FAYETTEVILLE — The University of Arkansas is expected to name Memphis native Kenny Ingram its next defensive tackles coach, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette has confirmed.
The hiring was first reported by FootballScoop.com.
Ingram had been serving as director of player relations at Auburn for the last two seasons in his second stint with the Tigers.
Ingram has ties to current Arkansas defensive ends coach Steve Caldwell from their days at Arkansas State 30 years ago. Ingram played defensive end at Arkansas State from 1989-92, overlapping with Caldwell in 1989. Caldwell, an Arkansas State graduate, went on to become a graduate assistant at Tennessee in 1990, where he hooked up with current Arkansas defensive coordinator John Chavis for a 14-year run that included the 1998 BCS national championship.
Ingram, a graduate of Whitehaven High in Memphis, went on to become a co-captain at Arkansas State in his senior year of 1992.
Ingram should give Arkansas’ recruiting efforts in Memphis more muscle. Coach Chad Morris has identified the area as a key recruiting base for the Razorbacks.
Ingram was a successful high school coach in Memphis for four years before moving on to Tennessee State (2005) and the University of Memphis (2006-09). He served as defensive coordinate for the Tigers in 2009.
He was defensive line coach on coach Gus Malzahn’s 2012 Sun Belt championship team at Arkansas State, then accompanied Malzahn to Auburn for a two-year stint at director of player development.
He was replaced as defensive line coach at Arkansas State by Caldwell, who had just completed a three-year run at Arkansas with Bobby Petrino and John L. Smith.
Ingram coached the defensive tackles under Camden native Tommy Tuberville at the University of Cincinnati for the 2015-16 seasons before returning to Auburn.
Ingram replaces John Scott Jr., who coached the entire defensive line in 2017 under Bret Bielema and the defensive tackles in 2018 in Morris’ first season at Arkansas. Scott took a job at South Carolina coaching the defensive line for Will Muschamp last month.
The hiring of Ingram will give Morris a full complement of 10 assistant coaches with the Razorbacks two weeks away from the start of spring practice.