Kentucky returns only one captain in 2020. He’s ‘looking to be able to dominate.’
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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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Kentucky brought its five captains to the Belk Bowl’s annual media day event. Only one of them will play football for the Wildcats after Tuesday’s postseason coda.
Josh Paschal, a sophomore in his third year with the program, joined Lynn Bowden, Kash Daniel, Logan Stenberg and Calvin Taylor at the Charlotte Convention Center on Monday. Bowden intends to enter the NFL Draft and the latter are seniors.
Before he was directly asked, it hadn’t dawned on Paschal that he’d be the lone man left from the group by the time spring camp opens.
“This year helped me work on being that leader that we need next year,” Paschal said. “I know we have other people on the team right now who are gonna step up and have stepped up this year.”
Paschal’s tumultuous 2018 paved the way for him to start grooming his leadership skills. He missed the bulk of UK’s previous campaign after being diagnosed with a malignant melanoma on his left foot last July. Paschal underwent three surgeries and months of immunotherapy treatments before returning in a limited capacity at the end of the year.
He was not at his best then, though. Nor was he through most of this season, if you ask him.
“I wouldn’t say I was (still) recovering, but I was still getting used to things,” Paschal said. “It’s hard being away from the game for so long and then coming back. It’s those small things that you gradually learn again throughout the season.”
Paschal, back at linebacker this year after a stint on the defensive line, started all 12 regular-season games and made 34 total tackles (20 unassisted). He had 9.5 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, forced two fumbles, broke up a pass and was responsible for Kentucky’s only blocked punt this season.
The athleticism required to make such an array of contributions was something he had to re-develop over the course of this year. His early period of recovery was mostly focused on how to do one of the simplest things a body can do: run.
An anti-gravity treadmill — which reduces one’s body weight by a defined percentage — became a staple in his life.
“You put on these, like, parachute pants and you’re strapped to the inside of the treadmill,” Paschal said. “ ... It’s supposed to take the stress off your body and you’re focusing on your stride. It’s more form oriented.”
The cancer setback did not limit Paschal’s ability to work on his upper body, so he was able to get stronger up top than ever before, he says. That, combined with an increase in his personal comfort level with the sport as he continued to re-acclimate week to week, had him by the end of the regular season feeling better than he ever has in his time at UK.
Paschal has already written a success story, but he has more chapters in mind.
“I’m just gonna carry that on into this next game and work as hard as I can this offseason and follow that up,” Paschal said. “ ... Next year I’m looking to be able to dominate and I’m gonna work as hard as I can to be able to do that.”
This story was originally published December 30, 2019 at 2:37 PM.
