Son of former Kentucky basketball great will play football for Mark Stoops’ team
The University of Kentucky football program’s latest legacy recruit marries it with not one, but two other programs at the school.
Lucas Padgett, the son of former UK basketball standout Scott Padgett and former volleyball star Cynthia Dozier, committed to play football for Mark Stoops’ team on Monday night. The 6-foot-4, 285-pound center will be a preferred walk-on at Kentucky.
Padgett’s current school, La Cueva High School in Albuquerque, N.M., did not play football in the fall but may have a shortened spring season. He was a Class 6A Second Team All-State selection in Alabama following his junior season at Homewood High School.
The family moved west after Scott, formerly the head coach at Samford University, was hired as an assistant coach at the University of New Mexico. In June, Scott told the Herald-Leader that UK was Lucas’ “dream school,” and at the time he was hearing mostly from a few Conference USA schools near Alabama (where they previously resided) and some Ivy League programs (per his Twitter profile, he has a 3.93 GPA and an ACT score of 27).
Lucas was invited to play in the Blue-Grey All-American Bowl in January.
“It was a really great experience to get back on the field for the first time since my junior season ended,” Lucas told the Albuquerque Journal on Monday. “I feel like I played well against a lot of really great competition out there.”
UK as part of its 2020 recruiting class signed two players, quarterback Beau Allen and defensive back Andru Phillips, whose fathers (Bill Allen and Carlos Phillips, respectively) played football at Kentucky.
Lucas told the Albuquerque Journal that UK offered him last week.
“I’m super excited about it,” he told the paper. “I lived in Alabama for eight years, and football is absolutely huge down there. … To get a chance to play there, that’s something most people would leap at the opportunity to do.”
The program recently extended a preferred walk-on spot to Trey Dennis, a wide receiver at Sayre High School and the son of former football player Harold Dennis. Trey in the 2020 season led Sayre in receptions (62), receiving yards (776) and touchdown catches (11).
This story was originally published February 9, 2021 at 9:10 AM.
