Tommy Mainord out as UK wide receivers coach

Jon Hale | Louisville Courier Journal

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Wide receivers coach Tommy Mainord and offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson are officially no longer a part of the Kentucky football program, a UK spokeswoman confirmed Friday.

News of Dawson’s firing broke Thursday. Mainord joins him in not being retained from the 2015 coaching staff after three years in Lexington and a disappointing 2015 season for his position group.

Entering the season wide receiver was supposed to be one of the deepest positions on the field for Kentucky, but three players accounted for almost 60 percent of the team’s total receptions. Dropped passes also plagued the group throughout 2015.

“I thought the wide receiver group would be a difference-maker for us, and I think that as an overall unit, I think they played some good football, but too inconsistent for us,” UK head coach Mark Stoops said in an interview with The Courier-Journal and Lexington Herald-Leader on Tuesday. “That group needs to continue to improve to be difference makers.”

Sophomore wide receiver Dorian Baker led Kentucky with 55 catches and ranked second on the team with 608 receiving yards but was particularly susceptible to dropped passes this season. He developed into one of the more electric playmakers on the team with several highlight-reel one-handed catches, but he quickly became a frequent target for criticism after failing to make more routine plays.

Even after making several mistakes in key situations, Baker’s playing time remained constant. In the postseason interview, Stoops called the common complaint that some of the starting wide receivers appeared to face little retribution for mistakes a “fair criticism.”

“That group, we need to get more players on the field and see more guys making a difference and getting opportunities,” Stoops said. “When they get opportunities – they get opportunities every day – they’ve just got to make the most of them when they get out there.”

Mainord’s most recent contract paid him $275,000 annually through June 30, 2017. According to the terms of the contract, UK will owe him the rest of his salary in monthly installments. Mainord is required by the contract to seek other employment during that term, and if he receives a new job UK “has the right to reduce continuing payment obligations to the extent that he earns other salary.”

Mainord was the last assistant hired as part of Stoops’ first Kentucky staff in January of 2013. He came to UK after working with former offensive coordinator Neal Brown at Texas Tech but remained in Lexington after Brown accepted the Troy head coaching job in 2014.

At Kentucky, Mainord was primarily responsible to recruiting the mid-Atlantic region, but each of the four players he helped Kentucky sign from Maryland or Washington, D.C., have yet to play for the Wildcats. Washington, D.C. wide receiver Jabari Greenwood and cornerback Will Jackson both redshirted during their first season on campus this fall. Maryland linebacker Kobie Walker redshirted in 2014 then was academically ineligible in 2015. Washington, D.C. offensive tackle Levon Livingston never made it to campus after signing with UK as part of the 2015 class.

Email Jon Hale at jahale@courier-journal.com . Follow him on Twitter @JonHale_CJ .