The University of Kentucky refused to let Matt House out of his contract as defensive coordinator in order to join K.C.
The Kansas City Chiefs coaching staff began to look like things were finally coalescing into a full roster on the defensive side this weekend with the announcement of recent hires. However, the University of Kentucky apparently threw a wrench into the team’s plans to hire linebackers coach Matt House with word that they’ve refused to let him out of his contract.
The Chiefs were reportedly set to hire House away from the Wildcats in his role as defensive coordinator, but it was clear something was wrong when rumors began to leak almost immediately that things “were not done yet.”
Those rumors came true when reports emerged on Saturday that House was not going to join the Chiefs. Then Terez Paylor of Yahoo! Sports came out with this tweet.
So regarding Matt House, who was expected to be the Chiefs’ new LB coach:
— RIP Terez A. Paylor (@TerezPaylor) February 10, 2019
I’m told UK decided not to let him out of his deal...but they only did that AFTER they’d agreed to negotiate the buyout. Tough break for House, who wanted to join the Chiefs, and KC.
The flip-flop by the university shows how both sides of the news likely had this correct at one point. Field Yates was the first to report the Chiefs interest in House and, at that point, Andy Reid and company likely had reason to believe they had their man if Kentucky had agreed to buyout his contract. Unfortunately, someone somewhere had a change of heart and now there are a lot of disgruntled parties.
For the Chiefs, it represents the second straight failure to fill the role of linebackers coach after Antonio Pierce also turned them down for the gig, instead selecting to stay at Arizona State in the same position.
The Chiefs have successfully added David Merritt as defensive backs coach and Brendan Daly as defensive line coach in the last few days. However new defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo still has a few more spots to fill out in a coaching shift that’s taking much longer to flesh out that anyone could have expected.