First Down Kentucky: Former Wildcats still in Action

The UFL is wrapping up its inaugural season next Sunday. Even though Kentucky was not well-represented in the spring football league, there are still a couple of popular players hitting the gridiron elsewhere.

The CFL kicks off this week and former Kentucky QB Terry Wilson is starting the year with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. He’s expected to back up Chris Streveler, who returns to the team he won a Grey Cup with after a few years in the NFL. Wilson was exceptional in his preseason debut, completing 10 of 15 passes for 115 yards and a touchdown. Things did not go as well against Calgary. He was picked off twice and tallied only 70 yards in ten completions.

In a shocking revelation, Boom Williams is still playing football almost ten years after he last suited up for the Wildcats. A 1,000-yard rusher in 2016, Williams surprised everyone when he announced he was foregoing his final season of eligibility shortly after Kentucky lost to Georgia Tech in the Gator Bowl.

He landed with the Cincinnati Bengals but did not stick around for long. Over the last few years, he’s spent time playing in the Indoor Football League. He enjoyed stints in Arizona and Frisco, TX before landing with the Jacksonville Sharks this spring. The team isn’t great, in last place of the league at 1-7. Boom has appeared in four games and picked up 113 yards and four touchdowns.

Earlier this week we told you DeAndre Square was back on the Kentucky coaching staff as a volunteer assistant. Another familiar face was at camp on Wednesday. Bunchy Stallings, a First Team All-American in 2018, has returned to Lexington to coach at East Jessamine High School. Following camp, he spent quite a bit of time speaking with LeeAnne Schlarman, whose son was working out with the Cats. Stallings was the centerpiece of one of my favorite John Schlarman stories. The Kentucky offensive line coach and Neal Brown had to abandon their car and walk a mile through an Alabama winter storm for an in-person visit with Bunchy right before he committed to Kentucky, a sacrifice that will not soon be forgotten.

When Kentucky will play in the College Football Playoff

Go ahead and mark those calendars for some Kentucky football in December. Today the CFB Playoff committee shared TV broadcast information for the first iteration of the 12-team format.

The first Friday night CFB Playoff game is going to hit like crack, serving as an ideal appetizer ahead of a triple-header. Will it be weird to see college football on TNT? Of course. Am I going to love seeing Kevin Harlan calling the sport? You’re damn right.

Secondly, and most importantly, it feels good to see premier college football games on New Year’s Day. Even better: you don’t have to fight crowds on New Year’s Eve to have a good time. The Fiesta Bowl should have you covered right up until the ball drops in Times Square.

There’s one more awesome byproduct of the delayed schedule. Super Wildcard Weekend falls in between the semifinals and the National Championship. Following one five-day football weekend, we get three days of football with the NFL Divisional Round, followed by a championship bout. Gosh, football is the best.

Interesting NIL Insights

During last week’s On3 Elite Series, each player was tasked to complete an anonymous survey about their NIL experience. I saw the shoebox and could not wait to see the results. They’re in and they might surprise you.

After hearing crazy numbers early in the NIL era, we have a better idea of what players are actually being offered. Of the 36 players who completed the survey, five received offers of more than $1 million. The highest could be maxed out at $3 million, most likely for a QB. The median desired financial package was $400,000, which seems appropriate for the top 50 players in the country.

See the complete results from On3 Elite NIL survey.

Kentucky has Impact Transfers

Clark Brooks is a part of the On3 transfer portal scouting department and curates the SEC Stat Cat website. He ranked the Top 100 players in college football and now he’s ranking the most impactful transfers. Three Wildcats made the cut: No. 39 Ja’Mori Maclin, No. 18 Jamon Dumas-Johnson and No. 8 Brock Vandagriff.

“One way or another, BVG will be impactful,” Brooks wrote. “Frankly, Kentucky will not meet expectations if he plays poorly. Even with a strong defense and capable pass catchers, the Cats will only go as far as their QB1’s arm will take them. Each of the last two seasons, UK has finished inside the SEC’s bottom 5 in Passing Success Rate. And in that time, the overall results have been mixed. He doesn’t need to set the Bluegrass on fire, but he must help stabilize an inconsistent unit and manufacture key completions.”