When Kentucky’s football coaches are talking about the NFL, UK’s freshmen are listening
They might be new to college football, but they know their ultimate goal. That would be the NFL. That’s the dream.
It is Dane Key’s dream. Same for Kiyaunta Goodwin. Both are Kentucky football freshmen, early enrollees who just finished their first spring practice in Coach Mark Stoops’ program. Key was a star wide receiver at Frederick Douglass High School in Lexington. Goodwin was a star offensive lineman at Charlestown High School in Indiana, just across the river from Louisville. Both were heralded recruits.
Yet even before their first college game, both are getting a taste of the NFL right here, right now. And loving every minute of it.
“It’s amazing,” Goodwin said Tuesday. “It’s great actually.”
Rich Scangarello is one reason. Zach Yenser is another. Scangarello is UK’s new offensive coordinator; Yenser the Wildcats’ new offensive line coach. Last season, both were on Kyle Shanahan’s coaching staff with the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers. Scangarello was quarterbacks coach. Yenser was assistant offensive line coach.
You can talk about the color and pageantry of college football, about the storied rivalries and the passionate fan bases, but there is something different about bringing the NFL into the mix. Stoops did it last year when he hired Liam Coen from the Los Angeles Rams to be his OC. He repeated it this year when he hired Scangarello after Coen returned to the Rams.
Let’s just say it has gotten the Wildcats’ attention.
“It’s a great experience, because the NFL is my ultimate goal, hopefully the next step after this,” Key said Tuesday of working with Scangarello. “Just learning from him. He knows a lot of things, so just talking to him, going to break down film.”
It’s the same for Goodwin with Yenser, the Fort Thomas native who spent time learning as a graduate assistant at Troy under former UK offensive line coach John Schlarman before eventually making his way to the 49ers. Yenser spent three years in San Francisco working under offensive line coach Chris Forester.
And the 49ers just happen to have a mammoth (6-foot-5, 320 pounds) perennial Pro Bowl offensive tackle in Trent Williams, who happens to be a personal favorite of Goodwin, himself a mammoth tackle prospect (6-8, 355 pounds).
“Trent Williams is my favorite offensive tackle in the league,” Goodwin said. “So having two guys who worked with him, I’m able to ask them a lot of questions about some things that make him as great as he is.”
Goodwin said he has been able to talk to Williams directly and ask him questions. Being taught by coaches who have such knowledge of Williams is an invaluable plus.
“Obviously, I’ve watched a lot of (Williams’) film and stuff, trying to bring as much of his game to mine,” Goodwin said. “But having two guys that worked with him the last couple of years is amazing.”
Same for not only Key, but his teammates. This spring, Kentucky’s tight ends have talked about 49ers All-Pro tight end George Kittle. Various Cats have talked about San Francisco fullback Kyle Juszczyk. New UK wide-out Tayvion Robinson said he has been studying Deebo Samuel, the 49ers’ ultra-versatile wide receiver/running back.
“(Scangarello) says he he can see a lot of guys that he coached in the NFL that he can see in me,” Key said. “So I just want to learn from him and pick up things that he can see already. Just learn each and every day that I come to this facility and try and get better.”
By all reports, Key was a spring standout. He’s young and learning, of course, but he has a chance to make an early impact. Goodwin has all the tools to be a future star at a position where UK is replacing tackles Darian Kinnard and Dare Rosenthal, players expected to hear their names called at the NFL Draft on April 28-30.
One day, a pair of new Cats want to be in that same spot.
Said Key, “It’s a great experience to get ready for the next level.”
