Former Walk-On Cole Lanter Proves Hard Work Pays Off

by:Nick Roush•08/29/23•

RoushKSR

Cole Lanter received life-changing news Monday night. Mark Stoops brought the Boyle County product out in front of the team to share Lanter would no longer be a walk-on. Celebrated by his teammates, one would expect Lanter to wake up with a new sense or purpose on Tuesday.

“No, sir,” he told KSR following Tuesday’s practice. “I woke up, God blessed me to be on the wakeup list this morning. I came in, the wide receivers loved on me as normal and I’m just happy to be here, happy to be in the facility and nothing really changed from yesterday.”

Don’t be mistaken, Cole Lanter enjoyed the spoils of his efforts Monday night. Like Stoops following wins, he gave himself time to celebrate, but this is only one part of the process.

“This is step one. Everybody’s asked me, ‘Cole, are you happy? Are you excited?’ Yeah, I’m gonna take the night to enjoy it last night. But looking forward, I want to get on the field. I want to go as far as possible. The NFL draft sounds nice but I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself. I want to I want to fulfill my role, whatever is called of me. Whether it’s number 14 receiver on scout team or number one here, it doesn’t matter to me. I want to be the best football player I can and just take it one step at a time and enjoy it with my friends and family.”

That mentality quickly earned the trust and respect from his coaches and teammates. He only arrived on campus about 20 months ago for the spring of 2022. In that first spring game he caught a touchdown and celebrated with a backflip (something we unfortunately will not be seeing again). Despite being low on the totem pole, Lanter has been a model worker, embodying the culture Mark Stoops has cultivated at Kentucky.

“Cole just comes to work every single day and literally just works his tail off. That’s it. I mean, he does everything we asked him to do at a high level,” said offensive coordinator Liam Coen. “It’s so rewarding to see a kid like that, that pays his dues that works his tail off that does everything right… all he does with these opportunities is make plays. That’s something that you get rewarded for doing those things. It’s typically a sign of a good program.”

Cole put in the work. He did not know if it would ever result in a scholarship, but he’s proud to follow in the footsteps of a couple other former wide receivers from the state of Kentucky that worked hard to earn a scholarship with the Wildcats.

“There’s guys like (David) Bouvier and (Charles) Walker who got (a scholarship) a little later. Those are guys that I kind of idolized, so I was I knew it was a possibility after fall camp, but I was just more focused on becoming the best football player I could be. And if it came in it did if it comes year five, it was just whatever.”