UK has a big hole to fill on offense. Three massive players are competing to plug it.
C.J. Conrad was as much a fixture for University of Kentucky football the past few seasons as anyone.
The tight end graduated, taking with him 42 career starts, 49 games worth of experience and more than 1,000 career receiving yards — the 28th player in Wildcats history with that distinction. There’s a hole, and a trio of tree trunks are making their case to help fill it this spring.
Keaton Upshaw, a 6-foot-5 redshirt freshman out of Lima, Ohio, impressed during UK’s first spring scrimmage on Saturday. Upshaw, formerly a three-star prospect, is coming off a season-ending knee injury suffered during a September practice.
“He caught some balls out in space and made some big plays,” offensive coordinator Eddie Gran said Tuesday. “ … Keaton kind of showed up a bit and when he had his opportunities he made ’em count.”
Brenden Bates, a 6-4 redshirt freshman from Cincinnati, and Justin Rigg, a 6-6 senior from Springboro, Ohio, didn’t get targets during their series but Gran likes what he’s seen from the tight end position as a whole.
“They’re doing a great job out on the perimeter blocking. They all have a willingness to block and stick their face in there,” Gran said. “But they all can run and they’re big-body guys, so I like the group a lot.”
Rigg, a junior who played in 11 games last season after a rash of freak injuries to internal organs, started in UK’s wins last season over Middle Tennessee State and Louisville. He tutored under Conrad, who recently suffered a health scare himself, and figures to be the Cats’ starting tight end headed into the fall.
Conrad has been around the team this spring imparting more wisdom to his heirs.
“Rigg is kinda like the vet now, so he’s leading us. What we’re doing now is getting all the plays down,” Bates said. “We have big shoes to fill with C.J. Conrad gone. But it’s really cool now cause CJ comes sometimes in the film room and teaches us what he did or some of his tricks or his footwork and stuff like that.”
Bates said Conrad believes he and Upshaw are further along in their development than he was as a freshman.
“He’s trying to get us to use that as our advantage,” Bates said. “He’s teaching us all the things that he’s learned throughout, what he struggled with and what made him such a great tight end.”
Bates’ brother, Doug, was recruited to play tight end at the University of Cincinnati. He and his dad — also Doug, and who played football for Indiana University — have been coaching him his entire life.
“There were sometimes where I would come home frustrated about my blocking, I knew I could do better ‘cause I’m strong in the weight room and all that stuff, and my brother taught me a lot about blocking and how to get better at that,” Bates said.
He continued with a laugh: “My brother would tell me, ‘You’ve gotta get low and mean,’ and (Coach Vince) Marrow tells me the same thing my family tells me.”
Blue-White Spring Game
When: April 12, 6 p.m.
Where: Kroger Field
Admission: Free
TV: SEC Network