Latest offensive line departures show risks of transfer portal era for Kentucky football
The transfer portal giveth and the transfer portal taketh away.
The final week of the spring window for college football players to enter the portal offered a clear example for Kentucky of the new pitfalls apparent for roster management. Additions to a roster can never be viewed in a vacuum. What looks like an enviable amount of depth can turn into an area of concern as quickly as it takes two players to enter the portal.
That’s the scenario that played out on the Kentucky offensive line last week.
First, Mark Stoops and company added Southern Cal offensive line transfer Courtland Ford. He joined former Northern Illinois tackle Marques Cox and former Alabama guard Tanner Bowles, who both transferred to UK before the spring semester, as reinforcements for an offensive line that ranked 126th of 131 teams nationally last season in sacks allowed.
Offensive line coach Zach Yenser made no secret the staff’s desire to add another offensive tackle when he told reporters in the final week of spring practice the team’s starting right tackle for 2023 might not be on campus yet, so the addition of Ford was needed to elevate the play of a unit that was the biggest weakness on the team last season.
With Ford in the fold, Kentucky had five tackles on the roster who had significant game experience. Considering none of the group could be considered a sure thing to be a competent SEC starter — Cox looks like the safest bet but is coming off a foot injury and will face a significant jump in competition by moving from the Mid-American Conference to the SEC — that depth seemed necessary.
“We talk about in that room some of the stuff we were missing last year: just the competition in that room and the depth we’ve kind of added,” Yenser said during spring practice. “... I think it’s kind of lit a little fire. There’s more competition in the room, and guys can’t relax.”
Just days after Ford committed to Kentucky some of that competition disappeared though.
Sophomore David Wohlabaugh and junior Deondre Buford, who both started games for the Wildcats at tackle in 2022 and were among the players on campus competing for the right tackle starting job in spring practice, entered the transfer portal on the final day of the April window. Now, Kentucky is left with Cox, Ford and Jeremy Flax, the incumbent starter at right tackle, as the only tackles on the roster with college experience.
While neither Wohlabaugh nor Buford was expected to start for the Wildcats in 2023, they probably would have been part of the regular rotation with a chance to still win the right tackle starting job. With three years of eligibility left, there was still reason to hope for the type of development that would position them for starting roles in the future.
Kentucky has now lost three offensive tackles in the portal since the end of the 2022 season. Former five-star recruit Kiyaunta Goodwin left the program in December and eventually enrolled at Florida, where he received positive early reviews from his first spring practice with the Gators.
“My philosophy on offensive line … is I’ve done a phenomenal job in recruiting if I get a guy to start for me for three years,” Yenser said last fall when asked about why Goodwin was not playing more as a freshman. “That’s a redshirt sophomore. That’s two years of development, and you start for me for three years.”
Wohlabaugh was entering his third year on campus. Buford was entering his fourth. Both have three years of eligibility remaining.
There has been no shortage of pleas from fans the last two years to return the “Big Blue Wall” to its high point when beloved former offensive line coach John Schlarman would rotate as many as eight linemen in a game. UK coaches have echoed the desire to build that kind of depth again in Lexington, but the defections of Wohlabaugh and Buford cast serious doubt on whether that is feasible in the transfer portal era.
During Schlarman’s time at Kentucky it was not uncommon for offensive linemen to wait multiple seasons before turning into starters.
Bunchy Stallings appeared in just three games of mop-up duty during his first two years on campus, weathered a failed attempt at playing center then earned All-America honors at guard as a senior. Jacksonville Jaguars lineman Luke Fortner did not start a game until his fourth season at Kentucky and did not turn into an NFL Draft prospect until moving to center as a sixth-year senior.
In the era of the transfer portal, similar success stories might be harder to come by as players look for immediate playing time elsewhere or transfer after other veterans are added at their position.
Kentucky at least has SEC experience at the interior offensive positions in the form of guards Kenneth Horsey and Eli Cox and center Jager Burton, but depth at those spots is unproven as well. For now, Flax and Bowles look like the sixth and seventh linemen.
The offensive line depth could be boosted if someone from the returning group of Grant Bingham, Nik Hall, Josh Jones and Paul Rodriguez earns a spot in the rotation for the first time. Hall might be the best bet of that group to contribute at tackle in 2023, but he missed all of spring practice while recovering from offseason surgery.
Offensive line depth was also a concern in 2021, Liam Coen’s previous season as offensive coordinator, and the Wildcats survived with Flax and Austin Dotson as the top two reserve linemen. The Wildcats had good injury luck that season though, using the same five starting linemen in the first nine games, before Dotson replaced Eli Cox at right guard due to a season-ending hand injury.
Of course, the other avenue to building offensive line depth is to add another transfer. But as Wohlabaugh and Buford showed, additions might be followed by further departures.
Players who have finished their degrees can still enter the portal outside the designated transfer windows. Flax, Kentucky’s top reserve tackle, happens to fall in that group.
Counting on landing multiple starting offensive linemen from the transfer portal every season is a dangerous proposition for any program, especially one like Kentucky that is always likely to face competition from traditional powers for those players.
Holes must be filled, but the future of the Big Blue Wall probably depends on the ability of the staff to convince younger players to stick around long enough to develop into starters too.