Brock Vandagriff Talks Life After Football: "I was just ready for the next stage of my life"

Brock Vandagriff was once a five-star talent and Gatorade National Player of the Year, hand-picked by Lincoln Riley to be his next star quarterback. After his career took a few unexpected twists and turns, he ended it sooner than many expected.

Following a 4-8 campaign during his one season at Kentucky, Vandagriff decided to step away from football with one year remaining eligibility. In his first public comments since making the move, he told the Athens Banner-Herald that he fell out of love with the game of football.

“I wanted to be able to spend more time with my family and things of that sort,” Vandagriff said. “It wasn’t like I was fired up to go in there every day. As a quarterback that’s kind of what you need. Your team relies on you and I didn’t feel like I was able to be at my best every day because of the whole situation.”

The injuries and losses clearly added up. He shared that he dealt with injuries to his ankle and AC joint throughout the season. People around the Kentucky football program will tell you that the concussion he suffered at Tennessee was a breaking point for Brock.

Mark Stoops Asked Vandagriff to Return

Injuries played a role in Vandagriff’s inconsistent play. He was in the middle of one of his better games when he took that brutal hit from James Pearce in Knoxville. His best performance was at Ole Miss. He completed 64.3% of his passes for 243 yards and a touchdown. Vandagriff made one of the most memorable throws of the Mark Stoops era, dialing up a deep ball to Barion Brown on fourth and long that propelled Kentucky to a Top 10 upset win in Oxford.

After spending three years as a reserve at Georgia, in his one season as a starter, Vandagriff completed 57.3% of his passes for 1,593 yards, 10 touchdowns, and eight interceptions. The Kentucky pass offense ranked No. 112 in college football, but Mark Stoops asked Vandagriff if he was up for another year in Lexington.

“He said basically we could do this and we could do that and we’d love you to come back,” Vandagriff said. “I just said, coach, it’s nothing against your program or you at all. It was more of my decision more than anything else. There weren’t any external factors that played into it. I was, I won’t say burnt out, I was just ready for the next stage of my life.“

What He’s Doing Now

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The former quarterback returned to his home state of Georgia. The avid outdoorsman spends some of his time on the farm, working for his longtime girlfriend’s father. During his regular day-to-day, he’s in and out of hospitals. Vandagriff is a medical devices sales rep for Zimmer Biomet. He watches doctors perform surgeries, and shares how his products can help the doctors and patients.

It’s a life few envisioned when Vandagriff decided 13 months ago to transfer to Kentucky to play for Liam Coen. The funny thing about plans is they have a knack for changing. Vandagriff is content with his decision.

“I’m so happy at where I’m at in life right now… I think that it was just time to happen. I was just ready for it.”

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