Barbay and Lambert were coordinators last season for Houston and Wake Forest, respectively.
Kentucky Wildcats head coach Mark Stoops has announced the addition of three new coaching staff members in Kevin Barbay, Brad Lambert, and Paul Rodriguez. Barbay will serve as an offensive analyst working with offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan, while Lambert will work primarily with the nickelbacks on defense. Rodriguez, who was an offensive lineman at Kentucky from 2020-23, will be a graduate assistant working with Eric Wolford and the offensive line.
“We are excited to add so much experience and knowledge to our coaching staff,” Stoops said. “Barbay has been an offensive coordinator at several great programs and is a solid addition to our offensive staff. Lambert has almost 40 years of coaching experience, including being a head coach for eight years. He’s known for his defensive prowess and the knowledge he brings to our program is outstanding.
“Also, being able to add an up-and-coming young coach like Paul Rodriguez as a graduate assistant is great,” Stoops continued. “Paul has been in our program for the last four years and he knows the skills it takes to play on the Big Blue Wall.”
Barbay comes to Lexington after serving as Houston’s offensive coordinator in 2024. Prior to that, he was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Mississippi State during the 2023 season.
Barbay has built a reputation for crafting high-powered offenses. During a five-year span coaching at Mississippi State (2023), Appalachian State (2022) and Central Michigan (2019-21), his teams recorded 31 games with 30 or more points and 19 games with at least 500 yards of total offense. During the 2022 and 2021 seasons, his offenses combined to average 448.01 yards per game and rank in the top 20 nationally.
In 2022, Barbay’s Appalachian State offense ranked in the top 25 nationally in multiple categories, including a scoring offense average of 34.9 points per game, a passer rating of 155.80 and a rushing offense average of 204.42 yards. His unit also ranked No. 8 nationally with 21 plays of 40 or more yards.
While at Central Michigan in 2021, Barbay oversaw an offense that averaged 440.7 yards per game and helped develop Lew Nichols III, who led the nation with 1,848 rushing yards and 16 touchdowns. He also played a key role in the development of two future NFL offensive linemen, Luke Goedeke and Bernhard Raimann, who were selected in the 2022 NFL Draft.
Barbay’s career spans multiple levels, with prior stops at Stephen F. Austin, Colorado State, Florida and Lamar. After two years as a wide receivers and special teams coach at his alma mater, Lamar, from 2012-13, he spent the 2014 season as the director of player personnel at Colorado State. He then became the director of player development at Florida from 2015-17, helping the Gators win consecutive SEC Eastern Division titles. In 2018, he got his first job as an offensive coordinator at Stephen F. Austin, where his passing offense ranked 29th in the FCS.
Barbay, a native of Nederland, Texas, played quarterback at Grambling State under Super Bowl MVP Doug Williams, where he helped the Tigers claim the 2002 Southwestern Athletic Conference title and a Black College national championship before transferring to Lamar. Barbay graduated from Lamar in 2005 with a bachelor’s degree in exercise science and fitness management and went on to earn a master’s degree in education-sport management from Baylor in 2007.
Barbay and his wife, Kacie, have three children; two daughters, Kynslie and Karoline, and a son Karson.
Read more on Barbay here.
Lambert comes to the Bluegrass after three seasons as the defensive coordinator at Wake Forest, bringing 38 years of coaching experience, including eight as a head coach.
Under Lambert, the Demon Deacons’ defense forced 16 turnovers (seven interceptions and nine fumbles) in 2022 and won eight games for just the 10th time in program history. A bowl victory over Missouri in the Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl capped his first season.
In 2023, Wake Forest ranked in the top 50 nationally in run defense, allowing just 82.4 rushing yards per game. The Deacs’ defense received an overall grade of 84.8 from Pro Football Focus and were known as one of the best teams in the country in redzone defense, ranking tied for 22nd nationally with just 76.9 percent of opponent redzone trips resulting in a score. Additionally, just 20 of the 39 opponent red zone tries (51.3 pct.) ended in a touchdown.
Last season, three of his defensive players earned All-Atlantic Coast Conference honors as senior linebacker Branson Combs was named Second Team All-ACC and redshirt junior safety Nick Andersen was named to the third team after leading the league in tackles during the regular season with 122 stops. He became the first Demon Deacon with 100 tackles in a season since Ryan Smenda Jr. in 2022. Redshirt senior defensive lineman Kevin Pointer received Honorable-Mention All-ACC honors.
Prior to Wake Forest, Lambert spent the 2021 season as the co-defensive coordinator at Purdue. The Boilermakers defense allowed only 22.4 points per game to rank 34th nationally, holding four opponents to single digits. Purdue also ranked 24th in first down defense (18.4 per game), 23rd in red zone defense (.756) and 33rd in passing yards allowed (208.7 ypg). The defense forced 17 turnovers on the season as well. Individually, DE George Karlaftis earned All-America honors from multiple outlets, becoming the first Boilermaker to receive that distinction since Ryan Kerrigan in 2010.
Lambert served as the defensive coordinator, linebackers and safeties coach at Marshall during the 2019 and 2020 seasons.
In 2020, the Thundering Herd led all Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams in scoring defense (13.0 points per game), was second in the nation in total defense (279.4 yards per game), third in red zone defense (66.7 percent) and fourth among all FBS teams in rushing defense (95.5 yards per game). He was named a nominee for the Broyles Award, which honors college football’s top assistant coaches.
Before Marshall, Lambert served eight seasons (2011-18) as the head coach at Charlotte, starting the program from scratch. The 49ers played two years as a Football Championship Subdivision independent (2013-14) before joining C-USA in 2015. Lambert played a role in all of the development of the new program, including recruiting the first class of players, hiring a new coaching staff and the design of the stadium, practice facilities, weight room, office spaces and uniforms.
Lambert also had a previous stop at Wake Forest, coaching 10 years from 2001-10, including serving the final three seasons as the Demon Deacons’ defensive coordinator. He worked with Wake Forest’s linebackers for the first nine seasons and with the secondary for the final year.
Wake Forest had five winning seasons in his 10 years in Winston-Salem, including an 11-3 campaign in 2006 that led to an ACC championship and a berth in the Orange Bowl. In 2008, Aaron Curry won the Butkus Award, presented annually to the nation’s top linebacker. He led a defense that had five National Football League draft picks in Curry, Stanley Arnoux, Chip Vaughn, Alphonso Smith and Brandon Ghee.
Prior to Wake Forest, Lambert spent 11 seasons with Jim Donnan at both Marshall (1990-95) and Georgia (1996-2000). He got his start in collegiate coaching as a graduate assistant at Oklahoma (1988-89).
At Georgia, Lambert helped the Bulldogs to a 40-19 record that included four straight bowl wins: 1997 Outback Bowl, 1998 Peach Bowl, 1999 Outback Bowl and 2000 Oahu Bowl. He coached both Champ Bailey and Hines Ward while serving as special teams coordinator for the Bulldogs.
At Marshall, he was a part of the Thundering Herd’s 1992 NCAA Division I-AA National Championship. In fact, as an assistant coach at Marshall, Lambert helped the Herd to the national title game in four of his six years and to a semifinal appearance in a fifth.
Lambert graduated from Kansas State in 1987 with a degree in business finance. He was a four-year letterwinner as a defensive back for the Wildcats, earning second-team All-Big Eight honors in 1984 and Academic All-Big Eight honors three times (1984-86).
Lambert and his wife, Angie, have three children; a daughter, Lucy, and sons Layne and Beau.
Read more on Lambert here.
Rodriguez, a native of Mason, Ohio, came to Kentucky in 2021 after a standout prep career at William Mason High School. He redshirted the 2021 season and went on to play in a combined 22 games in 2022 and 2023. He was forced to sit out the 2024 season with a medical issue but volunteered as a student coach. Rodriguez, a two-time Southeastern Conference Academic Honor Roll member, will graduate in May of ’25 with a degree in integrated strategic communication and will pursue a master’s degree in sport leadership.