Will Stein has reportedly landed his defensive coordinator.
The first-year head coach of the Wildcats is expected to land Texas A&M defensive coordinator Jay Bateman as the new defensive play caller in Lexington, CBS Sports shares.
The 52-year old coaching veteran has served as a defensive coordinator at multiple stops during his coaching career.
His first time calling the defense was for Pete Lembo at Elon back in 2006, and Bateman followed Lembo to the major college level when he took the head coaching job at Ball State prior to the 2011 season.
After a few seasons in the MAC, Bateman took the defensive coordinator opportunity at Army in 2014, and by 2018 he was a finalist for the Broyles Award given annually to the top assistant coach in college football. His stamp on the Army defense was impressive, improving them from a defense that ranked 91st in the country in his debut season in 2014 to 8th in the country in 2018.
Following arguably his best season as the defensive play caller in his career following the 2018 season, he took the co-defensive coordinator and safeties job at North Carolina, a role he spent three seasons in before he and the program agreed to part ways after the 2021 season.
He would go on to land at Florida, coaching the inside linebackers for Billy Napier at Florida for a few seasons.
When Mike Elko landed the head coaching job at Texas A&M, he brought Bateman on board as defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. This year, the Aggies defense ranks among the top 50 nationally in scoring defense and rush defense while holding the 21st spot in pass defense and a top 20 spot in total defense on the year as they begin their preparation for the College Football Playoff.
The aggressive defense he and Elko have put together are 3rd in the country in tackles for loss on the year, ranking behind only fellow College Football Playoff participants Oklahoma and Indiana as the only three programs in college football with triple-digit TFLs on the year.
Bateman will stay with the Aggies through their run in the College Football Playoff, multiple reports share.
ESPN adds that Lyle Hemphill, the Aggies associate head coach for defense, will step in to the defensive coordinator role as Bateman departs.
Here’s a few other pertinent notes from Bateman’s bio:
In his first season at Texas A&M, Bateman helped guide the Aggies to a 5-0 start in SEC play, marking the program’s best start in SEC action and its best conference start since 1998. The Aggies finished the year among the top-35 nationally in tackles for loss (92.0) and scoring defense (22.2 p/g), while ranking in the top-three in the SEC with 16 interceptions and 76 passes defended. Three Aggie defensive linemen were selected in the first three rounds of the 2025 NFL Draft, including first-rounder Shemar Stewart.
During his first year at Florida, Bateman delivered two NFL Draft picks including Ventrell Miller, who was picked in the fourth round by the Jacksonville Jaguars, along with Amari Burney who was selected by the Las Vegas Raiders in the sixth round. Bateman’s unit contributed to a Florida defense that helped lead the SEC, producing 22 takeaways during the 2022 season.
Bateman made the move to Gainesville after spending three seasons as North Carolina’s co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach (2019-21). Upon his arrival, Bateman helped engineer major improvements for the Tar Heel defense which was one of the nation’s top-five most improved units in total defense, scoring defense and rushing defense that year.
Bateman’s aggressive style was evident in the 36.0 sacks the team produced in 2020, the fifth-most in the nation that season and the most for a North Carolina defense since 2000. The Tar Heels also boasted top-35 rankings in scoring defense, total defense and rushing defense among teams that played at least 10 games that season.
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