Mark Stoops Promotes Frank Buffano to Become Kentucky Football's Tenth Assistant Coach

One of Mark Stoops’ longtime contributors behind the scenes has earned a role on the field.

The University of Kentucky announced Wednesday that Frank Buffano will replace Dean Hood as UK’s safeties coach. Buffano, also simply known as ‘Buff,’ came to UK with Stoops in 2013 and has served as the director of operations ever since. He previously coached at Youngstown State and was a GA for Stoops at Arizona.

“I’m so happy to announce the promotion of Frank Buffano from director of football operations to safeties coach,” Stoops said. “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.”

Prior to the suspension of Kentucky’s spring practice due to coronavirus concerns, Buffano was acting in an interim role as an on-the-field assistant coach.

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“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’s promotion should be Stoops’ final offseason addition. Jovon Bouknight replaced Michael Smith as wide receivers coach, Anwar Steward filled Derrick LeBlanc’s role on the defensive line and Greg Manusky was hired as a defensive quality control analyst.