First Scouting Report: Devin Leary’s initial game as UK QB will be against an angry foe
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An early look ahead to Kentucky’s 2023 football season opener:
The opponent
Kentucky (7-6 overall, 3-5 SEC in 2022) will open its 2023 season against Mid-American Conference foe Ball State (5-7, 3-5 MAC) on Sept. 2 at Kroger Field.
Coach Mike Neu’s Cardinals figure to enter 2023 with the proverbial chips on their shoulders. After starting this season 1-3, Ball State won four of its next five games and stood at 5-4 — one victory short of bowl eligibility — with three games left in the season.
But the Cardinals’ postseason aspirations were snuffed out by a three-game losing skid to end 2022 — a 28-21 loss at Toledo, a 32-18 defeat to Ohio, and a heart-breaking 18-17 loss to Miami (Ohio).
Since defeating Indiana 27-20 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis in 2011, Ball State has lost 13 straight games vs. Power Five conference foes.
Series history
Most recent meeting
In his first career start in place of a benched Jared Lorenzen, Kentucky quarterback Shane Boyd completed 15 of 22 passes for 215 yards and two touchdowns and Chad Scott ran for 119 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries as Kentucky defeated Ball State 28-20 on Sept. 8, 2001, at the venue then known as Commonwealth Stadium.
The victory snapped a nine-game UK losing streak.
It was the first win for Guy Morriss as Kentucky head coach.
Know your foe
1. Devin Leary, the North Carolina State transfer expected to be Kentucky’s starting quarterback next season, will likely not be the only veteran QB debuting with a new school in the 2023 season opener.
At the early signing date, Ball State announced the addition of graduate transfer quarterback Layne Hatcher. The 6-foot, 210-pound Hatcher will be playing for his fourth college team and, if he is Ball State’s QB1, starting for his third.
Last season at Texas State, Hatcher threw for 2,653 yards and 19 touchdowns vs. 10 interceptions.
In the three seasons prior to 2022, Hatcher was the Arkansas State QB and threw for 7,427 yards and 65 TDs with 25 picks.
For his career, Hatcher has thrown for 10,080 yards with an 84-35 ratio of TDs-Ints.
Hatcher spent the 2018 season as a redshirt at Alabama.
2. In 2023, Ball State will be without its biggest 2022 star.
This past season, sophomore running back Carson Steele went over 100 yards rushing in nine of Ball State’s 12 games. The 6-1, 215-pound back finished the season with 1,556 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns.
Steele also got attention for his pet — an alligator he named “Crocky J.”
However, Steele has entered the transfer portal and will be playing for a team other than Ball State in 2023.
3. Ball State has begun to dip its toes into the Central Kentucky recruiting pool. In the just-concluded early-signing period, the Cardinals added a pair of familiar names to local high school football followers.
Woodford County’s Tristan Cook, a 6-5, 300-pound offensive lineman, and Frederick Douglass’s T.J. Horton, a 5-10, 200-pound running back, each signed with Ball State.
They will join freshman inside linebacker Caden Johnson, a 6-2, 230-pound Frederick Douglass product, on the Cardinals’ roster.
This story was originally published December 31, 2022 at 3:19 PM.
