Keidron Smith would be interesting solution at cornerback for Kentucky

Kentucky is in the market for a transfer cornerback. Keidron Smith has left Ole Miss and is looking for a new home. There is mutual interest between the two parties.

The former low three-star prospect out of South Florida spent four years at Ole Miss racking up 224 career tackles with five interceptions and five forced fumbles. At 6-foot-2 and 215 pounds, Smith has terrific positional size, and multiple schools have reached out after the super senior entered the transfer portal on Jan. 24.

Now the SEC transfer is in the process of taking some visits.

Per Chris Hummer of 247 Sports, Smith has four trips planned, and he just completed one over the weekend at Missouri for Eliah Drinkwitz’s second spring game. The defensive back will head to Indiana (April 1) next weekend before finishing up with visits at Kentucky (April 9) and Virginia Tech (April 16).

However, this would be an interesting find for Kentucky as Smith is not a true outside cornerback. At least not in 2021.

Hybrid defender

In his four seasons in Oxford, Smith started 29 games as he played for two head coaches and three defensive coordinators. After playing cornerback his first three seasons, defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin turned Smith into a safety who was asked to cover players in the slot, play in the box, blitz, and drop deep in coverage. The veteran responded by recording 65 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, two interceptions, and two forced fumbles.

However, Smith has also had success at cornerback.

The West Palm Beach (Fla.) Oxbridge Academy product broke into the starting lineup as a true freshman for the Rebels and started four games in 2018. In those three years playing the position, Smith logged 16 pass breakups as he played against top-level competition in the SEC West.

As you may remember last season, Kentucky’s cornerbacks struggled mightily with ball production recording a very low number of interceptions and pass breakups. Mark Stoops could call on Keidron Smith to move back to cornerback, but it would be a role he has familiarity with.

Size in the boundary

Last season, Carrington Valentine played nearly 800 snaps in the boundary cornerback position for Kentucky. At six-foot and 200 pounds, the Cincinnati Moeller product does not have great size for the position. In the past, the Wildcats have used big corners — Chris Westry, Lonnie Johnson — to play to the short side of the field.

Keidron Smith appears to have the tools needed to get Kentucky back to their bread-and-butter as the defense splits roles for cornerbacks.

With this size comes some added responsibilities. Due to wide hash marks in college football, defenses will often give more safety help to the field cornerback. Therefore, the boundary cornerback will be left on more of an island even if the defense is in some type of zone coverage. Being able to press wideouts at the line with jam coverages while also having the physicality to be a quality run support player are two traits needed.

Smith showed at Ole Miss he has quality size to go along with strong tackling ability from his time spent at safety. Add that in with multiple seasons at cornerback, and this could be a quality scheme fit for Kentucky.

Expect other names to emerge

Keidron Smith is our first big name to pop up after the early transfer portal wave, and it is a significant one. The transfer will be one of the most important recruits on campus for Kentucky’s spring game. However, expect more names to emerge.

As spring football practice begins to wrap up across the college football landscape, more players will enter the transfer portal to find better opportunities. Among those will likely be some cornerbacks. Kentucky will be waiting with open arms to add one or two.