Brock Vandagriff can follow Mitch Barnhart and Logan Paul by using Ohio as a springboard

Ohio University has a lot to offer. Ask anyone from KSR’s radio show about it sometime. We had a fun Wednesday night out in Athens last December, with stops at The Pub, Jackie O’s, the Convocation Center for a basketball game, and Insomnia Cookies for Ryan Lemond’s late-night craving.

Or ask Kentucky’s own Mitch Barnhart, whose master’s degree in sports administration came from Ohio U. He’ll tell you the importance of his time in Athens and what it did for his career. Do you think he is the athletics director at the University of Kentucky without the education he received at Ohio University? Young Mitch probably even joined in on the fun at Ohio’s famous Halloween block party when he was a Bobcat. It’s a longstanding tradition there.

Lexington TV personality/UK fan Jennifer Palumbo also attended Ohio University, as did many other notable alums, such as the late actor/salad dressing mogul Paul Newman; the longtime voice of Bart Simpson, Nancy Cartwright; Philadelphia Phillies great Mike Schmidt; baseball broadcaster Thom Brennaman; sideline reporter Allie LaForce; and actor Ed O’Neill, who earned a football scholarship to Ohio, but left after his sophomore year before later becoming Al Bundy. O’Neill was great as Kevin O’Shea and Jay Pritchett, too.

Logan Paul also dropped out of Ohio University to chase a Hollywood dream. As a freshman, Paul found internet fame on the Vine app, launching his career as a star entertainer. Paul wrestled on scholarship at Ohio before his big breakout. I bet you didn’t know that.

On Saturday, Kentucky quarterback Brock Vandagriff can follow in the footsteps of Logan Paul, Mitch Barnhart, and Ed O’Neill by using Ohio University to launch his career. Ohio brings an opportunity to Lexington with its vulnerable defense riddled with injuries, giving Vandagriff his best shot to shine. The first-time starter struggled in his first two games against SEC competition as the Wildcats failed to reach the end zone in back-to-back games. Vandagriff completed 17 of 37 passes, a sub-50 completion percentage, in the losses.

Ohio doesn’t present nearly the challenge that Vandagriff saw from South Carolina’s pass rush or Georgia, so he can reset his confidence with a breakout performance in Saturday’s game. He needs to look more like he did against Southern Miss when he threw his only three touchdown passes as a Wildcat. Syracuse already proved it can be done against Ohio when Ohio’s defense gave up 354 passing yards and four touchdowns to the Orange in Week 1.

Holding an even better talent and home-field advantage than Syracuse, Vandagriff and UK’s offense need to tee off on Ohio, which allowed 29.0 points per game to Syracuse, South Alabama, and Morgan State in the first three weeks. Kentucky should score in the thirties, if not more, because new offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan and Vandagriff need to prove that they’re able to lead Kentucky to the end zone before heading out on the road for the first time next week.

Will Vandagriff play a breakout game on Saturday? I don’t know. I don’t know why I wrote so much about Ohio alums or why I tried to compare Vandagraff to Logan Paul, either. All I know is Kentucky needs to break its touchdown drought with an encouraging offensive performance against Ohio.