Mark Stoops not surprised by any moves in transfer portal

When it was clear that Mark Stoops was returning to Kentucky in 2024 — he hit the ground running on the transfer portal trail.

Not content with how his offense executed Liam Coen’s schemes this season, Stoops has completely overhauled his offensive skill positions with four of the top 200 players in the early portal cycle — including a former five-star quarterback, a top-five running back and two plug-and-play wide receivers.

According to Stoops, Kentucky’s success isn’t that much of a surprise — and he’s not planning on slowing down before the transfer portal window closes.

“I mean, maybe a couple, but no — we’re working through a couple also, so we are not completely shut down,” Stoops said of his current state with the transfer portal. “There has been great communication there both ways. As I mentioned before, a lot of times there’s mutual [interest], and then some that are clearly not. You try to continue to work through and fight for them.

“But we are not totally done yet with all of that, but I feel very good about our additions. We’re not quite done there as well, so we’ll continue to work on that.”

The additions of former Georgia QB Brock Vandagriff, former Ohio State RB Chip Trayanum and wideouts Ja’Mori Maclin and Raymond Cottrell — both of whom have SEC experience — are all expected to play massive roles in UK’s efforts in 2023.

If Kentucky can keep wideouts Dane Key and Barion Brown out of the transfer portal, the Wildcats may have the deepest wide receiving corps on paper heading into next season. Add in Vandagriff under center and Trayanum in the backfield, not to mention multiple offensive linemen expected to return for 2024, the Wildcats have the potential to compete with any offense in the SEC in 2024.

Of course, Vandagriff is not proven despite his status as a two-time national championship winner. He was a backup in all three seasons he was at Georgia, although his best game this season was ironically against the Wildcats when he passed for 46 yards and a touchdown. Ultimately, he only completed 12 passes during his three-year career in Athens.

Still, he was highly recruited out of high school for a reason, and Stoops has put the pieces around him to make his job that much easier next year.

Before they get there, however, Kentucky has one more game to play in the Devin Leary era — the Gator Bowl against Clemson on Dec. 29.