After working construction at Kroger Field, Cole Lanter is back with UK football
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- Cole Lanter returned to Kentucky football after a brief transfer to Gardner-Webb.
- Lanter worked construction before rejoining the football team.
- A leg injury ended Lanter’s season, but he retains eligibility for future play.
The day before wide receiver Cole Lanter suffered a season-ending leg injury during Kentucky football’s Fan Day practice, the former Boyle County High School star’s spirits were high.
Lanter was back where he belonged, in a UK jersey after a season away from the team. It was a dramatic change from a year before when he was at Kroger Field but in a construction uniform working on signage around the stadium while his former teammates prepared for the 2024 season.
“I came to the game that Saturday to support my friends, my guys, and I sat up in the nosebleeds, and, like, brought me to tears,” Lanter said at UK’s preseason media day. “I was like, ‘What am I doing? Why did I leave?’ Like, I don’t know. Where’s God pulling me?”
Lanter originally committed to Kentucky as a preferred walk-on in 2022 after totaling more than 2,000 receiving yards and 35 touchdowns in four years at Boyle County. While he did not appear in a game in two seasons at UK, he did enough in practice for UK coach Mark Stoops to award him a scholarship before the 2023 season.
That winter, Lanter began to wonder if he would be better served transferring to a smaller school where he could contribute more on game days. He first entered the transfer portal in December but elected to return to UK for spring practice. He went back in the portal in April, this time signing with FCS Gardner-Webb.
Lanter made it to Gardner-Webb for preseason practices but quickly realized the greater chance to play was not worth leaving his dream school. He left Gardner-Webb and reenrolled at UK as a student in time for the 2024 fall semester.
But Lanter was no longer on the Wildcat football team. Looking for direction, he connected with the family of one of his former UK teammates to secure a job at Instant Signs in Lexington. His first assignment would take him back to Kroger Field to work on a banner just outside the football team’s practice facility.
“As they were walking out for the pregame run through, I was up in this bucket working on (the sign),” Lanter said. “It was funny.”
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Being so close to the team without being able to participate helped convince Lanter he was not done with football. After the season ended, he reached back out to Stoops, who was supportive of him rejoining the team for spring practice.
At the first team meeting following Lanter’s return, Stoops made sure to call him out in front of the team but chose to use his first name, Glendon, which only Lanter’s mother calls him.
“He got married about a month ago, probably felt like half the attendance was from the team,” UK quarterback Beau Allen said of Lanter. “It was cool. … He said there was one game this year where he was almost crying in the stands, how upset he was. He knew he should be playing again.”
Even prior to his season-ending injury, Lanter faced an uphill battle to earn a spot in what is expected to be a deep wide receiver rotation this fall.
Lanter had hoped to build on an encouraging performance in spring practice — that ended with a concussion after his first catch in the spring game — to earn a role in the 2025 offense, but he no longer judged his success based on snap count and receptions alone.
“I believed that I wanted to play football, but looking back on it, my dream was always to play here and to be a Wildcat, and I kind of let myself go early,” Lanter said. “… I just really wanted to wear the blue and white my whole life, because the name on the front is just as important as the name on the back to me.
“I went so far, earned a scholarship, did all these things, and then kind of just like, flushed it. The anger, frustration I had with myself kind of brought me back. But also the people.”
Lanter’s dream of playing for Kentucky isn’t finished yet. He should have at least one season of eligibility remaining after 2025 if he recovers fully from his injury.
“It’s really disappointing for him,” Stoops said. “He’s worked extremely hard. He’s a great young man, has worked hard and done a lot for this program, and I hate to see that for him.”
This story was originally published August 18, 2025 at 6:30 AM.