Kentucky will have offensive youth movement at Music City Bowl

Kentucky football has done a good job of avoiding opt-outs when it comes to bowl game participation. That will not be the case this month.

After making a change at offensive coordinator and running backs coach last week, Will Levis and Chris Rodriguez Jr. announced this week that their Kentucky careers are over as each will be sitting out the bowl game and focusing on getting prepared for the NFL Draft.

Things are changing quickly as the matchup with Iowa and their top-five defense approaches. The Cats will be very young on offense on New Year’s Even.

Do we see a QB platoon?

The quarterback recruiting struggles at Kentucky have been covered extensively. The Wildcats have not signed a high school quarterback that has started more than 10 games for the program in the Mark Stoops era. We are entering year 11 with Stoops in 2023.

Therefore, the Cats have been transfer-heavy at quarterback. That is not changing anytime soon following another play-caller change and the departure of Will Levis. A transfer likely starts again for this offense in 2023, but that won’t be the case in Nashville.

Somerset (Ky.) High product Kaiya Sheron is set to get the second start of his collegiate career in a couple of weeks. Filling in for Levis in Week 6 against South Carolina, the former mid three-star recruit passed for 178 yards on 6.6 yards per attempt with two touchdowns and one interception. Kentucky will get to see what growth he’s made after a full season as QB2 in Lexington.

However, there is a scenario where Sheron could split snaps if the interim coaching staff wants to get Destin Wade involved.

The former top-500 recruit out of Greater Nashville has not played this season but did win Mr. Football as he rushed for over 2,000 yards and 30 touchdowns as a senior. The true freshman is a raw passer but does have solid arm strength and can make plays out of structure.

Regardless of the plan, we are going to get an extended look at some of Kentucky’s recent high school recruiting wins at quarterback before a new offensive coordinator takes over and attempts to rebuild that room.

Next man up at tailback

The future starts now for Kentucky at tailback. The Wildcats seem on the verge of hiring Jay Boulware to be the next running backs coach in Lexington, and some instant recruiting work must be done.

If you include hybrid athlete Dee Beckwith, the Cats will have just three healthy scholarship tailbacks available since Chris Rodriguez Jr. has withdrawn from the bowl process and Ramon Jefferson is out for the year with a knee injury.

JuTahn McClain is in line to get the start, and the junior has rushed for 117 yards on 6.2 yards per rush since missing the Missouri game on Nov. 5. Backing McClain up will be redshirt freshman La’Vell Wright who has only received nine carries since September.

Kentucky has some recruiting work to be done at tailback. In the meantime, we will get to see if McClain can carry an RB1 workload before his senior season begins.

Kentucky could start six freshmen against Iowa

At tight end and wide receiver, things will remain the same for Kentucky. Barion Brown and Dane Key will be starters out wide. Jordan Dingle and Josh Kattus will be starters at tight end. The Cats will be young on offense and that is not changing in the Music City Bowl.

However, they are getting younger.

Either Kaiya Sheron or Destin Wade will give the offense a freshman starter at quarterback, and Jager Burton will start his 13th consecutive game at left guard as a redshirt freshman. Kentucky is very, very young.

There have been some real growing pains for this offense and those could continue in Nashville at Nissan Stadium. The hope is that the Cats will grow from some trial by fire on offense this season. The future could be bright, but there is no hiding from the youth movement we will see against Iowa.