LEXINGTON - Mark Stoops has lost a key member of his Kentucky football staff.
Defensive backs coach Steve Clinkscale, the architect of the Wildcats' Michigan recruiting pipeline, is leaving Lexington for a job on Jim Harbaugh's Michigan staff, a source confirmed to The Courier Journal Tuesday.
Clinkscale, a Youngstown, Ohio, native like Stoops and UK recruiting coordinator Vince Marrow, came to Kentucky before the 2016 season. He would fill the role on Michigan's staff vacated by former co-defensive coordinator/defensive backs coach Maurice Linguist, who was hired as Buffalo's new head coach.
Clinkscale's deep ties to the Detroit area helped Kentucky establish a recruiting pipeline that landed the Wildcats commitments from six highly-touted recruits between the 2017 and 2021 class, including current starters DeAndre Square and Marquan McCall and 2020 five-star prospect Justin Rogers.