Walt Wells, left, has a unique relationship with UK coach Mark Stoops. (Twitter Photo)
Walt Wells spent two years as a quality control assistant at Kentucky under coach Mark Stoops before taking over as head coach at Eastern Kentucky University after the 2019 season. Stoops said Monday that he felt Wells had done a “remarkable” job at Eastern and the two have a “unique” relationship going into Saturday’s UK-EKU game in Lexington.
“We’re both extremely busy running our jobs and so it’s not like we get to spend as much time socially as we used to. When he was here, obviously he was a guy I talked to quite a bit, the role that he was in and the experience that he had, I just got to visit with him a bunch,” Stoops said.
“We became good friends and, try to catch up here and there. We had lunch, I want to say one time in the off-season with a couple of mutual friends. We always enjoy seeing each other.”
Stoops noted that he saw Wells at an American Heart Association event. Wells suffered a heart attack about a year ago in the EKU football facility and quick action by staff members saved his life.
Has that made Stoops think more about his life and coaching stress?
“I think I always pay attention to that, being what happened to my father. When that happened to Walt, very scary moment, obviously,” Stoops said. “For us as coaches, we all have to watch that.”
“I mean, we could talk about it until we are blue in the face, but we’re going to do what we do.”
Eastern opened its season with a 66-13 loss at Cincinnati but is coming off a 7-5 season and FCS playoff berth.
“He’s just a really good person. I think he’s a really good coach. He does a great job in recruiting and a lot of experience in coaching,” Stoops said.
“He’s done a really good job and they played really good a year ago. We watched them a lot in the offseason. I don’t think this first game was an indication of who they will be as the season goes on.”
Wells was on Stoops’ staff in 2018 and 2019. The 2018 team went 10-3 and beat Florida for the first time in 32 years and ended the season with a win over No. 12 Penn State in the VRBO Citrus Bowl. Kentucky won seven games in 2019.
At Kentucky Wells was responsible for breaking down the opponents’ offense for the UK defense that ranked fourth in the nation in passing yards allowed, ninth in passing efficiency defense, 12th in scoring defense, 14th in fewest first downs allowed, 20th in total defense, 23rd in red-zone defense and 31st in sacks in 2019.
