Kentucky Wide Receiver Room Undergoing Massive Overhaul

The transfer portal giveth and the transfer portal taketh away. That is especially the case for the Kentucky wide receiver room ahead of the 2025 season.

On the day the transfer portal closed, Hardley Gilmore entered his name into free agency. While he could withdraw and return to Kentucky, for this exercise, let’s say he will be just like the other four players who have since moved onto greener pastures via the transfer portal. Instability has been a constant at that position over the years, and even more so following the 2024 season.

Wide Receiver Lost Production from 2024

Before getting into the numbers, allow me to remind you that not only did five pass-catchers hit the transfer portal, but wide receivers coach Daikiel Shorts also left Lexington to coach at Nebraska.

Player	Receptions	Yards	TDs	New School
Dane Key	47	715	2	Nebraska
Barion Brown	29	361	3	LSU
Hardley Gilmore	5	152	1	N/A
Anthony Brown-Stephens	5	77	2	N/A
Brandon White	0	0	0	Hawaii

The Wildcats also lost three players from the tight end room. Jordan Dingle and Khamari Anderson combined for 14 receptions, 100 receiving yards, and one touchdown. RB Demie Sumo-Karngbaye‘s eligibility expired after catching 20 passes for 154 yards.

Returning Production in 2025

Only two of the top six pass-catchers will be back from a passing offense that ranked 15th in the SEC and 112th in FBS.

Player	Receptions	Yards	TDs
Ja’Mori Maclin	13	314	4
Fred Farrier	13	126	0
Willie Rodriguez	5	94	0
Josh Kattus	6	77	3*
Jamarion Wilcox	7	24	0
Jason Patterson	1	15	0
David Washington Jr.	1	9	0

That list only includes three wide receivers. Maclin and Farrier accounted for 15.5% of the receptions and and 19.8% of the receiving yards from last year’s team.

Another Wide Receiver Room that’s Light on Numbers

One could easily make the argument that flipping the wide receiver room is actually a good thing. Why bring back a bunch of the same guys from a unit that under-performed? However, the lack of bodies is going to be an issue once again.

According to Adam Luckett’s Scholarship Count, the Wildcats only have 10 wide receivers on next year’s roster and half of those players will be true freshman. The best true freshman wide receiver class under Mark Stoops had two immediate starters. That best case scenario is unlikely to happen again in 2025.

Kentucky added a pair of players from the transfer portal. Kendrick Law was a blue chip prospect who never caught more than 15 passes in a season at Alabama. J.J. Hester‘s most productive year was a 14-catch season at Missouri in 2021 when Bush Hamdan was the wide receivers coach.

What Does This All Mean?

Hardley Gilmore had potential in a room that didn’t have a ton of it. New WR coach L’Damian Washington won’t have a lot of production or experience to work with. Kentucky wasn’t the most aggressive team in the wide receiver market during the first wave of the transfer portal cycle. A new addition or two is necessary or Zach Calzada will be relying on Maclin and a bunch of freshmen to move the ball down the field with the forward pass.

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