Mark Stoops expresses belief in wide receiver group through spring

The Kentucky football team is looking to pick up where it left off offensively with former quarterback Will Levis, but it won’t be easy. The good news for the Wildcats is the wide receiver group is well-equipped to do so.

The three leading receivers are back in 2023, as well as the top five pass-catchers overall.

Despite a recent practice where the wind played tricks on the quarterbacks and receivers, coach Mark Stoops feels pretty good about the wide receiver group he’s got.

“I think, again, it’s hard to really judge it with the wind and just completing some footballs,” Stoops said. “But yeah we feel like we have a good nucleus of receivers, a good five, six guys. We obviously need some more for depth and practice purposes and development, but we feel good about our unit.”

There’s plenty enough production returning.

Leading receiver Barion Brown is back after hauling in 50 catches for 628 yards and four touchdowns. So too are Dane Key (37 catches for 519 yards and six touchdowns) and Tayvion Robinson (40 catches for 497 yards and three touchdowns).

Key was only a true freshman last year and already feels more comfortable now that he’ll have a full offseason to grow and develop where he knows what to expect.

“I’m just a more smart, physical football player from last spring to this year because I got a full offseason I was expecting,” Key said. “I wasn’t coming in blind a freshman out of high school. I wasn’t coming in blind to not knowing what I was going to do in the offseason. But now I know what I’m going to do and how more smart I can play and more physical I can play.”

Those three will be the primary wideouts for whoever takes the reins at quarterback, presumably NC State transfer Devin Leary.

Leary impressed Stoops with his ability to zip it in there, even in the windy conditions.

“I think you saw that today partly with the wind and getting the ball out quick,” Stoops said. “They were tight windows. I thought early on the completion he made to [Tayvion Robinson], there wasn’t a big window there. I was standing right behind it. It didn’t look open at all. It was a really nice throw. He threw it the only place it could be caught and T Rob made a nice catch and got some yards afterwards but those those had some zip on it. But if you floated them today, I don’t think you were gonna complete anything.”

In his last fully healthy season at NC State in 2021, Leary went 283-of-431 passing for 3,433 yards, with 35 touchdowns and just five interceptions.

With the right wide receiver group, Kentucky’s passing game certainly has the potential to pick up right where it left off.