Jay Bateman

Biography

Jay Bateman has been named Kentucky's defensive coordinator. Bateman comes to the Bluegrass after two seasons at Texas A&M, where the Aggies are currently in the College Football Playoffs. Texas A&M finished the 2025 regular season 11-1, the program's most regular season wins since 1992. Bateman's defense was led by SEC Defensive Player of the Year Cashius Howell. In 2024, Bateman led the Aggies' defense to a top 35 national ranking in tackles for loss and scoring defense. Three Aggie defensive linemen were selected in the first three rounds of the 2025 NFL Draft. Prior to Texas A&M, Bateman spent two seasons as the inside linebacker coach at Florida (2022-23), where he delivered two NFL Draft picks in his first season. Before that, he spent three seasons as North Carolina's co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach (2019-21), helping engineer major improvements for the Tar Heel defense. Bateman spent five seasons (2014-18) as Army's defensive coordinator, where Army won 29 games highlighted by three bowl victories. He was one of five finalists for the 2018 Broyles Award. Bateman also served as defensive coordinator at Ball State (2011-13) and Elon (2006-10), and gained head coaching experience at Siena College (2000-03). He played linebacker at Randolph-Macon, a Division III program, and earned a degree in political science in 1995.