The transfer portal is open. Kentucky football needs help at these positions for 2025.
Just more than a week into the offseason, Kentucky football’s 2025 roster already looks dramatically different than the one that took the field for the season-ending loss to Louisville.
UK signed 21 high school seniors last week, including two signing day commitments who essentially replaced two late decommitments in the class. While the transfer portal does not officially open to nongraduates until Monday, 14 scholarship Wildcats and one contributing walk-on have already announced their intention to transfer. Possible first-round pick Deone Walker joined the exodus by declaring for the NFL draft Friday.
Graduate transfers have already entered the portal, allowing them to be contacted by other schools, but the bulk of the available transfers will do so starting Monday. That means the next phase of roster construction for Mark Stoops and his staff will begin then.
There is an argument to be made that Kentucky needs at least one transfer at every position, but even with the program’s NIL collective budget believed to be starting the offseason in a strong position for luring top talent and the NCAA expected to begin allowing schools to share revenue directly with athletes next season, there will be a budget for possible additions, so some positions will need to be prioritized over others.
Here is a look at the most important areas for Kentucky to add starter-caliber transfers before the spring semester starts in January.
Offensive line
Considering Kentucky’s offensive line performed like one of the worst in the country throughout the 2024 season, this was always going to be the first focus for portal additions. Add in the loss of three starters who exhausted their eligibility (center Eli Cox, left tackle Marques Cox and right tackle Gerald Mincey), and the need for multiple additions becomes even clearer.
“We need some depth at center,” Stoops said before the season finale. “Obviously losing Eli is a big piece of it. He has been really steady for us. It is no mystery that we need some help at tackle. Inside, Jager (Burton), Jalen (Farmer) Aba (Selm) and Dylan (Ray) are all guys that have played good football for us (at guard). We need to go get some help at tackle for sure.”
UK does return tackle Malachi Wood, who started down the stretch after a season-ending injury to Mincey, but he still looks at least a year away from being a legitimate starter in the SEC. For now, the Wildcats need at least two tackles and a center who can enter spring practice as the favorites to start in 2025. A few more depth linemen could be useful as well.
Former Western Carolina tackle Derek Simmons, a multi-year starter, has reported a scholarship offer from Kentucky already. The top available tackle in the portal might be former Rice Owl Ethan Onanwa, but he could draw interest from every top program in the country.
After Mincey, and USC transfer Courtland Ford before him, did not pan out as offensive tackle portal additions for Kentucky, expect the bulk of the targets to be from the Group of Five conference level. That strategy worked with the addition of Marques Cox from Northern Illinois in 2023, so the staff is believed to be prioritizing proven quantities from smaller schools rather than formerly hyped high school recruits who barely played at power conference schools.
Quarterback
We have yet to hear announcements from Brock Vandagriff or Gavin Wimsatt about their 2025 plans, but at this point it would be a surprise if either quarterback is on UK’s roster after freshman Cutter Boley was handed the starting job for the finale. UK coaches have made it clear they plan to build around Boley, but they cannot afford to go into 2025 with freshmen Stone Saunders and Brennen Ward as the only options to push him and provide depth.
A veteran transfer quarterback is needed. Do not expect that addition to be nearly as hyped as Kentucky’s last two transfer quarterbacks (Devin Leary in 2023 and Vandagriff in 2024), but he needs to be someone the staff thinks can win SEC games if Boley is not ready to start.
Finding a transfer who is willing to sign with Kentucky without a guarantee of a starting job might be difficult though. Most transfer quarterbacks are players who were blocked on the depth chart at power conference schools looking for a clear path to the field or Group of Five starters looking to prove themselves against tougher competition.
It will be fascinating to see how Stoops and offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan thread that needle.
Edge rusher
After six seasons at UK, outside linebacker J.J. Weaver has played his last college game. His top two backups, sophomores Tyreese Fearbry and Noah Matthews have announced plans to enter the portal. Freshman edge rusher Caleb Redd reportedly followed them into the portal Monday morning.
That leaves three class of 2024 high school recruits as the only scholarship outside linebackers on the roster. From that group, Steven Soles looked like a player with the potential to blossom into an impact pass rusher as a freshman but recorded just one tackle in the final five games. Soles’ classmate, Jacob Smith, is a former four-star recruit but redshirted during his first year on campus and remains an unknown quantity at the college level.
With coaches looking set on playing Alex Afari at inside linebacker in 2025, this is another position where multiple starters might be needed. The presence of four-star signee Cedric Works in the 2025 high school class could help, and Kentucky could manipulate the defensive scheme to where multiple outside linebackers are not on the field at the same time often.
UK ranked 65th nationally in sacks per game, and it appears likely the defense will only return three of the team’s 24 sacks last season. There’s no way to feel good about the defense entering the season without an addition that can help the pass rush.
Wide receiver
After losing both Dane Key and Barion Brown to the transfer portal, Kentucky will be in the market for starting wide receivers again. The Wildcats did receive some good news when senior Ja’Mori Maclin announced he would use his 2020 COVID waiver to return to UK next season, but he is the only proven quantity in the wide receiver room and is coming off a season when he was an afterthought in the game plan for much of the year before emerging down the stretch when injuries to Brown and Key provided more opportunity.
Hardley Glimore should move into a starting role in year two in the program, and at least one of the 2025 high school wide receiver signees will be needed to play immediately. But UK lost another option for an expanded role when backup Anthony Brown-Stephens announced he was entering the portal.
Kentucky will at least be able to sell opportunity to transfer receiver targets, but this looks like a situation where the collective might have to overpay to convince a proven quantity to join a team with an unsettled quarterback situation coming off a year where it ranked 111th nationally in passing yards per game. The loss of wide receivers coach Daikiel Shorts to Nebraska will make recruiting this position even more challenging during the winter portal window.
If the staff wants to use previous connections to pursue a receiver, former Wildcat and Lexington native Dekel Crowdus announced he will be transferring again after totaling 16 catches for 402 yards and four touchdowns in nine games in his only season at Hawaii.
Tight end
Former starter Jordan Dingle and backup Khamari Anderson are both planning to transfer after a season that saw the tight ends rarely targeted in the passing game because they were needed to help the offensive line as extra blockers.
Tight ends coach Vince Marrow did reveal on signing day he expects starter Josh Kattus back, even though Kattus’ younger brother flipped his high school commitment from UK to Clemson. Willie Rodriguez offers another tight end to build around after impressing as a freshman, and four star tight end Mikkel Skinner is one of the highest-rated signees in the 2025 high school class.
But the physical beating tight ends can take in the SEC, makes it impossible to feel good about having just three scholarship options at the position. At least one transfer tight end will be needed. If Kentucky can add a proven pass-catcher at tight end, it would lessen the burden on the wide receiver addition as well.
This story was originally published December 9, 2024 at 6:30 AM.