Report: Chris Rodriguez pleads guilty to DUI charge

Kentucky star Chris Rodriguez pled guilty to a DUI charge at a Tuesday pre-trial hearing, according to Kentucky.com’s John Clay and Christopher Leach. The charge stems from a May arrest.

Rodriguez was arrested in May for careless driving and operating a vehicle while under the influence. He’ll pay a fine and had his license suspended for four to six months as part of the plea, according to Clay and Leach.

Rodriguez is getting ready for his fifth season at Kentucky after opting to come back for one last go-round. He posted a career-high 1,378 yards on the ground last year to go with nine touchdowns last year. In 32 career games, he has 2,739 yards and 27 touchdowns, while adding 15 receptions for 75 yards and three touchdowns in the air.

Rodriguez is a former three-star recruit was the No. 83 running back recruit in the country from the Class of 2018, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

More on Chris Rodriguez, potential suspension length

Kentucky running back Chris Rodriguez, one of On3’s Impact 300 Top 10 College RBs, has had a rough offseason away from the gridiron. He was arrested on May 8th for a DUI and careless driving in Lexington. After a miscommunication, no one appeared in court on his behalf. An arrest warrant for Rodriguez was then filed but later set aside.

Kentucky Sports Radio’s Matt Jones at one point described Rodriguez’s future at UK as “up in the air”. With that in mind, those following the program began to question when or if Rodriguez would rejoin the roster. In an update on the Wildcat running back, Nick Roush, KSR’s football beat writer, shared his own insight on the matter.

Per Roush, Rodriguez has recently been seen around the Wildcat’s training facility. UK football players are scheduled to come back this week to start summer training.

As far as missed time, he expects Rodriguez to debut at some point during the 2022-23 schedule. It just likely won’t be at the start of the season for Kentucky. First and foremost, he has legal matters to settle before the Wildcats open their season Sept. 3rd. Once that is resolved, a team suspension is likely to follow. In Roush’s opinion, he sees it being worth around four games.

On3’s James Fletcher III and Sam Gillenwater contributed to this report.