Six Charged Kentucky Football Players Not Practicing

Six Kentucky football players have been sidelined.

Mark Stoops revealed Saturday afternoon that the six Wildcats who were charged with first degree burglary earlier this week — offensive lineman RJ Adams, running back JuTahn McClain, wide receiver Earnest Sanders, cornerback Andru Phillips, defensive back Joel Williams and defensive back Vito Tisdale — have not been practicing with the Wildcats.

Kentucky’s head coach is unsure if and when they will return to the team. Stoops is waiting for more information to be unveiled this week through the discovery process. The players were previously withheld from team activities for 11 weeks this spring until they were cleared by a student conduct review in June.

“After the school review, it warranted them coming back to activity,” Stoops said Saturday. “With this, this is different. It’s something that we have to weed through. I’m not sure when they’ll be back. The legal process needs to play out. I need to see in this discovery if there’s something that we didn’t know about.

“We don’t have all that information and their attorney’s don’t have all that information yet. When they receive that info and we get the discovery, we’ll make decisions from there.”

Stoops added: “Anytime there’s situations like that, we take it very serious and we address it and we look at it. We did. Is there new information that we don’t know about? I’m not sure. That’s what we have to look at, but they deserve an opportunity to defend themselves. We’ll let that process play out.”

All six were highly regarded recruits and three of the players — McClain, Tisdale and Phillips — are expected to significantly contribute this fall. McClain was arguably Kentucky’s most impressive offensive weapon at UK Fan Day.

First degree burglary charges were issued Thursday to six Wildcats stemming from an incident in March. Players were allegedly asked to leave a party, then returned uninvited to the confrontation. Tisdale was also charged with wanton endangerment for allegedly brandishing a gun.

The fraternity that hosted the party was placed on probation. Students who purportedly attended the party spoke anonymously to WDRB, sharing graphic details of the incident. It is the third different altercation with law enforcement this offseason for the UK football program, following the arrests of wide receivers coach Jovon Bouknight and chief of staff Dan Berezowitz.

“We take great pride in the culture of this program and where we’re at, where we’ve been, all the positive things,” Stoops said. “You never want to take a step back. Am I concerned? I’m not.

“You asked if the outside perception will take a hit. I’m not sure. That’s up to you all and everybody can come to their own conclusion. I know we feel strongly about the culture of this team in our building, but anytime there’s any people where things happen, we address it. We try to do the best we can. Every situation is different. You’re always concerned when things happen to people. They’re all human beings. Human beings aren’t perfect. When those things happen, we address it, we try to improve and continue to move forward.”