UK Fans of the Day want Friday Night Coaching Carousel Updates

Hello friends. Welcome to Friday night, a great time to dump news during a chaotic coaching carousel. The Sherrone Moore situation in Ann Arbor is awful. Usually, the chaos is much more light-hearted. Let’s bypass that for now and focus on a few other developments that impact what’s happening in Lexington as Will Stein formulates his first Kentucky football staff.

Jabbar Juluke Choose Texas

On Tuesday morning, we learned that Jabbar Juluke was a top candidate to be the next running backs coach at Kentucky. A New Orleans native with deep recruiting ties in the state, he spent the last four years on Billy Napier’s staff as the Florida associate head coach. It would have been a home run hire for Will Stein.

Then Texas entered the picture. Reading the tea leaves, Kentucky initially had a leg up on the Horns. Texas could offer a lot of money, but Kentucky was willing to give him the title of associate head coach, one that comes with more prestige. It appears that after some deliberation, Sark raised the stakes and played ball, offering Juluke that same title in Austin. He took the job on Friday evening, leaving a vacancy on Stein’s staff at Kentucky.

Welcome to the Forty, Jabbar Juluke 🤘 pic.twitter.com/Mkiw7T9woo

— Texas Football (@TexasFootball) December 12, 2025

Trade Complete Between Louisville and Kentucky Staffers

Over the last six months, there has been quite a bit of staff swapping between Governor’s Cup foes. First, there was the big Vince Marrow move over the summer. Many Kentucky fans felt like there was some retribution when a former UofL quarterback swiped Pete Nochta, a longtime recruiting staffer at UofL. Well, his successor has a very similar resume, just one that was created at Kentucky.

On3’s Pete Nakos reports that Chase Heuke will join Jeff Brohm‘s staff. Heuke and Nochta are basically one in the same, just the opposite.

Nochta is a Lexington native who went to UofL in the late 00s, then worked his way up from GA to Director of Recruiting. Heuke is a Louisville native who went to Kentucky in the late 00s, then worked his way up from GA and eventually earned the title of General Manager (even though when asked, Stoops always named Eddie Gran as the GM). Heuke was Brez’s right-hand man for a few years before ultimately replacing him, then spent years working alongside Marrow.

It feels like we’ve got a Freaky Friday situation between the Kentucky and Louisville recruiting staffs during this crazy coaching carousel.

Another Power Conference Coaching Carousel Change

The college football world knew that the Kyle Whittingham era wasn’t long for Utah. Urban Meyer’s successor spent more than 21 seasons in Salt Lake City and was a consistent winner. Despite a dip when they joined the Big 12, he got the Utes back to 10 wins in 2025, then decided to abruptly retire on Friday.

He’ll coach one final game in the Las Vegas Bowl before handing the keys over to defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley, who had been named coach-in-waiting. Even though there won’t be an expansive search that creates another domino effect, it’s nonetheless jarring to see another one of the longest-tenured coaches in college football step aside.