Mark Stoops explains Kentucky's situation at punter: 'I just want to make sure we're consistent.'

When Aidan Laros transferred to Kentucky from UT-Martin, the expectation was that he’d come in right away and earn the starting punter job. After playing in all 11 games for the Skyhawks last season, leading the FCS in punting (47.3 yards per punt), and being named an FCS First-Team All-American, it wasn’t a crazy assertion for anyone to make by any means.

After all, Kentucky’s primary punter during the 2023 season, Wilson Berry, averaged just 39.7 yards per punt, which ranked ninth in the SEC. That area wasn’t a strength for the Wildcats. Laros was basically assumed to be the starter going into 2024 because of it. But when the Week 1 depth chart was released on Monday, it was quickly pointed out that Laros had an “OR” next to his name alongside Berry, which led to some confusion about what was going on behind the scenes.

Head coach Mark Stoops, who dropped the news on Monday night that Berry would be the starter, gave us some insight on Thursday as to the reason why. He explained that it has to do with consistency. Right now, he appears to feel more confident in Berry’s ability to be consistent compared to Laros — even if he knows the latter has the bigger leg.

“It is something that we’ll see. We’ll see how it goes. Both guys will be ready,” Stoops said during his final pre-Southern Miss press conference. “We were doing ‘backed up’ over here and Aidan hit one 75 yards. I’d be a real dumb — you know what — (to not start him) if he could do that all the time. I think he’s getting better as he works through it and getting more consistent. He does have a big leg but we can’t hit short line-drives in this league or it’ll be seven points. We just gotta continue to be more consistent.”

Overall, Stoops does feel confident in what the rest of the special teams unit brings to the table. There is reliability in the kick and return games stemming from last season. Laros has actually been tabbed as the starting kickoff specialist because of the power his leg brings. Saturday night’s season opener should be a good test for the two punters to see who is better suited for what Stoops is looking for moving forward.

“I feel very good,” Stoops said about Kentucky’s special teams group. “As I mentioned throughout camp several times, I just want to make sure we’re consistent with the punting. I feel very good about extra points, field goals, kickoffs. Again, I just want to continue to be consistent in the punt game. And that’s something that we’re still working (on).”

Kickoff on Saturday against Southern Miss is scheduled for 7:45 p.m. EST on the SEC Network.

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