Four Kentucky players, two Kentucky natives named to media’s All-SEC First Team
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UK in the 2019 Belk Bowl
The University of Kentucky will play Virginia Tech in the 2019 Belk Bowl on Dec. 31. Read more about the Wildcats’ opponent and destination.
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Hardware season started off strongly for the University of Kentucky.
Three UK players — Lynn Bowden, Drake Jackson and Logan Stenberg — were named to the Associated Press’ All-Southeastern Conference First Team offense. Another Kentucky standout, Max Duffy, was named to the All-SEC First Team defense.
Alabama offensive tackle Jedrick Wills, who graduated from Lafayette High School in Lexington, was also named to the All-SEC First Team offense.
Bowden was selected as an all-purpose player. He started UK’s final seven games at quarterback and finished as the league’s third-leading rusher with 1,235 yards on 151 carries, behind only Mississippi State’s Kylin Hill (1,347 on 235 carries) and LSU’s Clyde Edwards-Helaire (1,290 on 197 carries) in the regular season. Bowden’s 8.18 yards per carry led the SEC and were second only to Clemson’s Travis Etienne, who averaged 8.24 yards per carry, among all FBS players. The 284 rushing yards he recorded against Louisville were the second most by a UK player in history.
Drake Jackson, a center who graduated from Woodford County High School, and Logan Stenberg, an offensive guard, were among the offensive linemen blocking for Bowden and a trio of UK running backs — Chris Rodriguez, A.J. Rose and Kavosiey Smoke — who accounted for most of Kentucky’s school-record 3,293 rushing yards in 2019. UK in consecutive weeks broke the single-game school record for rushing to end the regular season, and for the first time rushed for 500 or more yards in a game (517 against Louisville).
Duffy, a punter, led the nation in punting average with 48.6 yards per punt (2,285 total yards on 47 attempts). SEC punters accounted for four of the top five punting averages in the regular season, as Texas A&M’s Braden Mann (47.8), South Carolina’s Joseph Charlton (47.7) and Georgia’s Jake Camarda (47.4) trailed Duffy. (N.C. State’s Trenton Gill ranked fourth overall at 47.6.)
Kentucky has had at least one All-SEC First Team selection in each of the last three seasons and in every season under Mark Stoops except 2013 (his first season) and 2015. Defensive end Josh Allen, running back Benny Snell and offensive lineman Bunchy Stallings were First Team selections by the AP and coaches last year.
It was the first time since 1987 that UK had four players named All-SEC by the AP in the same season. It is Kentucky’s most First Team selections since 1977, when a record five Wildcats — Tom Dornbook, Dallas Owens, Derrick Ramsey, Mike Siganos and Art Still —were named as first-teamers by the AP.
Kentucky last had four All-SEC First Team selections in 2002 — Derek Abney, Antonio Hall, Glenn Pakulak and Artose Pinner — but only three of those guys were named to the AP First Team (Hall was selected to the Second Team in 2002).
Click here for the complete AP All-SEC team.
Academic All-American
UK long snapper Blake Best on Monday was named to the the College Sports Information Directors of America’s Academic All-America’s first team.
Best, a second-team selection last year as a junior, is in his fourth season starting as UK’s long snapper for field goals and extra points and his first as the starting long snapper on punts. He graduated summa cum laude in Dec. 2018 with a double major in economics and finance and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in finance.
This story was originally published December 9, 2019 at 11:39 AM.
