In an uneven UK football season, you can count on No. 22 — no matter who is wearing it
When the Kentucky football program announced before the 2020 season that a different player would wear No. 22 in each game to honor stricken junior linebacker Chris Oats, UK defensive coordinator Brad White made a prediction.
“I know that the player that gets to wear (No. 22) is going to take great pride in wearing that,” White said.
Flash forward seven games. In an uneven Kentucky season in which no facet of the team other than Max Duffy’s punting has seemed reliable from week-to-week, one thing has been a stone-cold certainty.
The UK player honoring Oats by wearing No. 22 — whoever it is in that particular game — plays well every week.
A 6-foot-3, 232-pound junior from Cincinnati, Oats was projected to be Kentucky’s starting middle linebacker and one of the Cats’ best players in 2020.
Instead, a still publicly undisclosed medical affliction led to Oats reportedly being hospitalized and then spending months in a medical rehabilitation facility.
When Oats came to Kentucky’s Oct. 31 game with Georgia, he was in a wheelchair.
The goal in having a different player wear Oats’ No. 22 each week, Kentucky Coach Mark Stoops said earlier this season, is to “honor him and show him he’s still with us and we’re thinking about him.”
With Oats unable to perform on the football field this fall, it has been uncanny how well his teammates wearing his number have played for him.
In UK’s season-opening loss at Auburn, weakside linebacker DeAndre Square wore No. 22 — and tied for the team lead in tackles and made a crucial fourth-down stop that denied the host Tigers a first down.
For Kentucky’s home opener the following week against Mississippi, it was tight end Keaton Upshaw — Oats’ college roommate — wearing No. 22.
Upshaw snapped a four-game stretch without a catch (that reached back into 2019) by hauling in a Terry Wilson pass during UK’s 42-41 overtime loss.
Against Mississippi State in the season’s third game, middle linebacker Jamin Davis — the player who inherited the starting position that probably would have gone to Oats — wore No. 22.
As UK grounded Mike Leach’s Air Raid in a 24-2 win, Davis made 11 tackles, had a pass breakup and an interception.
In game four, Kentucky’s cathartic 34-7 beat down of border rival Tennessee that gave the Wildcats their first win in Knoxville since 1984, strongside linebacker Boogie Watson was the man in No. 22.
Watson recorded a season-high six tackles, had a quarterback hurry and a tone-setting, early-game sack that took Tennessee out of field goal range.
The following week yielded a dispiriting 20-10 upset loss at Missouri for UK but outside linebacker/rush end Jordan Wright, wearing No. 22, had a tackle for loss and four stops.
With Oats at Kroger Field to watch Kentucky face off with then-No. 5 Georgia, defensive end Josh Paschal donned the No. 22. In a 14-3 Cats loss, Paschal made four tackles and had a TFL.
In last week’s 38-35 shootout victory over Vanderbilt, it was running back Christopher Rodriguez in the 22.
All the redshirt sophomore did was set a college career high by rushing for 149 yards and two touchdowns on only 13 carries.
In what has been a trying season for Kentucky on many fronts, it has been uplifting watching how well the guys honoring Oats by wearing his number have played.
Wearing the No. 22 “was very emotional,” Square said after the Auburn game. “I had to control my emotions. … It’s good to honor (Oats). I had fun wearing his jersey.”
Said Paschal: “Everything we do is for (Oats) this season.”
The 22 is no longer the only number rotating among Kentucky players.
As offensive line coach John Schlarman’s two-year battle with cancer grew more dire last month, center Drake Jackson opted to wear No. 65 — Schlarman’s number as a UK player — in the Georgia game.
This past Saturday, only two days after Schlarman’s death at age 45, left tackle Landon Young was in the No. 65.
Young graded at 91 percent and led UK in knockdown blocks with 10. He did not miss an assignment, allow any sacks or pressures nor get penalized.
On Monday, the Lafayette High School alumnus was named SEC co-Offensive Lineman of the Week.
This Saturday, Kentucky will be a massive underdog at No. 1 Alabama.
A UK football publicist said Monday it was not clear yet which offensive lineman will wear No. 65 in Tuscaloosa.
We do know who will wear No. 22, however.
If the trend holds, Wetumpka, Ala., product Kavosiey Smoke will have a memorable return to his home state.
UK’s redshirt sophomore running back is slated to wear Chris Oats’ No. 22 Saturday in Tuscaloosa.
For Kentucky in 2020, we know the player wearing No. 22 — whoever it is — plays strong.
