Kentucky’s Mark Stoops Announces Staff Changes and Additions
LEXINGTON, Ky. – University of Kentucky head football coach Mark Stoops announced five staff changes on Friday which includes promoting Dan Berezowitz from director of recruiting operations to chief of staff and welcoming two new hires in E.K. Franks as the director of recruiting operations and former Wildcat quarterback Freddie Maggard as the director of player development. Franks moves into Berezowitz’s former role, while Maggard replaces Josh Pruitt, who has moved into a quality control position. Also moving into a quality control spot is Josh Estes-Waugh, who has served as the assistant director of recruiting operations since 2014.
“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 entering his 24th season in collegiate football, his sixth at Kentucky and first as chief of staff. As the director of recruiting operations, he helped Kentucky’s 2014 and 2017 recruiting classes rank in the top 25 by multiple recruiting publications, two of the best classes in UK football history. The six recruiting classes during Berezowitz’s time at UK are the six highest-rated groups in school history, according to Rivals.com, which began its talent evaluation in 2002.
Before Kentucky, he spent six seasons at Arizona with Mike Stoops, the last four as the recruiting coordinator. He played a key role in helping Arizona garner consecutive Top-20 recruiting classes in 2005 and 2006. He also was the recruiting coordinator at Minnesota, where he helped the Gophers bring in the nation’s 14th-best recruiting class in 2008.
Under head coach Mack Brown at both North Carolina and Texas, Berezowitz served as the Tar Heels’ director of video operations and football center director from 1994-97 and the director of football operations at Texas from 1998-99.
Berezowitz was a four-year letter winner at quarterback for the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he earned a degree in athletic administration in 1994. He also was an assistant coach at UW-Whitewater from 1992-94.
Berezowitz and his wife, Jane, have four sons, twins Bryan and Brayden and a son Zachary, who are all walk-on wide receivers for the Wildcats, Jordan and a daughter, Alexa Grace.
“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, a native of Wellington, Kansas, comes to the Bluegrass after a short stint as the director of player personnel at Florida under new head coach Dan Mullen. Prior to Florida, he spent four seasons as the director of recruiting at Arkansas under head coach Bret Bielema. For Kentucky, Franks will manage all aspects of recruiting operations, including directing the recruiting staff, and coordinating on-campus recruiting visits.
“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.”
Franks began working in collegiate football in 2000 and has served in many capacities, including as the associate head coach and running backs coach at Southeastern Louisiana and as the defensive line coach and head strength coach at Delta State. He also coached the defensive line at Texas State and was an academic counselor and director of minority relations at Kansas State. His first collegiate coaching experience came at Kansas State as a strength and conditioning coach.
From 1996-2000, he was the defensive backs and strength coach at Heritage High School in Oklahoma City.
During his career, he has coached or trained several players who went on to professional careers, including long-time NFL standouts Wes Welker, Darren Sproles and Terence Newman.
Franks earned his bachelor’s degree in general studies in 2000 from Central Oklahoma and a master’s degree in adult education from Kansas State in 2002.
He is married to the former Angela Dent of Vicksburg, Mississippi.
Maggard, of Versailles, Kentucky, joins the UK staff as the director of player development. He served in a similar role for the National Guard for 13 years as the community relations and outreach liaison, managing day-to-day community engagement initiatives for command staff and force of over 7,000 personnel. He also served as the ambassador for the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the Kentucky National Guard and was the employer support of the Guard and Reserve Ombudsman. As the community outreach director, he created doctrine and provided input for the National Guard Bureau for Community Outreach throughout the United States. He also managed the Kentucky National Guard recruiting command’s marketing and advertising department for three years.
Since leaving the National Guard in 2015, Maggard has worked as a football analyst for JMI Sports, including the UK Radio Network and the annual Signing Day telecast, and as an analyst and writer for Kentucky Sports Radio. He also was the creator and host of his own production, “The Depth Chart Podcast.”
Maggard knows the Kentucky football program inside and out as he played quarterback from 1988-91, earning three letters. In two seasons as the starting signal caller, he passed for 2,566 yards, completing 239 of 419 passes for 12 touchdowns under head coaches Jerry Claiborne (1982-89) and Bill Curry (1990-96). Maggard still ranks No. 15 on UK’s career passing yards list. As a junior in 1990, he was elected co-captain of the team with Randy Holleran.
The three-time Southeastern Conference All-SEC Academic Team member earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from UK in 1990. He is married to the former Jennifer Green of Versailles, Ky., who currently is a chief warrant officer 3 for the Kentucky National Guard. Maggard has a son, Clai, and a daughter, Ellie.
“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.”
Estes-Waugh begins his 10th overall season with the Kentucky football program, his first in a quality control coaching position, and he will work with the offense.
The past four years, Estes-Waugh was the assistant director of recruiting, helping Berezowitz in all areas of recruiting operations. He was an offensive analyst in 2013 and a graduate assistant/video analyst role for special teams in 2012, helping develop game plans and scouting reports for the Wildcats. He also spent three years as a student manager for the Wildcats from 2009-11, and along with managerial duties, he served as student assistant coach for the wide receivers and provided game preparation and film breakdown for the defensive coaches.
Estes-Waugh, native of Paris, Kentucky, earned a bachelor’s degree from Kentucky in economics in 2012.
Pruitt begins his first year as a quality control coach for the defense after serving five years as the director of player development. Prior to player development, he was as a graduate assistant for the Wildcats’ offense.
Pruitt came to Kentucky from Kilgore Junior College (Kilgore, Texas) where he was the assistant head coach. Under Pruitt’s tutelage, Kilgore went 8-3 in 2012 and earned an invitation to the inaugural Brazos Valley Bowl at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas. Because of his ties at Kilgore, he helped recruit two of his players to Kentucky in tight end Steven Borden (2013-14) and wide receiver Joey Herrick (2013-15).
Pruitt played quarterback for two seasons at Garden City (Kansas) Community College before transferring to Troy as a tight end. In 2006, he was a member of the Sun Belt championship and the New Orleans Bowl championship team.
After his playing days, he served as a graduate assistant at Troy for three seasons, helping the Trojans win three straight Sun Belt Conference titles (2007, 2008 and 2009). He also had coaching stints at Catholic University in Washington D.C. and East Mississippi Junior College, in Scooba, Mississippi. While at East Mississippi JC, he recruited Za’Darius Smith, who ended up signing at Kentucky and becoming an outstanding defensive end for the Wildcats in 2013-14 and currently for the Baltimore Ravens.
Pruitt, a native of Ellsworth, Kansas, received his undergraduate degree in criminal justice and a master’s degree in criminal law, both from Troy. He also earned a master’s degree in sports administration from Kentucky.
He is married to the former Allison Farrington of Andalusia, Alabama.
“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.”
