In the ever-changing landscape of college football, the transfer portal has become as important, and for some schools, more important than high school recruiting. With coaching staff having to replenish their rosters every year, a strong transfer group is vital to success.
While most of the heavy lifting is done in the December portal, there’s a second season becoming nearly as big. Once Spring practice is over, many players generally unhappy with their spot on their current team look for a new home. For Mark Stoops and the Kentucky Wildcats, they looked to the second portal as a chance to add some needed players. Let’s take a look at who they brought in with Kentucky’s Spring Transfer Haul.
Cats Add Several Players At Positions Of Need
Finding A Home
Following the end of spring practice, running back was a definite position of need. Stoops and his staff believe they found a good one in Seth McGowan. It’s been a long trip for McGowan, who’s on his fifth school now. The former four-star recruit from Mesquite, Texas, started his career at Oklahoma. As a freshman, he put up some good stats playing for now Wildcat running back coach Jay Boulware. He ran for 370 yards and three touchdowns to go along with 13 receptions. However, in May 2021, he was charged with robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. After spending three months in jail, he didn’t play football in 2021. He played small college ball the next two years. Last season, he returned to Division 1 football at New Mexico State. He finished fifth in Conference USA with 823 yards to go along with three touchdowns. In addition, he hauled in 23 passes and three more scores. McGowan has a great chance at significant playing time. Nebraska transfer Dante Dowdell and Jason Patterson saw a majority of the carries in the spring. Jamarion Wilcox, the Cats’ leading rusher in 2024, was third on the depth chart while Tovani Mizell is recovering from a torn ACL.
Continuing on with Kentucky’s Spring Transfer Haul, let’s move to another position where the Cats got some help.
Restocking The Receivers
Since the end of last season, the Wildcats have lost close to 30 players. Five of those were wide receivers, including their top two pass catchers, Barion Brown and Dane Key. If that wasn’t enough, top transfer Tru Edwards of Louisiana Tech, who was having eligibility issues, signed a free agent deal with the Los Angeles Rams. While UK brought in a number of receivers in the winter, they still needed depth. Ashton Cozart was a four-star player coming out of Texas in 2023. Originally signing with Oregon, Cozart didn’t play for the Ducks and transferred to SMU. Appearing in four games, he hauled in one catch for 24 yards. In addition to Cozart, coach L’Damian Washington saw the return of a familiar face. Hardley Gilmore IV caught six passes for 153 yards and a touchdown. However, he followed former coach Dakiel Shorts and Key to Nebraska. However, after a few short months, he was kicked off the team and is back in Lexington.
Vince Marrow added to his tight end room with Elijah Brown, formerly of Florida Atlantic. He appeared in eight games, catching one ball for 22 yards.
Wrapping up Kentucky’s Spring Transfer Haul, let’s look at a couple of big guys up front.
You may remember that in 2021, the Kentucky offensive line was a finalist for the Joe Moore Award for the nation. That trophy goes to the nation’s best group. Unfortunately, over the last three years, offensive line play has been a major issue. The Cats during the first cycle. They’ve now added two more players up front. Cincinnati native Rob Folger spent two seasons at Ball State before transferring to Kentucky. He didn’t see any game action for the Cardinals. UK’s other addition comes from James Madison. Cameron Jones played in one game in two years. Both a redshirt sophomore and bring depth to a spot where it is needed. Kentucky has 15 offensive linemen, but only four were on the team last season.
Final Thoughts
While some of the recent commitments left the Big Blue Nation scratching their heads, there’s a reason why some of these guys are here. Kentucky is up to 85 players on the roster, and there’s a chance of having fewer walk-ons due to the NCAA House settlement; you simply have to have enough players to scrimmage.
Discussion about this post