Kentucky special teams coordinator and defensive backs coach Dean Hood is leaving the Wildcats but will once again remain in the Bluegrass State. Hood is expected to be the next head coach of Murray State according to Football Scoop.

Hood has coached as a college football in some capacity in the state of Kentucky in 11 of the last 12 seasons. In 2008, he became Eastern Kentucky’s head coach after serving as Wake Forest’s defensive coordinator from 2001-07. While with the Colonels, he won the Ohio Valley Conference Championship twice in 2008 and 2011. He also won the OVC Coach of the Year award in 2008.

Eastern Kentucky posted a 55-38 record, including 44-19 conference mark, in eight seasons under Hood. But they never advanced past the first round in the FCS playoffs.

Hood spent the last three years coaching the special teams and linebackers at Kentucky. In between his stints at Eastern Kentucky and Kentucky, Hood served as Charlotte’s assistant coach and tight ends coach in 2016.

Murray State went 4-8 during the 2019 season and didn’t retain head coach Mitch Stewart. In five years under Stewart, the Racers posted a 19-37 record and never registered a winning season.