Eleven of UK football’s 2025 departed transfers are starting for new teams
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Eleven former Kentucky players from 2024 now start for other Division I teams.
- Wideouts Brown and Key lead productive seasons at LSU and Nebraska in 2025.
- Kentucky’s retooled lines rank top 30 nationally in rushing and sacks allowed.
Wherever one lays the blame for Kentucky football’s 4-8 slog through 2024, the primary issue does not appear to have been lack of talent.
With Mark Stoops and UK having an open date this week, I checked in on all 29 players who exited the Kentucky program after last season via the transfer portal.
Interestingly, there are 11 who played for UK a season ago and are now starting for new NCAA Division I teams this year.
To no one’s surprise, former Kentucky standout wideouts Barion Brown and Dane Key are putting up impressive numbers at their new stops.
A third former UK wide receiver — one who barely played in Lexington — is also turning in a strong showing for a different school this season.
In what is a surprise, two offensive linemen who were not full-time starters last season on a Kentucky offensive front that struggled are now first-string tackles at other power conference schools.
Conversely, one long-time Kentucky starter is currently stuck on second string at his high-profile new stop.
Barion and Dane thriving
Through three games, the most impressive season being turned in by a 2025 outgoing UK transfer is Brown’s at LSU.
Facing a schedule that has featured a road game at Clemson and an SEC matchup with Florida, Brown has caught 15 passes for 145 yards to help Brian Kelly’s Tigers (3-0) rise to No. 3 in the AP Top 25 poll.
Brown has also returned three kickoffs for an average of 27.7 yards each.
As Nebraska has entered the season with a soft non-league schedule of Cincinnati, Akron and Houston Christian, Key leads the Cornhuskers in receiving yards (190) and touchdown catches (three) and is second in receptions (13).
Former UK backup slot receiver Brandon White, now playing for Hawaii, has helped the Rainbow Warriors start 3-1 — with a win over Stanford. The 5-foot-8, 170-pound White has caught 12 passes for 111 yards.
Ex-Kentucky offensive lineman Courtland Ford is starting at left tackle for struggling UCLA (0-3). Former Cat Dylan Ray is starting at right tackle for Minnesota (2-1).
Gavin Wimsatt, the former Owensboro High School star, was used primarily as a change-of-pace running quarterback at UK last season. This year, Wimsatt is the starting QB for Jacksonville State.
Through three games, Wimsatt is completing 56.9 percent of his passes for 369 yards and one touchdown vs. two interceptions. He has also run for 166 yards and three TDs for the Gamecocks (1-2).
Conversely, KeeShawn Silver, who started for most of two seasons at nose guard for UK, is now a second-string defensive tackle at Southern California. Silver has made three tackles so far for USC.
Ex-Cats vs. the Cats
Kentucky has already played this season against two players who were wearing UK blue and white last year.
Ex-Cats running back Chip Trayanum ran for 41 yards for Toledo in the Rockets’ 24-16 season-opening loss to UK. Through three games, Trayanum has rushed for 248 yards and four TDs and caught six passes for 55 yards and one score for Toledo (2-1).
Former Kentucky tight end Tanner Lemaster caught two passes for 16 yards for Eastern Michigan (0-3) in EMU’s 48-23 loss to UK last Saturday night. On the season, Lemaster has made five receptions for 69 yards.
When the Cats return to action Sept. 27 at South Carolina, they will see another old friend. Former UK starting tight end Jordan Dingle is using his final season of college eligibility playing for Shane Beamer.
In the Gamecocks’ 31-7 home loss to Vanderbilt Saturday, Dingle caught three passes for 43 yards. Those were the former Bowling Green star’s first receptions of the season.
Defensive linemen move ‘down’
At least three defensive linemen who were Kentucky backups in 2024 have found starting spots in 2025 by transferring “down” the college football food chain.
Darrion Henry-Young is listed co-first team defensive end at Coastal Carolina. Henry-Young has been credited with three tackles so far in 2025.
At Delaware, end Noah Matthews has made six tackles, a tackle for loss and recorded a quarterback hurry.
An undersized reserve in his UK days, former Boyle County star Tommy Ziesmer has found his niche at Eastern Kentucky of the FCS. The 6-2, 296-pound redshirt sophomore has 13 tackles, a sack and a fumble recovery as EKU’s starting nose tackle.
Did UK come out ahead?
Whether by design or due to circumstance, Kentucky appeared to reallocate its roster-building resources from the perimeter in 2024 to the interior for 2025.
Rebuilt via transfers, the Kentucky offensive line stands 26th in the country this week in sacks allowed, having surrendered only three. Buoyed by transfer running backs Seth McGowan and Dante Dowdell, the Cats are 29th in the FBS in rushing (214.7 yards a game).
Led by transfers David Gusta (nose guard) and Mi’Quise Humphrey-Grace (end), the UK defensive front has been the strength so far of the 2025 Wildcats’ defense.
The sample size is small. Still, even having lost 11 players who are starting elsewhere, it seems possible Kentucky has come out ahead overall from its 2025 transfer portal churn.
