Kentucky football down 13 signees from 2019 class, eight remain

Attrition continues to hit the Kentucky football roster, this time in sophomore defensive back Moses Douglass. The former four-star prospect officially entered the NCAA transfer portal on Saturday, as reported by On3’s Matt Zenitz.

Douglass, one the nation’s top-30 safety prospects by Rivals and 247sports in 2019, racked up six tackles (five solo) in three years for the Wildcats. He had four total tackles in 2021, three against Louisiana Monroe and one against Louisville.

He originally signed with Kentucky over Michigan State, Louisville and Georgia Tech, among others.

13 losses in the portal

Douglass’ departure is a hit to Kentucky’s depth in the secondary, sure, but the real story lies in where things stand with the program’s 2019 recruiting class. The former four-star safety is now the 13th player from Kentucky’s 2019 recruiting class to transfer out of the program, joining KD McDaniel, Isaiah Gibson, Jared Casey, Travis Tisdale, MJ Devonshire, Shawnkel Knight-Goff, Nikolas Ognenovic, Cavon Butler, Tra Wilkins, Amani Gilmore, Nik Scalzo, and Jake Pope.

Casey (No. 301), Douglass (No. 463), Devonshire (No. 526), McDaniel (No. 533), Tisdale (No. 621), Gibson (No. 659), Knight-Goff (No. 685), Ognenovic (No. 736) and Butler (No. 811) were all rated as top-1000 players in the On3 Consensus. That marks nine of Kentucky’s 13 highest-rated signees gone in the class of 2019.

Only eight players remain

Of that class, only JJ Weaver, Taj Dodson, Tae Tae Crumes, Marquez Bembry, Quandre Mosely, Jalen Geiger, DeMarcus Harris, and Eli Cox remain. Weaver (No. 352) was the second-highest-rated recruit in the class.

Kentucky has clearly been able to respond since, especially considering its 2022 class is on pace to finish as the best in program history. They’ve also found major success in the portal themselves, negating outgoing losses with incoming standouts from other top programs. Make no mistake about it, the Wildcats are just fine.

But at this point, it is fair to point out Kentucky’s 2019 class was filled with far more misses than hits.