‘Everybody gotta be ready.’ Jason Patterson stepping up in UK run game
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Coaches promoted Jason Patterson late; he delivered increased carries and yards.
- Kentucky run game produced 11 of 20 touchdowns; McGowan had seven scores.
- Quarterback Cutter Boley advanced to starter role and set freshman passing records.
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Despite Seth McGowan being listed as a game-time decision on the SEC availability report, the Kentucky running back room didn’t know that its leading rusher would be unable to play in the team’s lopsided matchup against ranked Tennessee last week until they returned to the locker room after pregame warm-ups.
It was then that redshirt freshman running back Jason Patterson, typically third on the depth chart behind McGowan and junior back Dante Dowdell, was told it was his time.
“They told me I was up,” Patterson said. “And you’ve just got to be ready for the opportunity.”
Injuries have resulted in a bevy of issues for Kentucky football (2-5, 0-5 SEC), not exclusive to — but nevertheless impacting — scoring methods.
For the first time in a long time, at the start of the season, Kentucky’s tight end room was consistently producing, with Josh Kattus and Willie Rodriguez leading the team in touchdown receptions until Kendrick Law finally broke through in the final minutes of the team’s loss at Georgia (in Week 6) to give the wide receivers their first touchdown of the season.
Highly-praised, but initially injured, true freshman wide receiver DJ Miller didn’t see the field until UK’s overtime loss to Texas in Week 8, when he recorded two catches for 13 yards. The following week, against Tennessee, he posted a stat line of 120 yards and two touchdowns.
Most notably, head coach Mark Stoops and offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan chose to elevate redshirt freshman quarterback Cutter Boley to the top of the depth chart, overtaking veteran transfer Zach Calzada after the seventh-year senior sustained an injury late in the Week 2 loss to Ole Miss.
Though the offensive playbook doesn’t look terribly different with Boley under center, the unit has progressed; the young quarterback took preseason No. 1 Texas to overtime, and set a new program freshman record for single-game touchdown passes (five) against Tennessee last week.
Amid all the changes, Kentucky’s run game has scored the majority of the team’s touchdowns this year. Of the Wildcats’ 20 total touchdowns, 11 of them have been rushing scores, with McGowan responsible for seven of them.
McGowan has dealt with a series of minor injuries but has played in every game this season.
Every game, that is, until last week against Tennessee. McGowan exited the matchup against Texas during regulation due to injury, went to the hospital for a scan and returned to play later in the game.
But, just as with the receiving core and the quarterback room, the run game has its own developing, youthful weapon ready for more in Patterson, who has seen an increase in usage and production in light of McGowan’s injuries.
Patterson said running backs coach Jay Boulware has prepared his room to be ready for anything.
“He sets our room,” Patterson said. “And the demeanor is, ‘Everybody gotta be ready.’ He brought in them guys, and we competed all year long. And the objective in that room is to compete. Whenever your opportunity is up, you’ve got to take advantage of it.”
After recording 80 yards on 13 carries and his first career touchdown against Eastern Michigan in Boley’s first start, Patterson recorded just three yards on one carry against South Carolina, and zero carries — though two receptions for negative yardage — against Georgia. Patterson rushed for 20 yards on seven carries against Texas.
The Florida native’s career-high game of 51 yards for 16 carries, and an additional 44 yards on seven receptions, came against the Volunteers. The game also served as Kentucky’s highest-scoring game of the season against a power-conference foe, and its highest point total against an SEC opponent since a 45-28 victory at Vanderbilt on Sept. 23, 2023.
Kentucky may have recruited him as a big back capable of powering through to make plays (similar to how the team uses McGowan), but Patterson wants to adopt a multipurpose role where he demonstrates his ability to extend plays after Boley hits him with a pass, too.
“It’s something you have to adapt to coming to college,” Patterson said. “Having aspirations to go to the NFL, you gotta be able to catch the ball in the backfield. So that was something I had to work on when I first got here, and it’s been something that, ever since then, I realized that I knew I could catch, and something that now is kind of what I lean on.”
Patterson, who recorded 20 carries for a total of 111 yards across four games during his redshirt season last year, said he’s learned a lot from McGowan as he tries to make the most of his newfound opportunities this season with the Wildcats.
“Seth, he has taught me a lot,” Patterson said. “Learning from him has been different, just the things he had been through, through his life, what took him to get to this point. And how he’s been going about the season, the job he’s been doing, leading us. He’s a great guy, great leader. I love him. He’s continued to show me what I need to do to improve, to get better each and every week.”
Boley, who has repeatedly said throughout the season that he has confidence in his teammates to make plays, said Tuesday that “a lot of different guys are getting a lot of shots in the game,” including several underclassmen whose hard work is beginning to translate on the field.
When asked specifically about Patterson’s recent performance, Boley said Patterson has done an “incredible job of stepping up and filling a role.”
“I think we’ve always known the player (Patterson) was,” Boley said. “And what he could be. With Seth and Dante (Dowdell) getting a lot of reps, he wasn’t getting in there a ton at first. But now, just going throughout the SEC season, we’re gonna get dinks and bruises on everybody, and people are gonna be out for plays and stuff like that. So I’m incredibly proud of him for stepping up and making plays like he has when his name’s been called, for sure.”
Like Boley and Miller, Patterson is trying his best to be a sponge. He said he can see the progress he’s made from last season to this year, and that there’s potential that’s yet to be unlocked.
“I feel like there’s another gear that I can go to,” Patterson said. “Just a different step. But that’s just me taking that step. Me actually showing and putting that on film, putting that on the screen so everybody can see. But I do agree that I’m taking a harder approach to it.”
This story was originally published October 31, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
