Sources: Strength program makes key addition

Mark Stoops isn't done making changes in his effort to overhaul and improve the Kentucky football program.

He's following the Eddie Gran and Darin Hinshaw hires with a significant change to the program's strength program, adding a respected coach who comes with a long track record and strong recommendations.

Multiple Cats Illustrated sources have confirmed that former Indiana head strength and conditioning coach for Hoosier football, Mark Hill, will be joining Stoops and his staff in Lexington. He will be working closely with current and returning strength and conditioning coach Corey Edmond.

Hill won't be replacing an outgoing staffer so much as helping to bolster Kentucky's strength program, which is the key component in the program's effort at the physical development of its players.

In recent days various media outlets covering Indiana football reported and confirmed that Hill had submitted a letter of resignation to head coach Kevin Wilson. In a later statement the Hoosiers' head coach confirmed Hill's departure, acknowledging that he had accepting another job at a Power Five school. That school, Cats Illustrated can report with confidence, is Kentucky.

The work of a strength coach isn't always measured easily by observers outside of a football program but the sources who spoke with Cats Illustrated all raved about Hill's work at Indiana and said his departure would be viewed internally in Bloomington as a significant loss. The Hoosiers had, many have held, one of the best offensive line's in their program's history this year and their strength program has been a touted part of its program and its improvement recently.

Hill occupied that head strength position at Indiana for almost exactly five years. He was hired at the start of 2011 and reports of his departure began circulating on Jan. 5 of this year. Previously he was the head strength and conditioning director at the University of Minnesota for four years. And before at various times he served as associate director of performance enhancement at the University of Arizona (2000-2003) as well as an assistant strength and conditioning director at the University of Oklahoma. Hill's experience at Oklahoma, a program with a long-respected strength program under both Bob Stoops and predecessors, has been cited as especially influential in shaping him as a strength coach.

One person close to the Kentucky program who first tipped Cats Illustrated off to the staff addition noted that Hill "is going to have a major impact in ways most people don't see," and emphasized that people in the program believe the hire will strengthen a program that is already viewed favorably.

Cats Illustrated spoke with a person familiar with Hill's work at Indiana, as part of our research into the story given by sources, and we were told that, "It's widely seen as a big loss (for Indiana)," and that, "They can't say he's irreplaceable but he was a major part of their success. Guys like him don't get the credit or the publicity they deserve but people who know what happens (inside football programs) know how important a good strength coach is. He's a great strength coach."

Cats Illustrated has reported before that Edmond, the current strength coach, is one of the more popular individuals in the football program, both with players and coaches alike. His humble personality and easy to work with demeanor are among the qualities that Cats Illustrated sources have cited in stating the overall favorable opinion of Edmond within the program.

The addition of Hill does not mean that Edmond's roles will be curtailed or that his responsibilities will be limited. Sources say that, if anything, the strength program and Edmond's role will expand.

Last year sources told Cats Illustrated that Erik Korem's High Performance program had fallen out of favor with many of the players on the team and was increasingly unpopular, not because of the principles of the program or how it might work in theory. Cats Illustrated reported, later in the season, that it was likely there would be changes to the High Performance program in the offseason.

On Friday, two Cats Illustrated sources did say that the High Performance program will take on less of a prominent role in the Kentucky football program. Those sources did praise certain aspects of the program, and emphasized that Mark Stoops' vision for a high-tech and cutting-edge program designed to reduce injuries and improve recovery is still going to be an emphasis so long as he's in Lexington. But Cats Illustrated was told, without further specifics, that players would probably not be working with the program nearly as frequently as they did earlier in Stoops' tenure.

Cats Illustrated learned that Erik Korem, the program's director, is likely to remain with the University of Kentucky through 2017, but that the relationship between the two parties is expected to expire without renewal at the end of that season.