Fortner, Square to wear John Schlarman and Chris Oats' jersey numbers on Saturday

During every Kentucky home football game this season, the jersey numbers of two important Wildcats, John Schlarman and Chris Oats, will be honored by a current member of the team. Opening up this new tradition will be Luke Fortner and DeAndre Square, who will wear no. 65 and no. 22 on their jerseys, respectively, this Saturday in the season-opener against Lousiana-Monroe.

Kentucky will face ULM at noon EST on the SEC Network.

John Schlarman and Chris Oats’ numbers will be worn at each home game this season. UK will open with DeAndre Square wearing No. 22 and Luke Fortner is No. 65.

— Nick Roush (@RoushKSR) September 3, 2021

During his play days at Kentucky in the mid-90s, Schlarman was a four-year starter at offensive tackle, wearing the no. 65 along the way. He later went into coaching and was the offensive line coach at his alma mater from 2013-20, eventually introducing the Big Blue Wall as one of the best offensive line groups in the SEC. Unfortunately, Schlarman passed away at the age of 45 in Nov. 2020 after a long battle with cancer. He was recently honored outside of Kroger Field with a giant banner.

“I know within the team, us, we’re going to continue to honor him at this point until somebody tells me we can’t,” head coach Mark Stoops recently said. 

Oats was a rising up-and-comer at linebacker during his first two seasons at Kentucky from 2018-19, donning no. 22 as a Wildcat. Heading into the 2020 season, there was a belief he would establish himself as one of UK’s next high-round NFL Draft picks. But a tragic stroke in May 2020 has put his football career on hold as he continues to recovers.

Fortner and Square, two veterans in the locker room, preseason All-SECers, and 2021 team captains, were easy choices to help honor Schlarman and Oats. Fortner was coached under Schlarman for four seasons on the offensive line while Square plays the same position as Oats.

UK did something similar to this during the 2020 season when players would take turns throughout the year wearing no. 22 to represent Oats. Now the team is adding Schlarman into the rotation.

#ForTheTeam