AUBURN — The two national assistant coaches of the year will be in the same Auburn dugout for the 2016 season.

Auburn head coach Butch Thompson announced the first member of his staff Tuesday afternoon with the hiring of Kentucky assistant coach Brad Bohannon.

Bohannon won the 2015 Baseball America and American Baseball Coaches Association National Assistant Coach of the Year award one season after his new boss Thompson took home that title in 2014.

Bohannon, 40, spent the last 12 seasons at Kentucky, where he assisted in overseeing the best 11-year run in program history. Bohannon is noted as one of the nation’s best recruiters and has been a major element to the talent influx to the Wildcats baseball program over the last decade that has included their first Southeastern Conference championship in program history, the first NCAA Regional held in Lexington and three record-breaking win seasons including a program record 45 wins in 2012.

During Bohannon’s time as Kentucky’s recruiting coordinator, a total of 63 UK players have been selected in the MLB Draft or signed as a free agent, a program best. In 2012, nine of Bohannon’s recruits were picked in the MLB Draft, a new school record, marking the second-most in the NCAA.

Bohannon welcomed the top recruiting classes in the 117-year history of the Kentucky program, as the 2008 group was ranked No. 4 in the nation by Baseball America and his 2009 class was tabbed No. 6 by Collegiate Baseball. Bohannon’s classes have annually been ranked among the NCAA’s best, as his 2006 class was No. 21, the 2007 class was No. 31 and the 2010 group was tabbed No. 16. His 2012 newcomer group was ranked No. 25 and included the first consensus freshman All-America selections in program history, Austin Cousino and Reed. The 2013 class of newcomers on the UK roster was ranked No. 11 by Collegiate Baseball.

One of Bohannon’s most prized recruits was former Kentucky star AJ Reed, the 2014 Golden Spikes Award winner and consensus national player of the year. A two-way star, Reed then led the NCAA in homers and slugging percentage as a junior, also leading the Southeastern Conference in pitching wins, a first in the storied history of the league. In his first full season as a professional, Reed led all of Minor League Baseball in home runs (34) and RBI (127).

Bohananon worked for Thompson’s former boss, John Cohen, at Kentucky 2004-08 and as the recruiting coordinator/infield coordinator for Gary Henderson after Henderson was hired as the Wildcats head coach in June 2008.

“I mean all over the Midwest, anywhere from Hawaii to California to the deep south, I think Brad has shown just an incredible knack to be able to find and evaluate kids that fall into the type of kid who’s going to be successful at Kentucky,” Cohen told Baseball America. “You have to be incredibly organized…You have to know exactly what kind of player fits your parameters, and you can’t make recruiting mistakes. You just cannot make recruiting mistakes and survive at Kentucky.”

Bohannon served as an assistant coach and most recently as recruiting coordinator while working with the outfielders and serving as third-base coach during his stint at Kentucky.

“Brad Bohannon’s going to be a head coach,” Cohen told Baseball America. “It’s a matter of when he’s going to become a head coach. And he’ll be really good because getting the right players—and this is really cliché—but it’s the life blood of any program, getting the right kids in that dugout.”