Kansas running backs coach Tony Hull encourages his players as they warm up during practice on Tuesday, April 5, 2016.

Kansas head football coach David Beaty has assembled his best staff in preparation for this third season and he’s in no mood to see it raided. So he acted swiftly in giving Tony Hull reason to want to stay put.

Beaty announced this morning on his Twitter account that Hull, who recently received verbal commitments from six high school juniors from Louisiana, has been promoted to associate head coach.

Hull, former head coach at Warren East High in New Orleans and a former industrial engineer at NASA, grew up in New Orleans East, the neighborhood hit hard by a tornado Tuesday. Hull was driving in New Orleans when it hit.

I was driving in NO & a tornado hit in the east. Please pray for this great neighborhood!

The promotion comes at a good time because LSU is in the market for a running backs coach after head coach Ed Orgeron demoted Jabbar Juluke, a move that infuriated area high school coaches, especially considering it happened after signing day.

Hull would have been a logical successor to Juluke because his replacement will need to be someone popular with the coaches who are talking about organizing an LSU boycott.

Excited to announce Tony Hull has been promoted to Associate Head Coach!! He definitely #EarnedIt!!!

Let's keep working @coachtonyhull!! pic.twitter.com/GSW3PdElWL

— David Beaty (@beaty_david) February 8, 2017