UK Athletics Photo
The University of Kentucky has hired Allen Brown as the new cornerbacks coach, head coach Will Stein announced Friday.
“Allen Brown is a great addition to our staff,” Stein said. “His reputation as a developer and relationship-builder stood out immediately, and I’m excited to welcome him to Kentucky.”
In his five coaching stops, Brown has coached nine all-conference defensive backs, two freshman All-Americans and two more All-America honorees.
Brown comes to the Bluegrass after two seasons on the West Coast, coaching at California in 2025 as the defensive backs coach and 2024 as the cornerbacks coach at Washington State.
In 2025, his defensive backs unit helped the Bears rank tied for 16th nationally in fewest touchdown passes allowed (14).
Senior defensive back Hezekiah Masses was named All-Atlantic Coast Conference First Team after tying for the national lead in passes defended with 18 (13 pass breakups and five interceptions). His five interceptions tied for seventh nationally and fourth in the ACC. Senior defensive back Brent “Paco” Austin ranked third in the conference in passes defended with 13. He was named All-ACC Third Team.
Austin and Masses both finished with 13 pass breakups, which tied for fifth on Cal’s single-season PBUs list.
“I believe Coach Stein is building something special at Kentucky, a place where elite talent can develop, compete, and win at the highest level,” Allen said. “I’m also excited to be back and compete in the best conference in the country.”
At Washington State in 2024, he tutored Ethan O’Connor who totaled 32 tackles, four interceptions and broke up eight passes as a redshirt freshman.
Prior to Washington State, he spent the 2023 season as a quality control coach for defense at Florida, under Kentucky’s new defensive coordinator Jay Bateman. In his lone season at UF, Brown worked with Jordan Castell, who was recognized with Freshman All-SEC and Freshman All-America honors. He also tutored Jason Marshall, a fifth-round draft pick by the Miami Dolphins.
In 2022 at Cal in the same position, he worked with three All-Pac 12 defensive backs, including safety Daniel Scott, who was selected in the fifth round of the 2023 NFL Draft by the Indianapolis Colts and Freshman All-American cornerback Jeremiah Earby. He also mentored safety Craig Woodson, who went on to be a fourth-round draft pick by the New England Patriots.
From 2019-21, he was the cornerbacks coach and defensive pass game coordinator at his alma mater, Eastern Washington. During his three seasons, the program had five all-conference defensive backs and a freshman All-American. EWU concluded the 2021 season ranked No. 7 in the country after making it to the second round of the FCS playoffs.
His coaching career began at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo where he spent four seasons (2015-18) as the cornerbacks coach.
Brown’s background as a corner at Eastern Washington gives him valuable firsthand insight. He played in 51 career games and totaled 237 tackles, 15 pass breakups, and four interceptions. He was a three-time all-conference selection and was part of the 2010 FCS national championship team as well as FCS Playoff semifinal appearances in 2012 and 2013. In his four years on the field as an Eagle, Brown helped EWU compile a 42-13 record overall and 27-5 mark in the Big Sky Conference.
The Tacoma, Washington, native, graduated from Eastern Washington in 2014 with a degree in business administration.
For more information on the Kentucky football team, follow @UKFootball on Twitter and Instagram, or like Kentucky Football on Facebook.
5 Responses
Louisville is taking all the good players with multiple years left to play college football. The smith twins are about to sign. DJ Waller had already signed. Nothing would feel better than beating Louisville next year but honestly they are starting to take our starters from us. Waller would have started and the smith twins one of them would have started the other would have been a backup. That's 3 players that could have started for us next year. They will only get better.KSR said Marrows recruits weren't any good. His recruits were the ONLY GOOD players. There wouldnt have had a Deone Walker or any of these elite recruits without like Barion Brown and Key all the players that made Kentucky good were supposed to be here this year in 2025. This was the year playing all these guys as freshman was supposed to pay off and they all are gone. Stein has a major rebuild on his hands. It's going to take him a couple of recruiting classes to get going so expect 4-5 wins in his first season. Then things start picking up a little in his second anf third seasons.
Marrow has a much bigger impact & influence on most of the transfers than was probably realized. He was a top notch recruiter, but finally saw the writing on the wall that Stoops was losing a grip on UK FB and headed to a lot of 4 win seasons.
Stein is hiring some seemingly quality staff members with excellent resumes. Give him at least 3 years to clean the stinch out of the locker room & incompetent coaching staff offices because there were so many holes in Stoops choices.
College sports has been overtaken by portal jumpers with zero loyalty to a specific program. It is Wild & will be unpredictable for years to come.
This incoming class of coaches to UK supposedly all have good recruiting resumes. Things have gotten off to a quiet start. There was some good buzz, chatter, and optimism for Leavitt not only making it to town but staying for 2nd day as well. Things seem to have quieted down since and may not be good omen. I still say having him make local/national headlines has to help us but signature would be important and bring in some other folks as well.
I agree. Mike – national headlines are good. Landing a premier QB will hopefully draw some receivers & OL who want to play for a winner. Need that signature for sure.
Now reporting that Leavitt may have a connection to UT who is also in the running for Ty Simpson. We now have 17 guys leaving with Wilcox announcing today and we are losing some quality starters. UL continues to kick our butts in recruiting also, and it is getting a little nervous out there. Leavittas visiting Texas Tech today.
Comments are closed.