Receiver among the positions Kentucky needs transfer help after spring practice
Kentucky football added 20 transfers to its roster in time for spring practice, but the rebuild is not finished.
“I feel good about the roster,” head coach Mark Stoops said Saturday after UK’s Spring Showcase. “There’s a few areas where I’d love to get a couple guys.
“You need to have the depth. You need to be able to function and practice.”
Saturday’s abbreviated public scrimmage — the score was not kept and there was no tackling to the ground — represented the end of spring practice for the Wildcats, but Stoops emphasized the work is not stopping.
Players and coaches will be back in the football facility Monday to begin the next phase of the offseason strength and conditioning program and conduct post-spring practice interviews. Those interviews will be important for Stoops to gain a firm grasp on his scholarship numbers in advance of the transfer portal reopening on Wednesday.
The SEC has elected to remain at the current 85-man scholarship limit for 2025, even if the NCAA’s House settlement is approved in the coming days as expected. That settlement eliminates scholarships in favor of roster limits. Football’s limit would be 105, including walk-ons.
Kentucky would be at 86 scholarships in the fall if all the remaining high school signees make it to campus, so at least one defection will be needed to reach the SEC’s limit.
“We’re still working through lost roster limitations and what that number is going to be next year,” Stoops said. “So there’s still some moving pieces. I think I’d like to keep intact the nucleus of what we have here. … Just for numbers alone, with the attrition, you know that there’ll be some people going to portal. There has to be. And then, depending on that, we’ll work through bringing some guys in.”
The latest on Tru Edwards
One player not included in the 86 current scholarships is Louisiana Tech wide receiver transfer Tru Edwards, who committed to UK in December.
The 2024 season was expected to be his last year of college eligibility, but after catching 85 passes for 989 yards and six touchdowns for Louisiana Tech he was handed a possible route to another college season when Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia successfully sued the NCAA to not count his junior college seasons against his Division I eligibility. Edwards committed to UK after the NCAA announced it would not count junior college seasons for any player whose eligibility otherwise would have expired in 2024 in the wake of the Pavia ruling, but he did not enroll at UK in January while it was still unclear if he would qualify for the waiver.
Without addressing Edwards by name since he is not yet on the roster, Stoops confirmed Saturday he had received additional information about a pending eligibility situation for a recruit resulting from the junior college waiver. The Herald-Leader has been told by multiple sources it does not appear the waiver will apply to Edwards because he first enrolled in college a year before Pavia and has already been on a Division I roster for four seasons.
Without Edwards and with scholarship wide receivers Fred Farrier, J.J. Hester, DJ Miller and Preston Bowman unavailable for the spring showcase due to injuries, Kentucky’s quarterbacks did not have many options to throw to in the scrimmage. Expect wide receiver to be a position where Kentucky adds another transfer during the spring window.
“I say 90% of our team is already put together,” recruiting coordinator Vince Marrow told the Herald-Leader earlier this week. “You always want to upgrade if somebody becomes available. If somebody is good, I think maybe one or two players (will be added).
“… Our defense is pretty, pretty stout and set. On offense, you could use another running back, you could use another receiver, another tight end, but the core of certain positions are good. Just needs some depth.”
WHAT HAPPENS AT RUNNING BACK?
The most interesting position to watch for both incoming and outgoing transfers in the spring window for Kentucky might be running back.
UK added Nebraska transfer Dante Dowdell in December, and during the abbreviated scrimmage he at least looked the part of the physical runner Kentucky lacked last season after Ohio State transfer Chip Trayanum was sidelined due to an injury. Redshirt freshman Jason Patterson again split first-team reps with Dowdell on Saturday, as he did in a practice open to reporters earlier this spring.
For now, sophomore Jamarion Wilcox, UK’s best big-play offensive threat last season, looks to be third on the depth chart as he continues to work to master the playbook.
“He’s a great young man that’s trying, and it’s our job to continue to develop, to continue to bring him along and make him accountable,” Stoops said. “Those are the things that we talked about as well, right? The little things not getting big and taking care of all the details that it takes. And he’s grown.”
Despite his inconsistent role last season, Wilcox elected to stay at UK through the winter transfer portal window. Will he make the same decision this spring when it looks like he has more work to do to earn a starting role?
Even if Wilcox stays at UK, the roster probably needs another running back for depth. Redshirt freshman Tovani Mizell is the only other scholarship running back on the roster and he has yet to prove healthy enough to compete for a featured role after tearing his ACL during his senior year of high school.
“I’ve seen growth in the run game all spring,” Stoops said. “We did a probably 100-play scrimmage where it was completely live (tackling). We got to see that, and we definitely made some strides, and need to continue to work on that. And I know that. We have to have that physicality and the ability to run the ball, to set up the play actions, and not being predictable, second and long, third and long, and all those things.”