Mark Stoops says Kentucky's starting job at punter is 'up for grabs'

Mark Stoops - Dr. Michael Huang, Kentucky Sports Radio

It was a head-to-head battle between redshirt junior Wilson Berry and junior Aidan Laros throughout fall camp before Mark Stoops named a starting punter going into Kentucky’s home opener against Southern Miss. The winner? Berry, who had been the more consistent threat up to that point in practice.

“I think it’ll be Wilson (Berry) at this point in time after what I saw today,” Stoops said back in August. “It’s been close through camp, but he was pretty consistent today. … Aidan will be the backup punter.”

Berry would go on to punt 11 times for an average of 41.0 yards per attempt and a long of 49 yards. Not a disaster by any stretch, but also not flipping the field and giving you hidden yardage wins. It’s what led to Stoops opting to switch things up against Ohio, just to see what difference Laros made when given live game reps for the Wildcats.

And then he launched one for 58 yards in his lone attempt — quite the first impression in blue and white.

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Now, the starting job is wide open, Stoops announced on Monday.

“That job is up for grabs,” he said during his call-in radio show. “He hit it 58 and had over a 5.0 (second) hang. They were both a little inconsistent (in camp), but he hit it good. As a matter of fact, we were supposed to be a little bit to the left where we had a lot of our cover guys, but they weren’t really tuned into sky-kick where we track it — because we hadn’t exactly always hit the ball 58 yards. If he keeps doing that, then we’ll track it going (forward).”

Laros comes to Kentucky after two seasons at Charlotte and one at UT Martin where he was named a consensus FCS All-American and the Augusta Sports Council FCS Punter of the Year. There, he led FCS in punting at 47.3 yards per attempt and ranked ninth in net punting at 40.83, booting 52 punts for 2,458 total yards with 18 going for 50-plus and 16 pinned inside the 20-yard line.

Former Wildcat and Ray Guy Award winner Max Duffy was quick to give Laros props for his hot start in Lexington after raving about the South African punter throughout fall camp.