jay Bateman as defensive coordinator — plus Oregon’s Pat Biondo as general manager and Louisville’s Pete Nochta as Director of Player Personnel.

KSR has confirmed that two former Kentucky Wildcats, Anwar Stewart and Mike Hartline, will also stick around on Stein’s staff.

Up next? Oregon’s Cutter Leftwich following the first-year coach to Lexington, transitioning from assistant offensive line coach and run game coordinator to offensive line coach at UK.

Now, we have another update to report: Houston safeties coach Josh Christian-Young will also be joining Stein’s staff after previously working with Bateman at Army.

Christian-Young has been at Houston since 2024 and helped lead the Cougars to a 9-3 record while holding five opponents to 17 points or fewer this past season. They finished 28th nationally in pass defense in 2025.

CBS Sports was the first to report the news on Saturday.

Kentucky is expected to hire Houston safeties coach Josh Christian-Young, sources tell me and @chris_hummer.

Contributed to 9-3 Houston holding five opponents to 17 points or less. Also helped the Cougars finish 28th nationally in pass defense last year. pic.twitter.com/3sBI7KhHTe

— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) December 13, 2025

Prior to his time at Houston, he also spent time at Tulane from 2020-23 coaching the defensive backs (2020, 22-23) and outside linebackers (2021). Before that, he was at Army from 2015-19 coaching cornerbacks and safeties with previous stops at Georgia Southern (2013-14) and Central Missouri (2011-12).

It’s all coming together for the Wildcats.