Ramon Jefferson's patience finally pays off following injury

Ramon Jefferson has had to wait his turn in Lexington. After racking up 2,944 yards and 28 touchdowns in stints at Maine and Sam Houston State, he transferred to Kentucky looking to prove himself as an SEC running back to close out his career.

Two carries in, the 5-10 sixth-year senior went down with a torn ACL, out for the season.

Back to the drawing board he’d go, spending the entirety of the year rehabbing his knee injury while considering his future. He could have called it a career and explored life after football or given the medical redshirt route a go, hoping for one final season of eligibility. Jefferson chose the latter.

Was it the right call? He’d record just seven carries through the month of October for 36 total yards — all across three games. Three carries for 23 yards vs. EKU, two for 12 vs. Akron and two for one vs. Florida.

November has been a different story for the better. Jefferson matched that carry output in two games, rushing five times for six yards at Mississippi State before exploding for 73 yards on two carries vs. Alabama — highlighted by a career-long 74-yarder.

That was the longest ever by a Kentucky player against Alabama in 41 meetings dating back to 1917. It also pushed him over the 3,000-yard mark for his career.

Seventy-four yard carry, @Jefferson1Ramon. pic.twitter.com/SrwC49LVuc

— Kentucky Football (@UKFootball) November 11, 2023

That moment was a long time coming, his road to Lexington and the immediate injury recovery being a rocky one.

“It felt good to be back out there,” Jefferson said. “You know, it was a long road to recovery after tearing my ACL, a year for rehab. And then later on in the season, being able to step up and help my team, that felt good.

“Last week, having the same teammates I’ve been picking up were picking me up, saying, ‘Man, you’ve got to finish!’ I told myself if I got the opportunity, I would get out there and make something happen.”

He followed that up with his best all-around game as a Wildcat, picking up 50 yards on six carries, highlighted by a long of 21 yards. As the offense looked for a spark, Jefferson was there to give Kentucky one.

It didn’t result in a win and the mood in the locker room is understandably down — his team is looking a 6-6 finish in the eye if it can’t win as a road underdog at Louisville next week. He’s providing whatever help he can as a seventh-year senior, a vocal vet there to remind the Wildcats to focus on the next goal and execute.

“The morale is kind of down right now, but everybody is headstrong. Just like when I got hurt, you take one day, let it all settle in,” he said. “And then hopefully everybody uses that as motivation. It’s a big game coming up.”

That doesn’t make the South Carolina loss sting any less. And it doesn’t mean any less in the grand scheme of things, especially considering the tiring offensive woes. The unit just can’t stop shooting itself in the foot, holding the team back from living up to its potential.

And they’re essentially out of runway to do so with just one game remaining in the regular season.

“We know every game so far this year, we’ve had that mindset. ‘We could’ve done this, could’ve done that more.’ This is just another one of those games,” Jefferson said. “We know our full potential. Sometimes we’re not able to show it all and it doesn’t come out, but we know what we’re capable of.”

He admits it’s difficult because he sees the offense put things together in practice. The things that work Sunday through Friday just aren’t working on Saturday. And it’s frustrating.

“I just feel like it’s certain situations, they make a play and we make a play. At the end of the day, we make the plays consistently in practice, but sometimes it doesn’t unfold that way in the game. That’s just something, maybe we put ourselves in more stressful situations in practice. We make those plays in practice and have faith we’re going to make it. Just sometimes in a game, it doesn’t go like that.”

Take the final drives for example. Kentucky led 14-10 going into the fourth quarter and had three different opportunities to win the game after South Carolina took a 17-14 lead with 7:44 to go. The Wildcats got it down to the USC49 and punted, then saw Devin Leary fumble the ball after one play on the next possession in the two-minute drill. Given one final shot with 57 seconds remaining, Kentucky moved the ball 20 yards before turning it over on downs to seal the loss.

Three opportunities, zero points.

“It’s football. I said to one person, ‘This is why we play football. There is a winner and a loser,'” Jefferson said. “In that moment, the play wasn’t made, but it’s a play that could’ve been made and we can make. It just didn’t happen in our favor this time.”

It hasn’t happened in Kentucky’s favor in five of the last six games, unfortunately.