Like Dane Key, Barion Brown will transfer from Kentucky for final college football season
After two offseasons spent fighting off rumored interest from powerhouse programs in Barion Brown, Kentucky football is finally losing the SEC record holder for career kickoff return touchdowns.
Brown announced Thursday he plans to enter the transfer portal when it opens Dec. 9. His departure comes one day after classmate Dane Key announced he was entering the transfer portal, meaning UK will have to replace its top two receivers from an anemic 2024 offense.
As soon as he arrived on campus in 2022, Brown’s talent was evident. He returned a kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown in his college debut and topped 100 receiving yards twice as a freshman, including 10 catches for 145 yards and one touchdown against No. 1 Georgia.
That breakout performance as a freshman led UK coach Mark Stoops to acknowledge publicly he had to fight off back channel interest from other programs to keep Brown and other members of the 2022 recruiting class on campus. While Kentucky was able to create an NIL package to keep Brown for two more seasons, his production never again matched his freshman year.
As a sophomore, Brown recorded seven fewer catches and 89 fewer receiving yards than his freshman season. The receiving production cratered even further in 2024 with just 29 catches for 361 yards and three touchdowns in 11 games.
Brown remained a dynamic kickoff returner throughout his UK tenure though, tying the SEC record with five kickoff returns for touchdowns. He scored 18 touchdowns in his career, 11 receiving, two rushing and five kickoff returns.
Often Brown’s moments of frustration and excitement were intertwined like in the upset win at Ole Miss when he killed a late drive with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty only to redeem himself with a 63-yard reception on fourth-and-7 that set up the game-winning touchdown. While coaches praised Brown for his maturation over three years at UK, there were still too many mistakes that one might expect from a freshman.
In the November loss at Texas that snapped UK’s eight-year bowl streak, Brown missed multiple opportunities for big plays that looked readily available due to mental mistakes.
“We all can do a better job of that, of getting that balance between getting excited to play a game but also play within ourselves and operate within what we are all capable of doing,” Stoops said when asked about Brown’s performance two days later. “That is something that I truly need to look at and reassess and make sure we are prepared. I think our guys get very excited. You have always heard me talk about playing with an edge and an attitude, but it comes down to disciplined execution all the time.
“I think we always need to be prepared and ready to play at a high level. It’s just how disciplined can we execute. That’s not just on him. That’s on everybody, myself and the whole group. We just need to do a better job of that.”
While Brown never quite panned out as the dynamic receiver he was hyped to be as a freshman, he leaves UK ranked 10th in program history in career receiving yards (1,528). With he and Key both leaving, Kentucky will have to be a major player in the wide receiver transfer market.
The remaining scholarship wide receivers on the roster are Ja’Mori Maclin, who has yet to announce if he will use his final season of eligibility to return to UK, Fred Farrier, Anthony Brown-Stephens, Brandon White, Hardley Gilmore and David Washington. Gilmore might have the highest ceiling of that group but missed much of his freshman season with an injury.
Maclin is a former 1,000-yard receiver at North Texas but was an afterthought in UK’s offensive game plan for much of the year. He did see his role expand down the stretch as Brown and Key battled injuries, so their departures might be a selling point for a larger role in 2025.
Kentucky signed five wide receivers in its 2025 high school class, led by four-star St. Louis native DJ Miller, who added some drama to signing day by delaying his signing until Thursday. Recruiting coordinator Vince Marrow pointed to three-star wide receiver signee Quintin Simmons as a player who could replace Brown’s kickoff return prowess.