Tanner Bowles gives Kentucky some needed offensive line depth

Kentucky is on the board in the 2023 transfer portal cycle. After losing multiple players to the portal last week, the Wildcats scored a big recruiting win on Thursday. Tanner Bowles will be returning home after spending four seasons at Alabama.

The Glasgow (Ky.) High product was a top-300 recruit in the class of 2019 that picked Nick Saban’s program over Kentucky, Louisville, Ole Miss, and a host of others coming out of high school. But after a four-year run and limited playing time opportunities in Tuscaloosa, Tanner Bowles (6-5, 293) has decided to go elsewhere for his redshirt senior season.

That place is Kentucky as the offensive line looks to rebuild after a very, very bad year in 2022.

As a new offensive regime took over in Lexington, one given was that the Wildcats could lean on a good offensive line. Starting in 2016, the Cats consistently produced one of the better offensive line units in college football. Kentucky produced five offensive line draft picks over four years, and that’s not even counting All-American guard Bunchy Stallings and All-SEC center Drake Jackson. However, that all went away in 2022.

Thanks to some high school recruiting misses, coaching turnover, and an overall lack of player development, things fell apart last season for an offensive line that was woeful in pass protection and had issues creating movement in the running game. Kentucky had players playing out of position and little to no depth. That created a huge weakness on offense.

However, you get to fix your problems through recruiting in college football. With the transfer portal, this sport now has its own version of free agency. As expected, Kentucky is going to be heavily involved with multiple offensive line transfers this offseason as problems in the trenches must be fixed. The lack of depth along the Big Blue Wall is most notable.

Tackle is the bigger worry moving forward. Northern Illinois transfer Marques Cox has emerged as a name to monitor moving forward. Kentucky is still awaiting a decision from Kenneth Horsey about whether he’ll return for a sixth season or not, but it’s clear that the Cats need another option at left tackle. On the other side, Jeremy Flax had some struggles as right tackle is a spot that needs to be looked at. But the Cats also need help on the interior.

After UK had to slide Horsey out to left tackle following the first game of the season, it eliminated any depth this offensive line had. Jager Burton was forced into the starting lineup at left guard as a redshirt freshman, and it seemed clear that the former blue-chip recruit likely needed more time to develop. The shuffling fixed one problem but helped create others and gave Kentucky zero interior depth.

UK must fix that this offseason. Adding Tanner Bowles goes a long way in that regard.

The Alabama transfer played in 18 games during his time in Tuscaloosa and was used at multiple positions. Bowles played center, guard, and tackle during his time in the SEC West. That positional flexibility will be needed but it’s clear that UK has a hole to fill at right guard following the departure of super senior Tashawn Manning. Bowles should be a plug-and-play option at that spot with the potential to be a swing tackle for the Cats in case some injuries started to pile up.

As long as Horsey returns, Kentucky should be able to have a true rotation at guard with Eli Cox returning for year two at center. A year after likely playing too early, Kentucky can use Burton in multiple ways and could put Bowles in a legitimate position battle with the redshirt sophomore with the plan to play three players at the two guard positions on a heavy rotation.

The Cats still have a long way to go with addressing the offensive line and a couple more transfers could be needed, but the first transfer win of the offseason was a good first step for the program. Kentucky is building depth, and that should help eliminate some of the problems that plagued this unit last season.