Kentucky players ‘a little bit shook’ after QB’s collapse on sideline

University of Kentucky quarterback Luke Wright was removed from the sideline on a stretcher late in the Wildcats’ football game against Missouri on Saturday night.

Wright, a 6-foot-4 junior backup from Atlanta, collapsed on the sideline behind head coach Mark Stoops and was quickly tended to by members of the UK training staff. At the time, Kentucky and Missouri were tied 34-34 with 9:46 remaining in the game at Kroger Field. Wright had not played in the game to that point.

The game was stopped for more than five minutes and fans in the stadium fell silent as Wright was tended to by medical personnel.

After the game, Stoops reported that Wright was “responsive” but said he couldn’t elaborate further on the quarterback’s condition or what caused his collapse.

“Nobody likes to see that and our team was definitely a little bit shook, but once we kind of figured out what it was, at least it was better than some other things that could have been going on, I guess, without getting into it,” he said.

A couple of hours after the Kentucky win, Wright tweeted out: “All came back good. Thanks for all the prayers!”

Kentucky’s starting quarterback, Stephen Johnson, called the incident “scary.”

“Luke’s my really, really good friend,” Johnson said. “To see that happen to him, it hurt to watch. But from what I’ve heard, he’s up in the hotel room, he’s responding and able to move around. Really happy about that.”

Wright, a former walk-on who transferred to UK from Cincinnati, started one game last season against Austin Peay, completing three of four passes for 28 yards. While at Cincinnati, Wright played in four games.

Stoops helped the team collect itself and go back out on the field, running back Benny Snell said.

“That was very disturbing,” Snell said after the 40-34 win. “ I’m going to keep him in my prayers for sure. The team will. Coach Stoops he had us calm. He said, ‘It is what it is. He’s OK.’ It was a tie ball game. There’s no losing from that. We could never let that happen. Stoops got us calm.”

This story was originally published October 7, 2017 at 11:16 PM with the headline "Kentucky players ‘a little bit shook’ after QB’s collapse on sideline."