Homegrown OT Malachi Wood is Ahead of Schedule

The Big Blue Wall was built on the play of exceptional homegrown talent. Madison Central product Malachi Wood is poised to continue that legacy when he makes his first start Saturday at Kroger Field.

Starting right tackle Gerald Mincey is out with an injury. That injury forced Wood to see his first extended reps The Swamp.

“It felt awesome,” Wood said earlier this week. “That was a dream come true, being a hometown kid. That’s what I always wanted, so it felt great being out there.”

He played 31 snaps and was the highest-graded offensive lineman, according to PFF.

“Super impressed,” said offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan. “That’s a guy we’ve wanted to see get going and due to Mincey’s situation, it gave us an opportunity to see him go out there. You never quite know how a freshman’s going to react in that environment, but we thought he played extremely well. He graded out as well as anybody else. There’s a good size presence to him that added a spark for us at the offensive line position.”

Wood Put In The Work

There were reasons why some folks were a little apprehensive while projecting Wood to the next level. It wasn’t because he was a low three-star talent in the 2023 recruiting class. The 6-foot-8 athlete had the length to play offensive tackle and great posture in the trenches, particularly in pass-pro situations. The question was clear, “Could he get big enough to play in the SEC?”

Wood looked more like a basketball player than an offensive lineman. That’s why he needed a year to eat, lift, and sleep.

“Sleep is a very underrated issue,” said offensive line coach Eric Wolford. “If you don’t get the proper amount of sleep — that’s when you grow, at night. At the end of the day, if you’re not getting the proper amount of sleep, you’re not going to make the gains you need to make when you’re lifting three or four times a week, and eating 300 grams of protein a day. You’re not going to make those gains as fast if you’re not doing those things.”

THREE HUNDRED grams of protein a day? That’s a lot, but it worked. Wood didn’t have to do anything too drastic, like wake up in the middle of the night and eat PB&J sandwiches, but he got the results, jumping up from 280 to 315 pounds.

“It was tough because I lost a bunch of weight in high school. Putting it back on was pretty hard because it’s hard to gain good weight,” he said.

Ahead of Schedule?

Misses in offensive line recruiting forced Kentucky to supplement depth in the transfer portal. The results have not been great. Ideally, you develop and cultivate depth by stacking up successful high school recruiting classes. Wood could be putting the Cats back on track.

“I’ve been encouraged by Malachi Wood since I’ve been here. He has the prototype body that you want out of an offensive tackle. He’s athletic, moves his feet. He has length and is a student of the game. He’s a young player in the program, but he’s a typical story of a guy coming into your program and given the opportunity to develop,” said Eric Wolford.

“In my experience doing this for a long time, it takes about two years to develop most guys to get them ready to play at this level in this league.”

A redshirt freshman, Wood is about five games ahead of schedule. Hopefully, that is only a positive. There’s a chance Kentucky may be relying on him too early in his development and the second half of the 2024 season stunts his growth. If he performs well to end his redshirt freshman campaign, the offensive line could be on the right path to return to its high standard at Kentucky.

“He’s probably a little bit ahead of schedule but he has a bright future,” said the Kentucky offensive coordinator.

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