Former Cumberland star joins UK staff
Published 5:00 pm Monday, April 30, 2018
LEXINGTON (KT) — Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops enhanced his support staff with five staff changes, including two new hires on Friday.
Stoops promoted Dan Berezowitz to chief of staff. Berezowitz previously served as director of recruiting operations. E.K. Franks was hired as the director of recruiting operations, while former Kentucky quarterback Freddie Maggard, a 1987 Cumberland all-stater in both football and baseball, joins Stoops’ staff as director of player development. Josh Pruitt, the previous director of player development was moved to a quality control position, joining Josh Estes-Waugh.
“I’m very excited about enhancing our support staff,” Stoops said. “This will provide additional help in our recruiting operation and support of our student-athletes.”
Berezowitz is in his sixth season with the Wildcats and previously coached six seasons at Arizona. He spent the last four with the Wildcats as the team’s recruiting coordinator.
“In Dan’s move to chief of staff, he will be a direct liaison to me and streamline our internal and external processes,” Stoops said. “He will continue to help in recruiting and officially oversee many of the administrative responsibilities he was working with already.”
Franks was director of player personnel at Florida for a short time under Dan Mullen and previously spent four years as the director of recruiting at Arkansas. Franks will be in charge of managing all aspects of recruiting operations in his new role with the Wildcats.
“I’m happy to have E.K. join us,” Stoops said. “I’ve known the quality of work from his time at Arkansas and excited to have him come here from Florida. E.K. has shown the ability to create relationships with parents and recruits. He has good experience in a variety of responsibilities. He has an engaging personality and brings a lot of enthusiasm to everything he does.”
Maggard was part of the communications relations and outreach liaison for the National Guard for 13 years before his retirement in 2015. Since then, Maggard worked as a football analyst for JMI Sports and analyst and writer for Kentucky Sports Radio. Maggard was quarterback at UK from 1988-91 and threw for 2,566 yards under Jerry Claiborne and Bill Curry.
“Freddie is a great addition to our staff,” Stoops said. “It’s important to me to surround our players with people who develop the ‘whole person’ and Freddie has great expertise, having done this in the military. He brings a wealth of experience and a passion for the University of Kentucky. He’ll help players with every aspect of their lives, making the transition from high school to college and from college to career life. He’ll also help with community relations. He has unbelievable contacts with our alumni and the military. He’s a real go-getter.”
Stoops also praised the addition of Pruitt and Estes-Waugh to the support staff.
“Another benefit of our enhancing our support staff is the ability to move Josh Pruitt and Josh Estes-Waugh into quality control positions,” Stoops said. “Both of them had numerous responsibilities and contributed greatly in their previous roles. I’m excited to have them in quality control, where they can assist our coaching staff on a daily basis.”