After a bye week, Kentucky football could have one of its preseason stars available again
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Kentucky football might not have played a game last week, but there was still a development that could be important for the Wildcats’ offense going forward.
Freshman wide receiver Hardley Gilmore, one of the most consistent targets of praise from UK coaches during spring practice and the first weeks of preseason camp, was able to practice during the bye week, according to pictures posted to UK’s social media accounts. Gilmore did not play in the first five games due to an injury he suffered toward the end of UK’s first preseason scrimmage.
After the injury, UK coach Mark Stoops told reporters he expected Gilmore to miss at least the first half of the season. A return for UK’s Saturday game against Vanderbilt would be close to that timeline, but there is an argument to be paid for holding Gilmore out longer.
He can appear in up to four regular-season games this season and still redshirt, but with seven games remaining, Stoops made it clear preserving a year of eligibility will not be part of the consideration when Gilmore returns.
“If he’s good enough to play, if he’s going to help us, we’ll play him,” Stoops said Monday. “We’ll see how that goes.”
It should come as no surprise that UK coaches would be eager to reinsert Gilmore in the lineup as soon as he is back to full strength.
After all, coaches have already signaled a willingness to play freshmen exclusively on special teams or in small roles on offense and defense in the transfer portal era rather than worry about preserving a redshirt that would only impact their availability in 2028.
And no freshman on the roster garnered more praise before the season than Gilmore.
“He is, in my opinion, as complete a young receiver as I’ve been around from a standpoint of he’s got top-end speed, he’s a good route runner, he’s tough, he’s physical,” offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan said after Gilmore’s injury in camp. “There’s just a lot of things there. Every once in a while you get these freshmen and they don’t even recognize the lights. They don’t know if it’s big lights, small lights, what it is. They’re just excited to be in the SEC at a place like Kentucky playing for Coach Stoops. He kind of had that vibe.
“There was no, ‘Oh man, I’ve got to save myself for a long year.’ He knew one speed. When we get him healthy, if he can consistently take that mindset, I think the world of Hardley Gilmore.”
A four-star prospect according to the 247Sports Composite, Gilmore graduated early from Pahokee High School in Florida. He received a waiver from the NCAA to join Kentucky even earlier than the rest of the mid-year enrollees, before the Wildcats’ Gator Bowl matchup with Clemson.
While Gilmore was not eligible to play in the bowl game, being able to participate in pre-bowl practices helped give him a leg up for spring practice. It did not take long for him to begin receiving some first-team reps in a wide receiver group that returned only three scholarship players from its 2023 rotation.
“One of the best high school juniors who is a college freshman that I’ve been around,” Hamdan said during spring practice. “There’s just something about him and his approach to how he works and practices.”
One spring play immediately jumped out to Hamdan.
Running an out-breaker route near the sideline, Gilmore caught the ball and turned up field.
“Ninety-nine percent of guys would have ran out of bounds, but he stuck his foot in the ground, pushed vertical and got extra yards for us,” Hamdan said. “I just think his talent level with the way he works and the type of person he is, if he can keep that combination going he’s going to be an exciting player for us for a long time.”
Even defensive coordinator Brad White, who is normally reluctant to talk about offensive standouts in interviews, called Gilmore “an unbelievable addition.”
New UK wide receivers coach Daikiel Shorts did not recruit Gilmore when he was in his previous job at Houston, but he quickly heard from other contacts in the coaching profession, including his brother, former Pitt wide receivers coach Tiquan Underwood, about Gilmore’s potential.
“Hardley is just a remarkable kid, if I’m being honest,” Shorts said. “His parents did a great job with him. He’s very fun to coach. He’s got a lot of swag and charisma with him. His talent — the sky is the limit for him.
“One thing about Hardley is he works hard. Every play he goes 100%. If you told him to run 10 routes in a row, he’ll run 10 routes in a row the best he can.”
That work ethic will be needed for Gilmore if he is to make an impact for an offense that appeared to find a groove in recent weeks without him.
The passing attack has improved since a Week 2 loss to South Carolina, but even in the upset of Ole Miss 13 of quarterback Brock Vandagriff’s 18 completions went to wide receivers Dane Key and Barion Brown. Starter Ja’Mori Maclin, one of just 25 players with at least 1,000 receiving yards last season at North Texas, has caught no more than two passes in a game this season.
Gilmore will likely first slot into a backup role behind Key, Brown and Maclin, joining Anthony Brown-Stephens and Fred Farrier to add depth for Hamdan’s offense. While he did not suit up for the game, Gilmore did make the trip to Oxford. The fact that Stoops was willing to use one of the travel roster spots on an unavailable freshman suggests he saw benefit in Gilmore experiencing a road SEC environment to prepare him for tests later in the season.
And while Stoops made an effort to pump the breaks on the growing hype for Gilmore on the first day of preseason camp, that ship had sailed by the time of his injury. In the same scrimmage where he was sidelined, Gilmore was one of the first players singled out for praise by Hamdan.
“He just goes out there and does his job,” Vandagriff said that day. “And for a freshman to be able to come out there and learn the playbook as fast as he did and be able to impact the team as fast as he does, really important.”
This story was originally published October 8, 2024 at 7:00 AM.
