Western Kentucky head football coach Tyson Helton has made some staff changes this offseason, with the latest three being the promotion of Maurice Crum to defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, Stephen Hamby to offensive line coach and Carlos Locklyn to running backs coach.
Crum, replacing Clayton White who is now the defensive coordinator at South Carolina, spent last season serving as the Hilltoppers' co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach and has been on staff since the 2017 season.
After working alongside White and helping lead the WKU defense for multiple years now, Crum is extremely excited to now be in charge of the unit.
"I'm over-the-top. I'm elated," Crum said. "I can't sleep because I'm so fired up. First day of school-type feeling. I'm extremely honored to be in this position, and really excited just to work. We're going to be a very competitive football team. I want competition from the coaches, I want competition from the players. I want everything about us to be about competing."
Crum fully takes over a defense that allowed just 25.3 points and 348.7 yards per game this past season, including only 177.3 passing yards. The Hilltoppers ranked eighth among FBS teams in passing yards allowed, 28th in total yards allowed and 41st in points allowed.
The WKU defense was led by players such as DeAngelo Malone, Juwuan Jones, Jeremy Darvin, Omari Alexander and Nick Days – all guys who will return for next season, Crum said. In addition to that group, the Toppers are also bringing in multiple transfers from Power Five schools.
"We're excited for the guys that we have and the guys that decided to come back and play football here for WKU," Crum said. "I think it's shaping up really good with a mix of what we have and what we're bringing in. That's going to increase the competition in the building. We really like the players that we have coming back, but we also wanted them to be pushed."
After spending the past two seasons working in an offensive quality control position, Hamby is entering his first year as WKU's offensive line coach, replacing Mike Goff.
A Texas Tech graduate, Hamby spent three seasons working under Kliff Kingsbury at TTU serving as the assistant offensive line coach before spending the next three seasons as Bowling Green State's offensive line coach.
"Coming from Texas to Ohio to here, it's not the same transition as becoming full-time again," Hamby said. "It's one of those transitions going from the role I was in to that we're going to start doing a different style of offense here. The transition's been pretty simple, considering that I know all of these kids."
Hamby inherits an offensive line group that was ranked the 14th-best unit by PFF College and finished last season ranked second in the nation in pass-blocking grade and 17th in run-blocking grade. WKU is losing veteran linemen Jordan Meredith, Seth Joest and Tyler Witt, but bring back some younger guys and a big transfer in Nebraska graduate transfer Boe Wilson.
Locklyn – Helton's most recent hire – comes to Bowling Green to serve as WKU's running backs coach after spending last season at Florida State as the director of high school relations.
A former running back and cornerback at Tennessee-Chattanooga, Locklyn spent eight seasons serving as an offensive coordinator five Memphis-area high schools – while also working in law enforcement at the same time. He then spent three seasons working at Memphis as a weight room assistant (2017), offensive analyst (2018) and director of high school relations (2019) before following coach Mike Norvell to FSU.
"It's been a journey, but I'm just getting started," Locklyn said. "I'm excited about the opportunity to come here and work with Coach Helton and the new OC Zach Kittley. I'm extremely excited to get with my guys. I like the staff, I like the energy a lot of the guys are bringing, so I'm looking forward to it."
WKU rushed for 126 yards per game in 2020 and was led by Gaej Walker, who ran for 645 yards and three touchdowns. The Hilltoppers brought in transfer running back Adam Cofield – who rushed for over 600 yards and 12 TDs in 2019 at North Dakota State – this offseason.
