Kentucky football: Three takeaways after second scrimmage of fall camp
Three takeaways from Kentucky football’s media opportunity after the Wildcats’ second closed scrimmage of fall camp:
1. Kentucky sells out season football tickets
With UK’s opener Sept. 2 against Ball State two weeks away, the school announced Friday that season tickets are sold out for home games at Kroger Field.
The allotment of 40,200 season tickets are sold, as well as the 6,500 student passes. The season-ticket sales number is the most since Mark Stoops became UK’s coach in 2013.
“It means an awful lot,” Stoops said Saturday. “Greatly appreciate the support. We always do. It affects the game. It affects recruiting. The atmosphere when this place is full-tilt it’s a blast to play in. Our players really feed off that. We’ve always had great support and we continue to get that and we thank them.”
Kentucky has seven home games this season, including Ball State, Eastern Kentucky, Akron, Florida, Missouri, Tennessee and Alabama.
2. Freshman Ty Bryant in two-deep at safety
True freshman defensive back Ty Bryant is currently in the two-deep rotation at safety, Stoops said Saturday.
A star at Frederick Douglass High School in Lexington who committed to UK in August 2021, the 6-foot, 187-pound Bryant was an early enrollee who participated in spring drills.
“I’ve really been pleased with Ty,” Stoops said. “It’s nice that he was here in the spring. Not surprising, but he’s very coachable. He works extremely hard. He’s going to be good on special teams.
“He’s in the two-deep rotation at safety. You know that takes some work, through answering my questions through the years the challenge, we’re very multiple in what we do. And he’s been able to be pretty reliable for a true freshman.”
UK’s first depth chart won’t be revealed until the Monday before the opener against Ball State at Kroger Field.
3. It was a situational Saturday for UK in scrimmage
Stoops said the team worked on red zone, two-point, coming off the goal line, four-minute and two-minute situations.
“It was good,” the coach said. “Guys were energetic, focused.”
Stoops said the team would have a lighter practice on Sunday, then take Monday off for the first day of classes.
The coach said his team is “relatively healthy.”
Asked about the development of backup quarterback Kaiya Sheron, Stoops complimented his play Saturday.
“I thought he had a good day today, again with the situational work and the two-minute, in the red zone with some pressure I thought he did a good job. Getting better.”
Sheron started UK’s 24-14 home loss to South Carolina last season while Will Levis was nursing a foot injury. The sophomore from Somerset completed 15 of 27 passes for 178 yards with two touchdowns and an interception.
Asked who won Saturday’s scrimmage, tight end Josh Kattus said, “I definitely would say the offense did, but we both competed. The defense looked really good. The offense looked really good. That’s what it’s all about.”
Asked who won the scrimmage, linebacker Trevin Wallace said, “You know I’m going to say defense, obviously. I’m a defensive guy. But offense did real good. I like what I’ve seen.”
This story was originally published August 19, 2023 at 3:17 PM.
