Louisville football loses key recruiting staffer Stephen Field to Oregon

Stephen Field, one of the most dedicated recruiting staffers in the Louisville football program, has left to take a new job at Oregon, Field confirmed Tuesday.

Field’s departure is significant. The former Florida high school coach was a major player in signing Louisville’s 2018 recruiting class, rated one of the best in school history. The 22-member class ranked 29th in the country in 247sports.com’s composite rankings.

During the early signing period in December, Louisville coach Bobby Petrino praised Field for his efforts and “great ties and friendships and relationships.”

Field’s official title at Louisville was director of high-school relations. He arrived less than a year ago, in April of 2017. He signed a contract worth a $115,000 base salary that was due to expire June 30, 2018.

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At Oregon, Field said his title will be director of recruiting. He named family reasons and a relationship with Oregon head coach Mario Cristobal as motives for taking the job. 247sports.com first reported the news.

Cristobal and Field both have roots in South Florida. Cristobal was an assistant coach at Miami from 2004-06 and the head coach at Florida International from 2007-12. Field was a Florida high school assistant in the early 2000s, a staff assistant at Miami from 2006-08 and then the head coach at Miami Northwestern and North Marion from 2012-15.

Field will also reunite with Cort Dennison, Louisville’s former inside linebackers coach who left last month to become a linebackers coach at Oregon. Dennison, also the recruiting coordinator at Louisville, and Field were two of the bigger forces in drawing high-profile recruits from South Florida to Louisville.

Another staff move: Louisville also added Tramain Thomas as a defensive quality control assistant, the program announced last week. Thomas played safety for Petrino at Arkansas from 2008-11. Thomas had been serving as a graduate assistant at Midwestern State. As a player, he was an All-SEC honoree twice.

Jake Lourim: 502-582-4168; jlourim@courierjournal.com; Twitter: @jakelourim. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: www.courier-journal.com/jakel.