‘It was between him and Nik.’ Why one Kentucky QB won’t be transferring after all.
The University of Kentucky football program’s need to tap the transfer portal for a quarterback appeared to go away on Thursday.
Nik Scalzo, a former three-star recruit who’s spent the last two seasons with the Wildcats, entered the NCAA’s transfer portal last week but has withdrawn his name from the portal, the school confirmed to the Herald-Leader. He will be permitted to rejoin the football team and will retain his scholarship.
NCAA rules governing the transfer portal allow schools to reserve the right to refuse aid and/or spots on the roster if a player enters the portal and then later withdraws their name from the portal. UK head coach Mark Stoops and Scalzo came to an “unprecedented” agreement regarding his entry into the portal.
“Coach said, ‘If you want to go and look around, that’s fine, you can enter your name in and if you decide you want to come back, I’m gonna hold the scholarship for you,’” said Susan Lax, a spokesperson for the athletics department. “… It was between him and Nik.”
Scalzo, who was featured on the Netflix series “QB1: Beyond the Lights,” suffered a season-ending knee injury that required surgery on his ACL in his final high school game. He arrived at Kentucky as part of the 2019 signing class and was in contention for the backup job behind Terry Wilson heading into the 2019 season before suffering a second ACL tear on the same knee during fall camp. He was believed to be available during the 2020 season, if needed, but he was never listed on the depth chart and never appeared in a game for the Wildcats.
Scalzo last week posted to Twitter a video package of personal highlights from his time on the scout team during practices this season. Along with that post he wrote that his knee is “100%.” Later in the week he announced his transfer on Twitter.
Because of the NCAA’s blanket eligibility waiver in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its expected adoption of a rule allowing immediate eligibility for first-time transfers sometime before the 2021-22 school year, Scalzo could have up to four years of eligibility remaining.
Scalzo choosing to remain at UK means it will enter the spring with four quarterbacks on its roster. Joey Gatewood, who will be a junior academically but could play up to three seasons still at UK, and Beau Allen, who will be a redshirt freshman, are the expected front-runners for Kentucky’s open quarterback job. Kaiya Sheron, a Somerset High School standout, was the only quarterback UK signed as part of the 2021 class.
Gatewood is the only player of the four to start a college football game. He made his only career start against Georgia last season, and played in seven games, going 17-of-35 passing for 109 yards with an interception. Allen played in two games, finishing 3-for-7 for 40 yards.
Graduate student Sawyer Smith, who started three games at quarterback during the 2019 season, had one year of additional eligibility as a result of the NCAA’s COVID-19 waiver but will not be on Kentucky’s roster this year, a spokesperson told the Herald-Leader. Smith did not play in any of UK’s 11 games last season.
Scalzo was the third Kentucky player to announce his transfer in the offseason, following defensive back M.J. Devonshire, another member of the 2019 signing class, and Terry Wilson, the Wildcats’ starting quarterback at the beginning of the last three seasons. Scalzo is believed to be the first UK player to withdraw his name from the transfer portal since its inception in 2018.
This story was originally published January 14, 2021 at 3:37 PM.
