Joey Gatewood expected to transfer home to Central Florida

Joey Gatewood is expected to transfer back home for the remainder of his college football career.

Central Florida has emerged as the likely landing spot for the native of Jacksonville, On3’s Matt Zenitz reported Wednesday.

“Sources tell On3 that UCF has emerged as the likely landing spot for Joey Gatewood, the ex-Auburn and Kentucky quarterback who entered the NCAA transfer portal on Monday,” Zenitz wrote. “In addition to the connection with Malzahn and others on the UCF staff, it would also represent a return for Gatewood to his home state of Florida. He grew up about two hours away in Jacksonville.”

Gatewood threw for 109 yards (17-35 passing) and one interception to go with 62 rushing yards on 57 attempts. He started just one game and played in six total for the Wildcats in 2020.

The former top-50 recruit lost to Will Levis in Kentucky’s quarterback battle after just one week of fall camp. He officially entered the transfer portal on Monday.

“I told him how much I appreciated how hard he’s worked,” Mark Stoops said Sunday evening. “I know he’s been through this before, so I knew it would be especially tough, a tough decision. Not what he wanted to hear. We had that discussion, had a good talk. He handled it completely professionally. I really appreciate him, and at that point, he informed me he thought it would be in his best interest to enter his name into the portal.”

He originally transferred to Kentucky from Auburn after serving as Bo Nix’s backup in 2019. Now, the former four-star quarterback is expected to reunite with Gus Malzahn, who recruited him to AU in 2018.

Gatewood has three years of eligibility remaining and would be the fifth ex-Auburn player to transfer to UCF since the program hired Malzahn in February.