At No. 2 on the depth chart, UK quarterback Beau Allen is in a favorable spot
Random notes:
▪ He did not win the competition to be UK’s starting quarterback, but Beau Allen is in a good position. The former Lexington Catholic star is in his second year in the program, but his first in Liam Coen’s offense. With Joey Gatewood departing, Allen will get all of the second team practice repetitions. He’ll have time to learn the ins and outs of the playbook. And, as the coaches like to say, he’s just one play away from stepping in and showing what he can do.
▪ With LSU transfer Dare Rosenthal running first-team at left offensive tackle, UK’s preseason All-American Darian Kinnard has moved back to right tackle. After years in which the NFL placed a premium on left tackles — the quarterback’s blind side — the league is now coming to the conclusion that right tackle may be just as important.
“That’s absolutely true,” Coen, a former assistant with the Los Angeles Rams, said Tuesday. “We had Rob Havenstein in Los Angeles, talk about money, got paid a lot of money to play right tackle.”
In 2018, Havenstein signed a four-year contract worth $32.5 million, including a $4 million signing bonus and $9 million guaranteed.
“It’s so important,” Coen said of the right tackle position. “Obviously, the left tackle is the money man, right. But you’re going to try and put matchups on the right tackle to get those one-on-ones. That guy’s got to be very strong and elite. I think Darian recognizes that. He knows he can play at a high level and play fast playing at right.”
▪ Will Levis may not have played a game in a Kentucky uniform yet, but the viral video of the quarterback eating a brown banana made the “Today Show with Hoda and Jenna” on Thursday. When the video finished, Jenna Bush Hager was holding her head in disbelief.
▪ Whether at UK’s open football practice or through the media, you may have seen those things on top of the players’ helmets. Those are soft-shell helmet guards that over 200 college football teams as well as NFL teams are now using in practice. The shells are used to reduce impact on helmet collisions.
▪ ESPN asked its experts for their best SEC football bets for 2021. Among them: Take the over on Kentucky’s projected 7.5 win total. Said Joe Fortenbaugh, “A 4-0 start is on the table with an opening month that features home games against Louisiana Monroe, Missouri and Chattanooga followed by a road date against a brutal South Carolina squad. Even if the Wildcats falter and open their 2021 campaign at 3-1, the schedule features very winnable matchups with Vanderbilt, New Mexico State and Tennessee, as well as Louisville and Mississippi State.”
▪ The early star of Kentucky’s football camp: Wide receiver Rahsaan Lewis, son of Ray. Good genes.
▪ Texas A&M’s recruiting has gone international. The Aggies have a commitment for 2023 from tight end Theodor Ohrstrom out of Sweden. Despite having never played football in the United States, the 6-foot-6, 250-pound Ohrstrom is ranked as the No. 2 tight end for 2023 by ESPN.
▪ During her introduction as Missouri’s new athletic director, Desiree Reed-Francois thanked trailblazer Debbie Yow for her help over the years. Kentucky’s women’s basketball coach from 1976-80, Yow served as athletic director at Saint Louis (1990-94), Maryland (1994-2010) and North Carolina State (2010-19) before retiring.
▪ The son of former UK running back star George Adams is now the NFL’s highest-paid safety. Hope the Seahawks’ Jamal Adams will share some of that $70 million, including $38 million guaranteed, with dear ol’ dad.
▪ While second-round pick Jackson Carman has struggled in the Cincinnati Bengals training camp, fourth-round pick D’Ante Smith has been a nice surprise. Carman is out of Clemson. Smith is out of East Carolina.
▪ If you missed it, former UK running back A.J. Rose rushed 25 times for 100 yards last Saturday to become the first Minnesota Viking to rush for 100 yards in a preseason game since Joe Banyard rushed for 111 yards on Aug. 28, 2014, against Tennessee.
▪ Congrats to former UK basketball assistant Leonard Hamilton, who is one of eight new members to be enshrined in the Florida State Athletics Hall of Fame.
