Why one of Kentucky football’s most-hyped transfers is not on the spring practice roster
Kentucky football’s 2025 spring roster looks little like the one that took the field for UK’s 2024 regular season finale.
Of the 51 players on UK’s two-deep depth chart for the Louisville game, 27 have moved on via graduation, the transfer portal or the NFL draft. Kentucky has added 31 new players (20 transfers and 11 high school early enrollees) this spring.
But when UK unveiled its newcomers at a pre-spring practice media event Wednesday, one of the Wildcats’ most-hyped transfer additions was missing.
Louisiana Tech wide receiver Tru Edwards, who committed to UK on Jan. 13 is still waiting for the NCAA to grant his request for an additional year of eligibility and has not enrolled yet at UK. Kentucky was aware of the need to wait for a final ruling on his 2025 eligibility when it accepted his commitment, a source confirmed to the Herald-Leader.
“Nationally, some guys are working through what gets approved by the NCAA for these extra years and what does not,” UK coach Mark Stoops said Tuesday when asked about Edwards’ situation.
Edwards, who totaled 77 catches for 897 yards and six touchdowns last season, has already played six seasons of college football at Navarro College, Hawaii and Louisiana Tech, but has a case for an additional year of eligibility after the NCAA issued a blanket waiver in December for players who competed at “a non-NCAA school or one or more years” and otherwise would have exhausted their eligibility in 2024 to continue playing. That decision came in the wake of a federal judge in Tennessee granting an injunction for Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia to pursue an additional year of eligibility after he claimed his seasons of junior college football should not count against his NCAA eligibility.
The NCAA is appealing that ruling but elected to issue the waiver for the 2025 season while the case is being decided.
Like Pavia, Edwards spent two seasons at a junior college, but their cases are not identical. Pavia played at New Mexico Military Institute from 2020 to 2021, then spent three seasons in the NCAA at New Mexico State (2022-23) and Vanderbilt (2024). Edwards played two seasons at Navarro College (2019-20) but has already played four seasons of NCAA football at Hawaii (2021) and Louisiana Tech (2022). Edwards was only eligible to play for Louisiana Tech last season due to the NCAA’s waiver that essentially erased the 2020 season from all players’ eligibility clock who were on rosters during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since Edwards only appeared in three games at Louisiana Tech in 2022, he could count that season as a redshirt year if the NCAA agrees the latest junior college waiver applies to him.
“Adapt and deal with it,” Stoops said when asked about the Pavia ruling’s effect on the winter transfer portal market. “But for certain players, you would think it’s a no-brainer for them to get the year.”
While Edwards waits for his 2025 eligibility to be determined, Kentucky has added transfer wide receivers J.J. Hester (Oklahoma), Kendrick Law (Alabama) and Troy Stellato (Clemson) in time for spring practice. High school signees DJ Miller and Montavin Quisenberry also enrolled for the spring semester. UK returns scholarship wide receivers Ja’Mori Maclin, Fred Farrier and David Washington. Former Boyle County star Cole Lanter, who spent two seasons at UK from 2022 to 2023 before transferring to Gardner Webb, has also returned to the team.
The 23-year-old Edwards was more productive than all of those receivers last season though and would add another proven quantity to the position.
“So far, I feel very good about the group,” Stoops said of the receivers. “I just I like their attitude. They’re they’re tough, they’re experienced and they’ll be a great addition. Guys were out there this morning, and I just like their experience and their toughness. And I think it’s a very good group.”