On Thursday, Cats Illustrated reported that UK defensive line coach Derrick LeBlanc was a candidate to fill a spot on Sam Pittman's growing staff at Arkansas.

One day later, on Friday, KSR's Ryan Lemond reported that LeBlanc would be leaving Lexington for Fayetteville.

Cats Illustrated can confirm the report. LeBlanc is expected to serve as defensive line coach for the new staff in Fayetteville.

At $325,000 per year, LeBlanc was the lowest-paid assistant coach on Kentucky's staff but he oversaw a defensive line that improved over the previous two seasons, in large part due to the emergence of players like Calvin Taylor and Quinton Bohanna among others.

Kentucky now has to replace two assistant coaches this offseason. Special teams coordinator and defensive backs coach Dean Hood left Kentucky to become the head coach of Murray State's football program.

Whoever Mark Stoops taps to coach the defensive line will have plenty of interesting pieces to work with. Returning players Bohanna, Marquan McCall, Jerquavion Mahone, Abule Abadi-Fitzgerald, Davoan Hawkins, and Kordell Looney will be joined by the best defensive line class in school history headlined by five-star defensive tackle Justin Rogers and a quartet of four-stars. It remains to be seen whether Phil Hoskins will be granted a sixth year by the NCAA.