No UK football player has had his jersey retired since 1999. These Wildcats could be next.
While the team success has often been fleeting over the last 30 years for Kentucky football, there has been no shortage of standout individual performances for the Wildcats in that era.
The program’s “Ring of Honor” recognizing players and coaches immortalized by having their jerseys retired has yet to reflect those performances, though. No Kentucky player or coach has had his jersey retired since Tim Couch in 1999. Couch is the only Wildcat to play in a game since the start of the 1988 season to have his jersey retired.
While Kentucky basketball’s list of retired jerseys has grown in recent years with Tubby Smith and Mike Pratt being honored in the Rupp Arena rafters, the football program has yet to award that honor since the athletics department adopted its current jersey retirement protocols.
To be eligible for jersey retirement, a player or coach must first be enshrined in the UK Athletics Hall of Fame. Hall of Fame eligibility comes five years after leaving UK. Honorees must wait an additional five years after being enshrined in the Hall of Fame before being eligible to have a jersey retired, according to a UK spokesman.
Those rules mean recent Wildcats Josh Allen, the 2018 National Defensive Player of the Year, and Benny Snell, the Wildcats’ all-time leading rusher, would not be eligible for jersey retirement for at least seven more years despite seeming like locks to one day receive the honor. Five Wildcats recently elected to the Hall of Fame (Jacob Tamme, Andre Woodson, Danny Trevathan, Larry Warford and Keenan Burton) have not hit the five-year threshold for jersey retirement.
Maybe the next Wildcat to have his jersey retired comes from that group, but there are 14 former players or coaches already eligible for the honor. Here is a look at the candidates, listed in alphabetical order.
Derek Abney
During his Kentucky career, Abney broke seven NCAA records, 11 SEC records and 14 UK records for kick returns and all-purpose yardage. He was just the fourth player in UK history to be named first-team All-SEC three times. Also a standout receiver, Abney was the first player in NCAA history to total 2,000 receiving yards, 2,000 kick return yards and 1,000 punt return yards in his career. Abney still holds the program record for most all-purpose yards (5,856) in a career.
Oliver Barnett
Barnett left UK in 1989 as the program’s career sacks leader, a record that stood until Allen broke it in 2018. As a senior, he was named a third-team All-American and first-team All-SEC. Barnett played six seasons in the NFL and reached the Super Bowl in 1994 with the Buffalo Bills.
Rich Brooks
Three coaches were included in UK’s Ring of Honor prior to the current jersey retirement system being adopted with the creation of the Hall of Fame in 2005: Paul “Bear” Bryant, Blanton Collier and Jerry Claiborne. Brooks could become the fourth after being elected to the Hall of Fame in 2016. Brooks led Kentucky back from probation to become the first coach in program history to reach four consecutive bowl games. The jersey retirement committee will have to decide if the context of his rebuild is enough to overlook his career losing record (39-47).
Al Bruno
A third-team All-American in 1950, Bruno held UK’s career record for receiving yards until 1964 and career record for receiving touchdowns until 1998. Bruno was a key contributor to two of the best teams in program history, playing in the 1950 Orange Bowl and 1951 Sugar Bowl. He also played in nine games for UK’s 1949 men’s basketball national championship team. After leaving UK, Bruno won Canadian Football League titles as a player and coach.
Randall Cobb
Now five years removed from his induction into the Hall of Fame in 2017, Cobb should become eligible for jersey retirement this year and might be the most obvious candidate to next receive the honor. There is an argument that Cobb is one of the most talented players in program history considering he was a productive wide receiver, quarterback and returner during his UK career. Despite playing just three seasons at UK before jumping to the NFL, Cobb still ranks in the top 10 in program history in career receptions (144), receiving yards (1,661), all-purpose yards (4,674), points scored (226), touchdowns scored (37) and kickoff return average (24.57). He still holds the SEC record for most all-purpose yards in a season (2,396) and has been one of the program’s most productive NFL players with 7,585 receiving yards and 53 touchdowns in 155 games.
Wilbur Hackett
The first Black team captain in any sport in SEC history. Hackett was a three-year starter for Kentucky and enjoyed a long career as an SEC official after his playing days were over. While Hackett’s jersey has not been retired, he and three other players who helped break the color barrier in SEC football were honored with a statue outside of Kroger Field in 2017.
Jared Lorenzen
Among the players already eligible for jersey retirement, Lorenzen might be the most obvious omission from the Ring of Honor. While he was the quarterback for just one team with a winning record at UK — and that team missed a bowl game due to probation — he still holds the program record for career passing yards (10,354). Lorenzen was a generational talent thanks to his ability to play quarterback at a high level despite weighing close to 300 pounds. Unfortunately, if Lorenzen’s jersey is one day retired it will be a posthumous honor as he died at age 38 in 2020.
Marty Moore
Moore still holds UK’s record for tackles in a season (183) and ranks fourth on the career tackles list (462). He was named first-team All-SEC for UK’s 1993 Peach Bowl squad and twice led the SEC in tackles. Moore was the last pick in the 1994 NFL Draft but still went on to play eight seasons in the NFL, winning a Super Bowl with the New England Patriots in 2002.
Nate Northington
Northington broke the color barrier in SEC football when he became the first Black player to appear in a game on Sept. 30, 1967, against Ole Miss. Still reeling from the loss of teammate Greg Page, another Black player who died as the result of an injury sustained in a preseason practice, Northington left the team just a few weeks after his historic moment. Northington is one of the four players honored with a statue in the plaza between Kroger Field and UK’s training facility.
Greg Page
Page was set to join Northington as the first Black players on a varsity SEC football team in 1967 but died after suffering an injury in a preseason practice. He did play one season on UK’s freshman team. In addition to the statue of Hackett, Northington, Page and Houston Hogg outside of Kroger Field, Page was honored by the university with the naming of the graduate student housing complex just south of the stadium.
Bill Ransdell
Prior to the “Air Raid” era, Ransdell was the most prolific passer in program history. He still ranks fifth in career passing yards (5,564), completions (469) and attempts (816). Ransdell was the quarterback for one of the 1984 Hall of Fame Bowl squad that won nine games. He spent 36 years with the distinction of the last UK quarterback to beat both Florida and Tennessee in his career until Terry Wilson accomplished the feat in 2020.
Craig Yeast
Yeast still holds the school record for career receiving yards (2,899), catches (208), touchdown catches (28) and kickoff return touchdowns (three); single-season records for touchdown catches (14) and 100-yard receiving games (seven) and single-game records for catches (16) and receiving yards (269) 25 years after playing his final game as a Wildcat. He held the record for single-season receiving yards until Wan’Dale Robinson broke it in 2021. Yeast still ranks seventh in SEC history in career catches, ninth in touchdown catches and 11th in receiving yards.
Moe Williams
Williams’ 1995 season remains the best by a UK running back in program history with 1,600 yards and 17 touchdowns. No other UK player has rushed for even 1,500 yards in a season. Williams still ranks third in program history in career rushing yards (3,333) despite recording at least 119 fewer carries than the two players ranked ahead of him. He recorded three of the top four single-game rushing performances in program history, including a school-record 299 yards against South Carolina in 1995. Williams went on to a 10-year NFL career after leaving UK.
Wesley Woodyard
The first of the Brooks era players to become eligible for jersey retirement, Woodyard tallied at least 100 tackles in three consecutive seasons, leading the SEC in tackles as a senior. He led Kentucky in tackles in back-to-back bowl wins in 2006 and 2007 and was twice named first-team All-SEC. Despite going undrafted, Woodyard spent 12 seasons in the NFL.
This story was originally published June 26, 2023 at 7:15 AM.