Why Hardley Gilmore says he left UK football, then returned during odd offseason
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Hardley Gilmore returned to Kentucky after brief, unfulfilled transfer to Nebraska.
- Gilmore likely to play key role in 2025 as Kentucky rebuilds wide receiver roster.
- Coaching ties and personal growth influenced Gilmore’s departure and reintegration.
Even in the era of constant roster turnover, it is generally easy to break down the different types of players on a college football roster.
There are returning players counted on for veteran leadership. There are incoming transfers needed to immediately fill holes on the depth chart. There are high school signees preparing to make their college debuts.
But for a 2025 Kentucky football roster where more than half the scholarship players will suit up for the Wildcats for the first time when the season opens Aug. 30, there is one player who is not easily categorized.
A glance at UK’s online roster makes sophomore wide receiver Hardley Gilmore look like one of the other 23 transfers added to the roster since the end of the 2024 season. Gilmore’s entry in the “former school” category on the roster says Nebraska, but Gilmore did not actually play for the Cornhuskers.
He played for Kentucky last season.
“I consider myself as a true Wildcat,” Gilmore told the Herald-Leader this week in a one-on-one interview, his first public comments since returning to Lexington this spring. “... I never consider myself as a transfer. If I’m being honest, I don’t think I even left.”
But Gilmore did technically leave.
A consistent target of praise from UK coaches leading up to his debut season in 2024, Gilmore caught six passes for 153 yards and one touchdown as a freshman. He missed most of the first half of the season with a collarbone injury suffered during a preseason scrimmage. All six of his catches came in the last five games.
The encouraging finish to the season appeared to position Gilmore as a player to build around for the offense, especially after star wide receivers Barion Brown and Dane Key entered the transfer portal. But on the final day of the December portal window, Gilmore surprised by joining the winter exodus from the roster.
He ultimately followed Key and Dakiel Shorts, his position coach at UK as a freshman, to Nebraska.
It was the relationship with Shorts that led to the decision, Gilmore told the Herald-Leader.
“I got recruited by (former offensive coordinator) Liam Coen,” Gilmore said. “When I first got here as a high school recruit, he left, and Coach Shorts came in. I built a tight bond with Coach Shorts, a relationship. And when he left, asked me, can I go with him?
“Just like a quick decision to go with him. And then when I got (to Nebraska), just wasn’t for me, and I came back.”
In April, Nebraska coach Matt Ruhl announced Gilmore had been dismissed from the team but told reporters Gilmore had done “nothing outside the program” that led to the decision.
“Nothing criminal or anything like that,” Rhule said, according to the Omaha World-Herald. “Just won’t be with us anymore.”
During Nebraska’s spring practice, Shorts had acknowledged in an interview that Gilmore had experienced “”growing pains” in adjusting to the demands of being a college athlete during his freshman season at Kentucky, according to the Lincoln Journal Star. He voiced confidence that Ruhl’s coaching style would provide needed structure and encouragement for Gilmore.
The combination of his dismissal at Nebraska and a misdemeanor assault charge resulting from an altercation at a storage unit in downtown Lexington in December led to some surprise from Kentucky fans when he was ultimately welcomed back to UK.
“I don’t think he really wanted to leave,” UK coach Mark Stoops said of Gilmore’s return when asked at SEC Media Days this month. “There’s sometimes things that happen that I don’t need to get into and speak for him. But I’ve always had a strong relationship with Hardley, and he has with our staff.
“He’s a great young man that’s young and that’s continuing to mature and continuing to get better, just like all of our players are to some level, right? And so we’re glad to have him. And he came back and fit right in and is trying to improve.”
Other than to reiterate that “it wasn’t for me,” Gilmore declined to elaborate on what led to his departure from Nebraska in the interview with the Herald-Leader, but he thanked Stoops and his teammates for welcoming him back to Lexington multiple times.
“I’m where I’m supposed to be,” he said. “I’m comfortable here. Everybody here is loving me. It’s just genuine love here. Just like, what I’m used to.
“... It was immediate (regret). There isn’t anybody like Coach Stoops to me. Like he’s not even a coach to me, just another dude that helped me during my life.”
Now that he has returned, Gilmore is likely to fill a featured role for the 2025 Wildcats.
UK’s spring roster included just three returning scholarship wide receivers, none of whom caught more than 13 passes last season. Kentucky added transfers Kendrick Law (Alabama), J.J. Hester (Oklahoma) and Troy Stellato (Clemson) in time for spring practice, but the team’s most productive winter transfer commitment at the position, former Louisiana Tech wide receiver Tru Edwards, was ultimately denied a waiver for an additional year of eligibility and elected to sign a professional contract as an undrafted free agent.
In addition to Gilmore, UK signed former SMU wide receiver Ashton Cozart as a transfer in the spring portal window. The roster includes five freshman scholarship receivers, led by spring standout DJ Miller.
“Of course, we were giving (Gilmore) a hard time, but I’m so happy to have him back,” tight end Josh Kattus said. “He’s a super talented young man, and he’s a great kid. I’m locker buddies with him because he’s right next to me. He’s doing great.”
Whether his brief departure ends up ultimately being a footnote in a productive Kentucky career or foreshadowing for future disappointment depends on what happens next for Gilmore.
The good news is even after missing spring practice he has quickly formed a close bond with Shorts’ Kentucky replacement, new wide receivers coach L’Damian Washington, who spent time as a motivational speaker talking about overcoming the loss of both his parents in childhood. That relationship will be important in Gilmore’s continued development on and off the field, as will the influence of veteran wide receivers Ja’Mori Maclin and Fred Farrier.
“(Washington) has been through a lot of adversity like me,” Gilmore said. “I would just say, I’ve been through a lot of adversity. He is walking me through the path, how to get through it, how to direct me through the path.”
While Gilmore has been a constant topic of conversation since he arrived on campus as a mid-year high school enrollee after the 2023 season, the frequent talk about his potential and impressive practice performances has yet to actually translate to much impact on the field. The transfer and return have only added to the chatter around a player still looking to prove himself as a consistent contributor.
That chatter has led to no shortage of opinions, positive and negative, about Gilmore among the online portion of Kentucky’s fan base. Now, Gilmore has a chance to actually replace the speculation with actual performance.
“I just want to play football, just be the best I can,” Gilmore said. “And outside of football, just want to better myself as a man. I want people to know that I’m a very outgoing person. I love to smile … always bringing happiness in the room. I would not let anything bring me down.
“I just want to be happy and just do this thing I love, to play football, take care of my family.”